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Chapter 11 |
| 1 | Would to God
ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me. |
| 2 |
For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one
husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. |
| 3 | But I
fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so
your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
|
| 4 | For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not
preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or
another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.
|
| 5 | For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles.
|
| 6 | But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been
throughly made manifest among you in all things. |
| 7 | Have I
committed an offence in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I have
preached to you the gospel of God freely? |
|
8 | I robbed other churches,
taking wages of them, to do you service. |
|
9 | And when I was present with
you, and wanted, I was chargeable to no man: for that which was lacking to me
the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied: and in all things I have 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 boasting 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 which desire occasion; that wherein they glory, they may be
found even as we. |
| 13 | For such are false apostles, deceitful
workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. |
| 14 | And
no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. |
| 15 |
Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the
ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.
|
| 16 | I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool
receive me, that I may boast myself a little. |
| 17 | That which I
speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this
confidence of boasting. |
| 18 | Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I
will glory also. |
|
19 | For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves
are wise. |
| 20
| For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man
devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on
the face. |
| 21
| I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been
weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any 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 more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above
measure, in prisons more frequent, 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 I have been in the deep; |
|
26 | In journeyings often, in perils of
waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by
the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in
the sea, in perils among false brethren; |
|
27 | In weariness and
painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in
cold and nakedness. |
| 28 | Beside those things that are without, that
which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches. |
| 29 | Who is
weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not? |
| 30 | If I
must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine
infirmities. |
|
31 | The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which
is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not. |
| 32 | In Damascus
the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a
garrison, desirous to apprehend me: |
| 33 | And through a window in a
basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands. |
