2 Corinthians 11
1Would
to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me.
2For 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.
3But
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.
4For 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.
5For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles.
6But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been throughly
made manifest among you in all things.
7Have
I committed an offence in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely?
8I robbed other churches, taking wages of
them, to do you service.
9And 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.
10As the truth of Christ is in me, no man shall stop me of this boasting in the
regions of Achaia.
11Wherefore? because I
love you not? God knoweth.
12But 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.
13For such are false apostles, deceitful
workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
14And
no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
15Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness;
whose end shall be according to their works.
16I
say again, let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little.
17That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly,
in this confidence of boasting.
18Seeing that
many glory after the flesh, I will glory also.
19For
ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise.
20For
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.
21I speak as concerning reproach,
as though we had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also.
22Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of
Abraham? so am I.
23Are 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.
24Of the Jews five times received I forty
stripes save one.
25Thrice was I beaten with
rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;
26In 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;
27In weariness
and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
28Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care
of all the churches.
29Who is weak, and I
am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?
30If
I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities.
31The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not.
32In Damascus the governor under Aretas the
king kept the city of the damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me:
33And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands.
