1. |
Would that ye could bear with me in a little foolishness: but indeed ye do bear with me. |
2. |
For 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. |
3. |
But 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. |
4. |
For 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'. |
5. |
For I reckon that I am not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles. |
6. |
But 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. |
7. |
Or did I commit a sin in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I preached to you the gospel of God for nought? |
8. |
I robbed other churches, taking wages `of them' that I might minister unto you; |
9. |
and 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'. |
10. |
As the truth of Christ is in me, no man shall stop me of this glorying 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 that desire an occasion; that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we. |
13. |
For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, fashioning themselves into apostles of Christ. |
14. |
And no marvel; for even Satan fashioneth himself into an angel of light. |
15. |
It is no great thing therefore if his ministers also fashion themselves as ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works. |
16. |
I say again, let no man think me foolish; but if `ye do', yet as foolish receive me, that I also may glory a little. |
17. |
That which I speak, I speak not after the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of glorying. |
18. |
Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also. |
19. |
For ye bear with the foolish gladly, being wise `yourselves'. |
20. |
For 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. |
21. |
I speak by way of disparagement, as though we had been weak. Yet whereinsoever any is bold (I speak in foolishness), 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 one beside himself) I more; in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, 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 have I been in the deep; |
26. |
`in' 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; |
27. |
`in' labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. |
28. |
Besides those things that are without, there is that which presseth upon me daily, anxiety for all the churches. |
29. |
Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is caused to stumble, and I burn not? |
30. |
If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things that concern my weakness. |
31. |
The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed for evermore knoweth that I lie not. |
32. |
In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king guarded the city of the Damascenes in order to take me: |
33. |
and through a window was I let down in a basket by the wall, and escaped his hands. |