1Would that ye could bear with me in a little folly! and indeed ye do bear with me.
2For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy; for I espoused you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ;
3but I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve by his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from single-heartedness toward Christ.
4For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we did not preach, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye did not receive, or another gospel, which ye did not accept, well might ye bear with it.
5For I suppose that I am in no respect behind the very foremost apostles.
6And though I am rude in speech, yet I am not in knowledge; but this did we in every respect manifest to you in all things.
7Did I commit an offence in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I preached to you the gospel of God without charge?
8I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, in order to do you service;
9and when I was present with you, and in want, I was a charge to no one; (for the brethren, when they came from Macedonia, supplied my wants;) and in every thing I kept myself and will keep myself from being burdensome to you.
10As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting shall not be stopped in regard to me in the regions of Achaia.
11Wherefore? Because I love you not? God knoweth!
12But what I do, that I will continue to do, that I may cut off occasion from those who wish for an occasion, in order that in the matter of which they boast they may be found even as we.
13For such are false apostles, deceitful workmen, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ.
14And no wonder; for even Satan transformeth himself into an angel of light.
15It is no great thing, then, if his ministers also transform themselves as ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.
16I say again, let no one suppose me a fool; if otherwise, yet even as a fool receive me, that I too may boast myself a little.
17What I speak, I speak not after the Lord, but as it were in folly, in this confidence of boasting.
18Seeing that many boast after the flesh, I will boast also.
19For ye bear with fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise;
20for ye bear with it, if one brings you into bondage, if one devours you, if one takes from you, if one exalts himself, if one smites you on the face.
21I say it to my reproach, that we were weak; but in whatever any one is bold, (I speak in folly,) I am bold also.
22Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abram's offspring? So am I.
23Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as beside myself,) I am more; in labors more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often;
24of the Jews five times I received forty stripes save one;
25thrice I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have spent in the deep;
26by journeyings often; by perils of rivers, by perils of robbers, by perils from my countrymen, by perils from the heathen, by perils in the city, by perils in the wilderness, by perils in the sea, by perils among false brethren;
27by weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
28Besides the other troubles, there is that which presseth upon me daily, the anxiety for all the churches.
29Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is in danger of stumbling, and I do not burn?
30If I must boast, I will boast of the things which belong to my weakness.
31The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I am not lying.
32In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept guard over the city of the Damascenes, in order to apprehend me;
33and through a window I was let down in a basket by the wall, and escaped his hands.