Chapter 11 Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly, and indeed bear
with me.
For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy.
For I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin
to Christ.
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his
subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in
Christ.
For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached,
or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another
gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.
For I suppose I was not a wit behind the very chiefest apostles.
But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge, but we have been
truly made manifest among you in all things.
Have I committed an offence in abasing myself, that ye might be exalted,
because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely?
I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do you service.
And when I was present with you and wanted, I was chargeable to no man.
For that which was lacking to me, the brethren which came from Macedonia
supplied.
And in all things I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so will I
keep myself.
As the truth of Christ is in me, no man shall stop me of this boasting in
the regions of Achaia.
Wherefore, because I love you not, God knoweth.
But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them
which desire occasion.
That wherein they glory, they may be found even as we.
For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the
apostles of Christ.
And no marvel!
For Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
Therefore it is no great thing, if his ministers also be transformed as
the ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their
works.
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.
That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly,
in this confidence of boasting.
Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also.
For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise.
For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man
take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face.
I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak.
Howbeit where into ever any is bold, I speak foolishly, I am bold also.
Are they Hebrews?
So am I.
Are they Israelites?
So am I.
Are they the seed of Abraham?
So am I.
Are they ministers of Christ?
I speak as a fool.
I am more, in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more
frequent, in deaths oft.
Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.
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.
In journeyings often in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine
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 brethren,
in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings
often, in cold and nakedness.
Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily,
the care of all the churches.
Who is weak, and I am not weak?
Who is offended, and I burn not?
If I must need glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities.
The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore,
knoweth that I lie not.
In Damascus the governor under Aretas, the king, kept the city of the Damascenes
with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me.
And through a window, in a basket, I was let down by the wall, and escaped
his hands.