1 Would to God you could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me.
2 For I am jealous over you with godly zeal, for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from sincerely progressing into Christ.
4 For if he who comes proclaims another Jesus, whom we have not proclaimed, or if you receive another spirit, which you have not received, or another gospel, which you have not accepted, you might well bear with him.
5 For I suppose I was not a bit behind the very highest apostles.
6 But though I am rude in utterance, yet not in knowledge; but we have been thoroughly made visible among you in all things.
7 Have I committed an offense in abasing myself that you might be exalted, because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely?
8 I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do you service.
9 And when I was present with you, and wanted, I was chargeable to no man: for that which was lacking to me the brothers which came from Macedonia supplied: and in all things I have kept myself from being burdensome to you, and so will I keep myself.
10 As the truth of Christ is in me, no man shall stop me from this boasting in the regions of Achaia.
11 Why? Because I don't love you? God knows.
12 But I will continue to do what I do so that I may chop down the opportunity of those who desire an opportunity in which they might glory that they are found to be just like us.
13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. *
15 Therefore it is no great thing if his servants also be transformed as the servants of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.
16 I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little.
17 That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting.
18 Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also.
19 For you put up with fools gladly, seeing you yourselves are wise.
20 For you put up with it if a man brings you into bondage, if a man devours you, if a man takes from you, if a man exalts himself, if a man smites you on the face.
21 I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. However that may be, in whatever respect or place anyone is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also.
22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I.
23 Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths often.
24 Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.
25 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;
26 In journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brothers;
27 In weariness and painfulness, often in times of watching, often in times of hunger and thirst, in fasting, in cold and nakedness.
28 Beside those things that are without, that which comes upon me daily, the care of all the churches. *
29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is offended, and I burn not?
30 If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern my infirmities.
31 The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed into the coming age>, knows that I lie not.
32 In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me:
33 And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands.