2 Corinthians 11:1–33

¹I wish ​YOU​ would put up with me in some little unreasonableness. But, in fact, ​YOU​ are putting up with me!²For I am jealous over ​YOU​ with a godly jealousy, for I personally promised ​YOU​ in marriage to one husband that I might present ​YOU​ as a chaste virgin to the Christ.³But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent seduced Eve by its cunning, ​YOUR​ minds might be corrupted away from the sincerity and the chastity that are due the Christ.⁴For, as it is, if someone comes and preaches a Jesus other than the one we preached, or ​YOU​ receive a spirit other than what ​YOU​ received, or good news other than what ​YOU​ accepted, ​YOU​ easily put up [with him].⁵For I consider that I have not in a single thing proved inferior to ​YOUR​ superfine apostles.⁶But even if I am unskilled in speech, I certainly am not in knowledge; but in every way we manifested [it] to ​YOU​ in all things.

⁷Or did I commit a sin by humbling myself that ​YOU​ might be exalted, because without cost I gladly declared the good news of God to ​YOU?⁸Other congregations I robbed by accepting provisions in order to minister to ​YOU;⁹and yet when I was present with ​YOU​ and I fell in need, I did not become a burden to a single one, for the brothers that came from Mac‧e‧do′ni‧a abundantly supplied my deficiency. Yes, in every way I kept myself unburdensome to ​YOU​ and will keep myself so.¹⁰It is a truth of Christ in my case that no stop shall be put to this boasting of mine in the regions of A‧cha′ia.¹¹For what reason? Because I do not love ​YOU? God knows [I do].

¹²Now what I am doing I will still do, that I may cut off the pretext from those who are wanting a pretext for being found equal to us in the office of which they boast.¹³For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ.¹⁴And no wonder, for Satan himself keeps transforming himself into an angel of light.¹⁵It is therefore nothing great if his ministers also keep transforming themselves into ministers of righteousness. But their end shall be according to their works.

¹⁶I say again, Let no man think I am unreasonable. Still, if ​YOU​ really do, accept me even if as unreasonable, that I too may do some little boasting.¹⁷What I speak I speak, not after the Lord’s example, but as in unreasonableness, in this cocksureness peculiar to boasting.¹⁸Since many are boasting according to the flesh, I too will boast.¹⁹For ​YOU​ gladly put up with the unreasonable persons, seeing ​YOU​ are reasonable.²⁰In fact, ​YOU​ put up with whoever enslaves ​YOU, whoever devours [what ​YOU​ have], whoever grabs [what ​YOU​ have], whoever exalts himself over [YOU], whoever strikes ​YOU​ in the face.

²¹I say this to [our] dishonor, as though our position had been weak.

But if anyone else acts bold in something—I am talking unreasonably—I too am acting bold in it.²²Are they Hebrews? I am one also. Are they Israelites? I am one also. Are they Abraham’s seed? I am also.²³Are they ministers of Christ? I reply like a madman, I am more outstandingly one: in labors more plentifully, in prisons more plentifully, in blows to an excess, in near‐deaths often.²⁴By Jews I five times received forty strokes less one,²⁵three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I experienced shipwreck, a night and a day I have spent in the deep;²⁶in journeys often, in dangers from rivers, in dangers from highwaymen, in dangers from [my own] race, in dangers from the nations, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the wilderness, in dangers at sea, in dangers among false brothers,²⁷in labor and toil, in sleepless nights often, in hunger and thirst, in abstinence from food many times, in cold and nakedness.

²⁸Besides those things of an external kind, there is what rushes in on me from day to day, the anxiety for all the congregations.²⁹Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is stumbled, and I am not incensed?

³⁰If boasting there must be, I will boast of the things having to do with my weakness.³¹The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, even the One who is to be praised forever, knows I am not lying.³²In Damascus the governor under A‧re′tas the king was guarding the city of the Dam‧a‧scenes′ to seize me,³³but through a window in the wall I was lowered in a wicker basket and escaped his hands.