Chapter 11

Would to God that you could bear with a little of my foolishness! Nay, do bear with me!

For I am jealous for you with a divine jealousy. For I betrothed you to one spouse, that I might present you a chaste virgin to Christ.

But I fear lest, as the serpent seduced Eve by his guile, so your minds may be corrupted and fall from a single devotion to Christ.

For if he who comes preaches another Christ whom we did not preach, or if you receive another Spirit whom you have not received, or another gospel which you did not accept, you might well bear with him.

For I regard myself as nowise inferior to the great apostles.

Even though I be rude in speech, yet I am not so in knowledge; but in every way we have made ourselves clear to you.

Or did I do wrong when I humbled myself that you might be exalted, preaching to you the gospel of God free of charge?

I stripped other churches, taking pay from them so as to minister to you.

And when I was with you and in want, I was a burden to no one; for the brethren from Macedonia supplied my needs. Thus in all things I have kept myself from being a burden to you, and so I intend to keep myself.

By the truth of Christ which is in me, this boast shall not be taken from me in the districts of Achaia.

Why so? Because I do not love you? God knows I do.

But what I do I will go on doing, that I may deprive them of the occasion who are seeking an occasion to boast that they are doing the same as we do.

For they are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.

And no wonder, for Satan himself disguises himself as an angel of light.

It is no great thing, then, if his ministers disguise themselves as ministers of justice. But their end will be according to their works. His Ministry of Labor and Suffering

I repeat, let no one think me foolish. But if so, then regard me as such, that I also may boast a little.

What I am saying in this confidence of boasting, I am not speaking according to the Lord, but as it were in foolishness.

Since many boast according to the flesh, I too will boast.

For you gladly put up with fools, because you are wise yourselves!

For you suffer it if a man enslaves you, if a man devours you, if a man takes from you, if a man is arrogant, if a man slaps your face!

I speak to my own shame, as though we had been weak. But wherein any is bold---I am speaking foolishly---I also am bold.

Are they Hebrews? So am I! Are they Israelites? So am I! Are they offspring of Abraham? So am I!

Are they ministers of Christ? I---to speak as a fool---am more: in many more labors, in prisons more frequently, in lashes above measure, often exposed to death.

From the Jews five times I received forty lashes less one.

Thrice I was scourged, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I was adrift on the sea;

in journeyings often, in perils from floods, in perils from robbers, in perils from my own nation, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils from false brethren;

in labor and hardships, in many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.

Besides those outer things, there is my daily pressing anxiety, the care of all the churches!

Who is weak, am I not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I am not inflamed?

If I must boast, I will boast of the things that concern my weakness.

The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is blessed forevermore, knows that I do not lie.

In Damascus the governor under King Aretas was guarding the city of the Damascenes in order to arrest me,

but I was lowered in a basket through a window in the wall, and escaped his hands.