1Would that ye could bear with me in a little foolishness: but indeed ye do bear with me . 2For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy : for I espoused you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ . 3But I fear , lest by any means , as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness , your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity and the purity that is toward Christ . 4For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus , whom we did not preach , or if ye receive a different spirit , which ye did not receive , or a different gospel , which ye did not accept , ye do well to bear with him .
The Superiority of Paul's Apostolic Credentials
5For I reckon that I am not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles. 6But though I be rude in speech , yet am I not in knowledge ; nay , in every way have we made this manifest unto you in all things . 7Or did I commit a sin in abasing myself that ye might be exalted , because I preached to you the gospel of God for nought ? 8I robbed other churches , taking wages of them that I might minister unto you ; 9and when I was present with you and was in want , I was not a burden on any man ; for the brethren , when they came from Macedonia , supplied the measure of my want ; and in everything I kept myself from being burdensome unto you , and so will I keep myself . 10As the truth of Christ is in me , no man shall stop me of this glorying in the regions of Achaia. 11Wherefore ? because I love you not ? God knoweth . 12But what I do , that I will do , that I may cut off occasion from them that desire an occasion; that wherein they glory , they may be found even as we . 13For such men are false apostles , deceitful workers , fashioning themselves into apostles of Christ . 14And no marvel; for even Satan fashioneth himself into an angel of light . 15It is no great thing therefore if his ministers also fashion themselves as ministers of righteousness ; whose end shall be according to their works .
Paul's Boasting in Weakness
16I say again , Let no man think me foolish; but if ye do , yet as foolish receive me , that I also may glory a little . 17That which I speak , I speak not after the Lord , but as in foolishness, in this confidence of glorying . 18Seeing that many glory after the flesh , I will glory also . 19For ye bear with the foolish gladly , being wise yourselves . 20For ye bear with a man , if he bringeth you into bondage , if he devoureth you , if he taketh you captive , if he exalteth himself , if he smiteth you on the face . 21I speak by way of disparagement, as though we had been weak. Yet whereinsoever any is bold ( I speak in foolishness), I am bold also . 22Are they Hebrews ? so am I . Are they Israelites ? so am I . Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I . 23Are they ministers of Christ ? ( I speak as one beside himself) I more ; in labors more abundantly , in prisons more abundantly , in stripes above measure , in deaths oft . 24Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one . 25Thrice was I beaten with rods , once was I stoned , thrice I suffered shipwreck , a night and a day have I been in the deep ; 26in journeyings often , in perils of rivers , in perils of robbers , in perils from my countrymen , in perils from the Gentiles , in perils in the city , in perils in the wilderness , in perils in the sea , in perils among false brethren ; 27in labor and travail , in watchings often , in hunger and thirst , in fastings often , in cold and nakedness . 28Besides those things that are without , there is that which presseth upon me daily , anxiety for all the churches . 29Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is caused to stumble , and I burn not ? 30If I must needs glory , I will glory of the things that concern my weakness. 31The God and Father of the Lord Jesus , he who is blessed for evermore knoweth that I lie not . 32In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king guarded the city of the Damascenes in order to take me : 33and through a window was I let down in a basket by the wall , and escaped his hands .