The false apostles
1I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me! 2I am jealous for you with the jealousy of God, for I promised you in marriage to one husband, to present you to the Christ as a pure virgin. 3But I am afraid that, just as the serpent deceived Eve by its cunning, your minds may be corrupted and led away from the sincerity and purity that belong to the Christ. 4For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit than the one you received, or a different gospel than the one you accepted, you bear with it easily enough. 5I consider myself in no way inferior to those super-apostles. 6Even if I am untrained in speech, I am not untrained in knowledge; we have made that plain to you, in every way and among all people. 7Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be lifted up, because I proclaimed God’s gospel to you free of charge? 8I robbed other churches, taking pay from them to serve you. 9And when I was with you and in need, I was a burden to no one; the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied what I lacked. In every way I kept myself from weighing you down, and I will keep on doing so. 10As surely as the truth of Christ is in me, this boast of mine will not be silenced anywhere in Achaia. 11Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do. 12And what I am doing I will go on doing, to cut the ground from under those who want an opening to be considered our equals in what they boast about. 13Such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 14No wonder: Satan himself disguises himself as an angel of light. 15So it is no great thing if his servants disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will match their deeds.
The boasting of a fool
16I say it again: let no one take me for a fool. But if you do, then accept me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little. 17What I am saying here I do not say as the Lord would; I say it as a fool would, in this confident boasting. 18Since so many boast according to the flesh, I will boast as well. 19You gladly bear with fools, being so wise yourselves! 20You bear with anyone who enslaves you, devours you, takes what is yours, puts on airs, slaps you in the face. 21To my shame I admit it: we were too weak for that. But whatever anyone else dares to boast about — I am speaking as a fool — I dare as well. 22Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the offspring of Abraham? So am I.
What his service has cost him
23Are they servants of Christ? I am out of my mind to talk this way — I am more: in labors, far more; in prisons, far more; in beatings, beyond measure; near death again and again. 24Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked; I spent a night and a day adrift on the open sea. 26On my many journeys: dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my own people, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, dangers among false brothers; 27in toil and hardship, through many sleepless nights; in hunger and thirst, often in times of fasting; in cold and without clothing. 28And apart from everything else, the daily pressure on me: my anxiety for all the churches. 29Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I do not burn? 30If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness. 31The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. 32In Damascus the governor under King Aretas had the city of the Damascenes guarded in order to seize me, 33but I was lowered in a basket through a window in the wall, and I escaped his hands.
