2 Corinthians Chapter 11
1 I wish⁺ you could bear with me a little in my folly and just endure.
2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy, for I have pledged⁺ you to one husband so that I may present you as a chaste~ virgin to Christ.
3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent deceived⁺ Eve through his deceit⁺, so your minds could become corrupted away from the simplicity that is in Christ.
4 For if one comes proclaiming⁺ another Jesus whom we have not proclaimed⁺, or if you receive another spirit, not the same as you had received or another Gospel not the same as you had accepted, you might well bear with it.
5 For I consider⁺ that I am no less⁺ useful than the very chief apostles.
6 Though I am unrefined⁺ in speech, I am not lacking in knowledge, but in all things, thoroughly revealed⁺ among you.
7 Have I committed an offense in abasing myself so that you might be exalted, because I have freely proclaimed⁺ the Gospel of God to you?
8 I robbed other assemblies⁺, taking wages from them, to serve you.
9 When I was present with you and in need⁺, I was chargeable to no one. For what I was lacking~, the family⁺ from Macedonia supplied. In everything⁺, I have kept myself from being burdensome to you, and so I will keep myself.
10 As the truth of Christ is in me, no one in the regions of Achaia shall stop me from boastful⁺ rejoicing.
11 Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do.
12 But I will continue to do what I do so that I may cut off the occasion from those who desire occasion to glory in that in which they may be found even as we.
13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
14 No marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also seem to be transformed as the ministers of righteousness. Their end shall be according to their works.
16 I say again, Let no one think me a fool. Or otherwise, just receive me as a fool so that I may boast a little.
17 What I speak, I do not speak according⁺ to the Lord, but foolishly, in this confident boasting.
18 Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I glory also.
19 For you endure⁺ fools gladly, since you yourselves are wise.
20 For you suffer, if someone brings you into bondage, or devours you, or takes something from you, or exalts themselves, or strikes⁺ you on the face.
21 I am ashamed⁺ to say that sometimes we were weak. However, whenever anyone else is bold even 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? Now I speak like a fool. I am even more in labor, in whippings⁺ above measure, in prison more frequently, often near death.
24 From the Jews, five times I received forty lashes, less one.
25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once was I stoned. Three times I suffered shipwreck. A night and a day I have been in the deep.
26 In journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by my 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 brothers.
27 In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
28 Beside those things that come upon me daily from the outside, I have the care of all the assemblies⁺.
29 Who is weak and I am not weak? Who is offended and caused to sin and I do not burn?
30 If I need to boast⁺, I will boast about those things that reveal my weaknesses⁺.
31 The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who is blessed forever, knows that I do not lie.
32 In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me.
33 But I was let down in a basket through a window by the wall and escaped his hands.