2 Corinthians 11

¹Would that you would bear with me in a little foolishness; but indeed you do bear with me.

²For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ,

³But I fear lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the sincerity and the purity that is toward Christ.

⁴For if indeed the one who comes proclaims another Jesus whom we did not proclaim, or you receive a different spirit which you did not receive, or a different gospel which you did not accept, you bear with it well enough.

⁵For I reckon that I have fallen short in nothing of the super-apostles.

⁶But even if I am unskilled in speech, yet not in knowledge, but in every way we have made it plain in all things to you.

⁷Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I preached the gospel of God to you free of charge?

⁸I robbed other churches, taking wages for the ministry to you,

⁹And when I was present with you and was in need, I did not burden anyone; for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my need; and in everything I kept myself unburdensome to you, and will keep myself so.

¹⁰The truth of Christ is in me, that this boasting will not be silenced as regards me in the regions of Achaia.

¹¹Why? Because I do not love you? God knows that I do!

¹²But what I do, I will also do, so that I may cut off the opportunity of those wanting an opportunity, that in what they boast, they may be found just as we also.

¹³For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ;

¹⁴And no wonder; for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light;

¹⁵It is no great thing, therefore, if even his servants disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.

¹⁶Again I say, let no one think me to be a fool; but if otherwise, even as a fool receive me, that I too may boast a little.

¹⁷What I am saying, I say not according to the Lord but as in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting.

¹⁸Since many boast according to the flesh, I too will boast.

¹⁹For gladly you bear with fools, being wise!

²⁰For you bear with it, if anyone enslaves you, if anyone devours you, if anyone takes from you, if anyone exalts himself, if anyone strikes you in the face.

²¹By way of disparagement I speak, as though we ourselves have been weak! But in whatever anyone dares — I speak in foolishness — I too dare.

²²Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I.

²³Are they servants of Christ? I speak as one beside myself: I am more so. In labors more abundantly, in imprisonments more abundantly, in beatings beyond measure, in deaths often.

²⁴From the Jews five times I received forty lashes minus one,

²⁵Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep;

²⁶in journeys often, in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in perils from my own race, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils at sea, in perils among false brothers,

²⁷in hard work and toil, in sleepless nights often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness;

²⁸Apart from the other things, there is the pressure on me day by day, the 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 of my weakness.

³¹The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying.

³²In Damascus the ethnarch of Aretas the king was guarding the city of the Damascenes, wishing to seize me,

³³And through a window in a basket I was let down through the wall, and I escaped his hands.