Paul and the False Apostles

1Would that ye would bear with me [in] a little folly; but indeed bear with me. 2For I am jealous as to you with a jealousy [which is] of God; for I have espoused you unto one man, to present [you] a chaste virgin to Christ. 3But I fear lest by any means, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craft, [so] your thoughts should be corrupted from simplicity as to the Christ. 4For if indeed he that comes preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or ye get a different Spirit, which ye have not got, or a different glad tidings, which ye have not received, ye might well bear with [it]. 5For I reckon that in nothing I am behind those who are in surpassing degree apostles. 6But if [I am] a simple person in speech, yet not in knowledge, but in everything making [the truth] manifest in all things to you.

7Have I committed sin, abasing myself in order that ye might be exalted, because I gratuitously announced to you the glad tidings of God? 8I spoiled other assemblies, receiving hire for ministry towards you. 9And being present with you and lacking, I did not lazily burden any one, (for the brethren who came from Macedonia supplied what I lacked,) and in everything I kept myself from being a burden to you, and will keep myself. 10[The] truth of Christ is in me that this boasting shall not be stopped as to me in the regions of Achaia. 11Why? because I do not love you? God knows.

12But what I do, I will also do, that I may cut off the opportunity of those wishing [for] an opportunity, that wherein they boast they may be found even as we. 13For such [are] false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. 14And [it is] not wonderful, for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. 15It is no great thing therefore if his ministers also transform themselves as ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

Paul's Sufferings and Service

(Colossians 1:24-29)

16Again I say, Let not any one think me to be a fool; but if otherwise, receive me then even as a fool, that I also may boast myself some little. 17What I speak I do not speak according to [the] Lord, but as in folly, in this confidence of boasting. 18Since many boast according to flesh, I also will boast. 19For ye bear fools readily, being wise. 20For ye bear if any one bring you into bondage, if any one devour [you], if any one get [your money], if any one exalt himself, if any one beat you on the face. 21I speak as to dishonour, as though we had been weak; but wherein any one is daring, (I speak in folly,) I also am daring. 22Are they Hebrews? I also. Are they Israelites? I also. Are they seed of Abraham? I also. 23Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as being beside myself) I above measure [so]; in labours exceedingly abundant, in stripes to excess, in prisons exceedingly abundant, in deaths oft. 24From the Jews five times have I received forty [stripes], save one. 25Thrice have I been scourged, once I have been stoned, three times I have suffered shipwreck, a night and day I passed in the deep: 26in journeyings often, in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in perils from [my own] race, in perils from [the] nations, in perils in [the] city, in perils in [the] desert, in perils on [the] sea, in perils among false brethren; 27in labour and toil, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. 28Besides those things that are without, the crowd [of cares] pressing on me daily, the burden of all the assemblies. 29Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is stumbled, and I burn not?

30If it is needful to boast, I will boast in the things which concern my infirmity. 31The God and Father of the Lord Jesus knows -- he who is blessed for ever -- that I do not lie. 32In Damascus the ethnarch of Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes shut up, wishing to take me; 33and through a window in a basket I was let down by the wall, and escaped his hands.