## Paul Defends His Apostleship 

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I wish that you would bear with me in a little foolishness, but indeed you are bearing with me. 

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For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy, for I betrothed you to one husband, so that I might present you _as_ a pure virgin to Christ. 

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But I fear that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be corrupted from the simplicity and purity _of devotion_ to Christ. 

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For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we did not preach, or you receive a different spirit which you did not receive, or a different gospel which you did not accept, you bear _this_ beautifully. 

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For I consider myself in no way inferior to the most-eminent apostles. 

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But even if I am unskilled in word, yet I am not _so_ in knowledge; in fact, in every way we have made _this_ evident to you in all things. 

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Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I proclaimed the gospel of God to you without charge? 

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I robbed other churches by taking wages _from them_ to minister to you. 

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And when I was present with you and was in need, I was not a burden to anyone; for when the brothers came from Macedonia they fully supplied my need, and in everything I kept and will keep myself from being a burden to you. 

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As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be stopped in the regions of Achaia. 

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Why? Because I do not love you? God knows _I do_! 

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But what I am doing I will continue to do, so that I may cut off opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be found just as we are in the matter about which they are boasting. 

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For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 

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And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 

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Therefore it is not surprising if his ministers also disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds. 

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Again I say, let no one think me foolish; but if _you do_, receive me even as foolish, so that I also may boast a little. 

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What I am saying, I am not saying according to the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting. 

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Since many boast according to the flesh, I will boast also. 

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For you, being _so_ wise, are bearing the foolish gladly. 

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For you bear it if anyone enslaves you, anyone devours you, anyone takes advantage of you, anyone exalts himself, anyone hits you in the face. 

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To _my_ shame I _must_ say that we have been weak _by comparison_. But in whatever respect anyone _else_ is daring--I speak in foolishness--I am just as daring myself. 

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Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham's seed? So am I. 

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Are they ministers of Christ?--I speak as if insane--I more so; in far more labors, in far more imprisonments, in beatings without number, in frequent danger of death. 

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Five times I received from the Jews forty _lashes_ less one. 

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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 deep. 

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_I have been_ on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from _my_ countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the desolate places, dangers on the sea, dangers among false brothers. 

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_I have been_ in labor and hardship, in many sleepless nights, in starvation and thirst, often hungry, in cold and without enough clothing. 

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Apart from _such_ external things, there is the daily pressure on me _of_ concern for all the churches. 

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Who is weak without my being weak? Who is made to stumble without my burning concern? 

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If I have to boast, I will boast of what pertains to my weakness. 

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The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, He who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. 

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In Damascus the ethnarch under Aretas the king was guarding the city of the Damascenes in order to seize me, 

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and I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and _so_ escaped his hands.