2 Corinthians 11

1I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. But indeed, do bear with me.

2For I am jealous for you with God's jealousy, because I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Messiah.

3But I fear that somehow, just as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your minds may be corrupted from the sincerity and purity that are toward Messiah.

4For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus, whom we did not proclaim, or if you receive a different spirit, which you did not receive, or a different gospel, which you did not accept, you put up with it well enough.

5For I consider that I am not in the least inferior to those super-apostles.

6But even if I am unskilled in speech, I am not in knowledge; indeed, in every way we have made this plain among all to you.

7Or did I commit a sin by humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I proclaimed the gospel of God to you free of charge?

8I robbed other churches by accepting support for serving you,

9And when I was present with you and was in need, I was not a burden to anyone; for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied what I lacked. And in everything I kept myself from being a burden to you, and will keep doing so.

10As the truth of Messiah is in me, this boasting of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia.

11Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do.

12But what I am doing, I will continue to do, in order to cut off the opportunity from those who want an opportunity, so that in what they boast about they may be found to be just as we are.

13For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Messiah.

14And no wonder, for Satan himself disguises himself as an angel of light.

15So it is no great thing if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.

16Again I say, let no one think me to be foolish—but if not, then receive me even as foolish, so that I too may boast a little.

17What I am saying, I am not saying according to the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting.

18Since many boast according to the flesh, I too will boast.

19For you gladly put up with fools, being wise yourselves.

20For you put up with it if someone enslaves you, if someone devours you, if someone takes from you, if someone exalts himself, if someone strikes you in the face.

21I say this to our shame, as though we had been weak. Yet in whatever anyone dares to boast—I am speaking foolishly—I also dare.

22Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham’s offspring? So am I.

23Are they servants of Messiah? I am speaking as if insane: I am more so—in labors more abundantly, in imprisonments more abundantly, in beatings beyond measure, in deaths often.

24Five times I received from the Jews forty lashes less one.

25Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked; I have spent a night and a day in the deep.

26often on journeys, in dangers from rivers, in dangers from robbers, in dangers from my own people, in dangers from Gentiles, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the wilderness, in dangers at sea, in dangers among false brothers,

27in labor and hardship, in many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, in frequent fastings, in cold and exposure.

28Apart from such external things, there is the daily pressure on me: concern for all the churches.

29Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is caused to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation?

30If I must boast, I will boast in the things of my weakness.

31The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying.

32In Damascus, the ethnarch of King Aretas was guarding the city of the Damascenes in order to seize me,

33and through a window in a basket I was lowered through the wall and escaped his hands.