2Cor 11
1
Oh, that you would bear with me a little in my foolishness; but indeed you do bear
with me.
2
For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy, for I have betrothed you to one husband,
to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
3
But I fear, lest perhaps as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds
may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
4
For if he who comes [to you ]preaches another Jesus whom we did not preach, or if
you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel
which you did not accept, you may well put up with him!
5
For I consider [myself] [in] nothing to have been inferior to the most super apostles.
6
But even if I [am] unskilled in speech, yet [I am] not [inferior ]in knowledge, but
in every [way] I was made known to you in all things.
7
Or did I commit sin in humbling myself in order that you might be exalted, because
I preached the gospel of God to you free of charge?
8
I robbed other churches, taking wages [from them] to minister to you,
9
and when I was present with you, and in need, I did not burden anyone; for the brothers
who came from Macedonia supplied my need. And in everything I kept myself from being
a burden to you, and so I will keep myself.
10
As the truth of Christ is in me, that this boasting will not be silenced in me in
the regions of Achaia.
11
Why? Because I do not love you? God knows!
12
But what I am doing, I will also continue to do, that I may cut off the opportunity
of those who desire an opportunity, that in what they boast they may be found just
as we [are].
13
For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles
of Christ.
14
And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.
15
Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers
of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.
16
Again I say, let no one think me a fool. Otherwise, at least receive me as a fool,
that I also may boast a little.
17
What I speak, I speak not according to the Lord, but as it were, foolishly, in this
confidence of boasting.
18
Since many are boasting according to the flesh, I also will boast.
19
For you bear with fools gladly, being wise [yourselves]!
20
For you put up with it if someone enslaves you, if someone devours you, if someone
takes from you, if someone exalts himself, if someone strikes you in the face.
21
To our shame, I say that we were too weak [for that]! But in whatever 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 ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I [am] even more: in labors far
more, in beatings immeasurably, in imprisonments far more, in deaths often.
24
By [the] Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one.
25
Three 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 depth [of the sea].
26
In journeys often, in dangers of rivers, in dangers of robbers, in dangers from my
own race, in dangers from the Gentiles, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the
wilderness, in dangers in the sea, in dangers among false brothers;
27
in labor and hardship, in sleepless nights often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings
often, in cold and nakedness-
28
apart from what I leave unmentioned, what comes against me daily: the anxiety for
all the churches.
29
Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is caused to stumble, and I do not burn [with
indignation]?
30
If I must boast, I will boast about the things concerning my weakness.
31
The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever, knows that I
am not lying.
32
In Damascus the governor, under Aretas the king, was guarding the city of the Damascenes
with a garrison, desiring to arrest me;
33
but I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and escaped from his
hands.