|
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. |
