2 Corinthians 11:1-33
“I hope
you will put up with me in a little foolishness. Yes, please put up
with me!
2 I am jealous for you with a GODly jealousy. I promised you to ONE HUSBAND, to CHRIST, so that I
might present you as a pure virgin to HIM.
3 But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s
cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure
devotion to CHRIST.
4 For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the JESUS we
preached, or if you receive a different spirit from THE SPIRIT you
received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with
it easily enough.
5 I do not think I am in the least
inferior to those ‘super-apostles.’
6 I may indeed be untrained as a
speaker, but I do have KNOWLEDGE. We have made this perfectly clear to you in
every way.
7 Was it a sin for me to lower
myself in order to elevate you by preaching THE GOSPEL OF GOD to you free of charge?
8 I robbed other churches by
receiving support from them so as to serve you.
9 And when I was with you and needed
something, I was not a burden to anyone, for the brothers who came from
Macedonia supplied what I needed. I have kept myself from being a burden
to you in any way, and will continue to do so.
10 As surely as THE TRUTH of CHRIST is in
me, nobody in the regions of Achaia will stop this boasting of
mine.
11 Why? Because I do not love you? GOD knows I do!
12 And I will keep on doing what I am
doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be
considered equal with us in the things they boast about.
13 For such people are false
apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of CHRIST.
14 And no wonder, for
Satan himself masquerades as an angel of LIGHT.
15 It is not surprising, then, if his
servants also masquerade as servants of RIGHTEOUSNESS. Their end will be what their
actions deserve.
16 I repeat: Let no one take me for a
fool. But if you do, then tolerate me just as you would a fool, so that I
may do a little boasting.
17 In this self-confident boasting I
am not talking as THE
LORD would, but as a fool.
18 Since many are boasting in the way
the world does, I too will boast.
19 You gladly put up with fools
since you are so wise!
20 In fact, you even put up
with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of
you or puts on airs or slaps you in the face.
21 To my shame I admit that we were
too weak for that!
Whatever
anyone else dares to boast about—I am speaking as a fool—I also dare to boast
about.
22 Are they Hebrews? So am I.
Are
they Israelites? So am I.
Are
they Abraham’s descendants? So am I.
23 Are they servants of CHRIST? (I am
out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much
harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more
severely, and been exposed to death again and again.
24 Five times I received from the
Jews the forty lashes minus one.
25 Three times I was beaten with
rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was
shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea,
26 I have been constantly on the
move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from
my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in
danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers.
27 I have labored and toiled and
have often gone without sleep;
I have
known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food;
I have
been cold and naked.
28 Besides everything else, I face
daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.
29 Who is weak, and I do not feel
weak?
Who is
led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?
30 If I must boast, I will
boast of the things that show my weakness.
31 THE GOD AND FATHER of THE LORD JESUS, WHO IS TO BE
PRAISED FOREVER knows that I am not lying.
32 In Damascus the governor under
King Aretas had the city of the Damascenes guarded in order to arrest me.
33 But I was lowered in a basket from
a window in the wall and slipped through his hands.”
