Paul, reluctantly boasting like a fool, compares himself to the false apostles and lists his sufferings: beatings, shipwrecks, dangers and sleepless nights. He also speaks of being caught up to the third heaven.
1 Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly : and indeed bear with me .
2 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 .
3 But I fear , lest by any means , as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty , so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ .
4 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.
5 For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles .
6 But though I be rude in speech , yet not in knowledge ; but we have been throughly made manifest among you in all things .
7 Have I committed an offence in abasing myself that ye 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 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.
10 As the truth of Christ is in me , no man shall stop me of this boasting in the regions of Achaia .
11 Wherefore ? because I love you not ? God knoweth .
12 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 .
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 ministers also be transformed as the ministers 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 ye suffer fools gladly , seeing ye yourselves are wise .
20 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 .
21 I speak as concerning reproach , as though we had been weak . Howbeit whereinsoever any 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 ministers of Christ ?(I speak as a fool ) I am more ; in labours more abundant , in stripes above measure , in prisons more frequent , in deaths oft .
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 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 ;
27 In weariness and painfulness , in watchings often , in hunger and thirst , in fastings often , in cold and nakedness .
28 Beside those things that are without , that which cometh 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 mine infirmities .
31 The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ , which is blessed for evermore , knoweth 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 .