2 Corinthians 11

1 I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. But indeed you do bear with me. [a] 2 For I am zealous for you with God’s jealousy, for I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. [b] 3 But I fear that somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your thoughts may be corrupted away from the simplicity and the purity that is toward Christ. [c] 4 For if the one who comes proclaims another Jesus whom we did not proclaim, or you receive a different spirit which you did not receive, or a different good news which you did not accept, you bear with it well enough. [d] 5 For I count that I have fallen short in nothing of the super-apostles. [e] 6 But even if I am an ordinary person in speech, yet not in knowledge — but in everything, among all people, having made it plain to you. [f]

7 Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be lifted up, because I brought you the good news of God free of charge? 8 I robbed other gatherings, taking pay for service to you; [g] 9 and when I was present with you and in need, I was a dead weight on no one — for the brothers who came from Macedonia filled up what I lacked. And in everything I kept myself weightless to you, and I will keep myself so. [h] 10 The truth of Christ is in me: this boasting will not be shut off, so far as I am concerned, in the regions of Achaia. [i] 11 Why? Because I do not love you? God knows.

12 But what I do, I will also do, so that I may cut off the opportunity of those who want an opportunity, so that in what they boast they may be found just as we are. 13 For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. [j] 14 And no wonder, for Satan himself transforms himself into a messenger of light. 15 So it is no great thing if his servants also transform themselves as servants of righteousness — whose end will be according to their works.

16 Again I say, let no one think me to be foolish — but if otherwise, then receive me even as foolish, so that I too may boast a little. 17 What I say, I do not say according to the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this ground of boasting. [k] 18 Since many boast according to flesh, I too will boast. 19 For gladly you bear with the foolish, being discerning yourselves. [l] 20 For you bear with it if someone enslaves you, if someone devours you, if someone takes you, if someone lifts himself up, if someone beats you in the face. 21 I speak by way of dishonor, as though we ourselves had been weak. But whatever anyone dares — I speak in foolishness — I dare too. [m]

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 servants of Christ? — I speak out of my mind — I more: in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in blows beyond all bounds, in deaths often. [n] 24 From Jews five times I received forty less one. [o] 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent in the deep. [p] † 26 In journeys often, in dangers of rivers, in dangers of robbers, in dangers from my own race, in dangers from nations, in dangers in a city, in dangers in the wilderness, in dangers at sea, in dangers among false brothers; [q] 27 in labor and hardship, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fasts often, in cold and nakedness. [r]

28 Apart from the things outside, there is the pressure on me day by day, the anxiety for all the gatherings. [s] 29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I am not set on fire? [t]

30 If it is necessary to boast, I will boast in the things of my weakness. 31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus knows — he who is blessed forever — that I am not lying. 32 In Damascus the ethnarch under Aretas the king was guarding the city of the Damascenes in order to seize me, [u] 33 and through a window I was let down in a basket through the wall, and I escaped his hands. [v]