2 Corinthians 11:1-33 GNT

[1] I wish you would tolerate me, even when I am a bit foolish. Please do! [2] I am jealous for you, just as God is; you are like a pure virgin whom I have promised in marriage to one man only, Christ himself. [3] I am afraid that your minds will be corrupted and that you will abandon your full and pure devotion to Christ-in the same way that Eve was deceived by the snake's clever lies. [4] For you gladly tolerate anyone who comes to you and preaches a different Jesus, not the one we preached; and you accept a spirit and a gospel completely different from the Spirit and the gospel you received from us! [5] I do not think that I am the least bit inferior to those very special so-called "apostles" of yours! [6] Perhaps I am an amateur in speaking, but certainly not in knowledge; we have made this clear to you at all times and in all conditions. [7] I did not charge you a thing when I preached the Good News of God to you; I humbled myself in order to make you important. Was that wrong of me? [8] While I was working among you, I was paid by other churches. I was robbing them, so to speak, in order to help you. [9] And during the time I was with you I did not bother you for help when I needed money; the believers who came from Macedonia brought me everything I needed. As in the past, so in the future: I will never be a burden to you! [10] By Christ's truth in me, I promise that this boast of mine will not be silenced anywhere in all of Achaia. [11] Do I say this because I don't love you? God knows I love you! [12] I will go on doing what I am doing now, in order to keep those other "apostles" from having any reason for boasting and saying that they work in the same way that we do. [13] Those men are not true apostles-they are false apostles, who lie about their work and disguise themselves to look like real apostles of Christ. [14] Well, no wonder! Even Satan can disguise himself to look like an angel of light! [15] So it is no great thing if his servants disguise themselves to look like servants of righteousness. In the end they will get exactly what their actions deserve. [16] I repeat: no one should think that I am a fool. But if you do, at least accept me as a fool, just so I will have a little to boast of. [17] Of course what I am saying now is not what the Lord would have me say; in this matter of boasting I am really talking like a fool. [18] But since there are so many who boast for merely human reasons, I will do the same. [19] You yourselves are so wise, and so you gladly tolerate fools! [20] You tolerate anyone who orders you around or takes advantage of you or traps you or looks down on you or slaps you in the face. [21] I am ashamed to admit that we were too timid to do those things! But if anyone dares to boast about something-I am talking like a fool-I will be just as daring. [22] Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham's descendants? So am I. [23] Are they Christ's servants? I sound like a madman-but I am a better servant than they are! I have worked much harder, I have been in prison more times, I have been whipped much more, and I have been near death more often. [24] Five times I was given the thirty-nine lashes by the Jews; [25] three times I was whipped by the Romans; and once I was stoned. I have been in three shipwrecks, and once I spent twenty-four hours in the water. [26] In my many travels I have been in danger from floods and from robbers, in danger from my own people and from Gentiles; there have been dangers in the cities, dangers in the wilds, dangers on the high seas, and dangers from false friends. [27] There has been work and toil; often I have gone without sleep; I have been hungry and thirsty; I have often been without enough food, shelter, or clothing. [28] And not to mention other things, every day I am under the pressure of my concern for all the churches. [29] When someone is weak, then I feel weak too; when someone is led into sin, I am filled with distress. [30] If I must boast, I will boast about things that show how weak I am. [31] The God and Father of the Lord Jesus-blessed be his name forever!-knows that I am not lying. [32] When I was in Damascus, the governor under King Aretas placed guards at the city gates to arrest me. [33] But I was let down in a basket through an opening in the wall and escaped from him.