Paul and the False Apostles

1Would that ye could bear with me in a little foolishness: nay indeed bear with me. 2For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy: for I espoused you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ. 3But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness, your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity and the purity that is toward Christ. 4For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we did not preach, or if ye receive a different spirit, which ye did not receive, or a different gospel, which ye did not accept, ye do well to bear with him. 5For I reckon that I am not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles. 6But though I be rude in speech, yet am I not in knowledge; nay, in everything we have made it manifest among all men to you-ward.

7Or did I commit a sin in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I preached to you the gospel of God for nought? 8I robbed other churches, taking wages of them that I might minister unto you; 9and when I was present with you and was in want, I was not a burden on any man; for the brethren, when they came from Macedonia, supplied the measure of my want; and in everything I 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 glorying 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 an occasion; that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we. 13For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, fashioning themselves into apostles of Christ. 14And no marvel; for even Satan fashioneth himself into an angel of light. 15It is no great thing therefore if his ministers also fashion themselves as ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

Paul's Sufferings and Service

(Colossians 1:24-29)

16I say again, Let no man think me foolish; but if ye do, yet as foolish receive me, that I also may glory a little. 17That which I speak, I speak not after the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of glorying. 18Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also. 19For ye bear with the foolish gladly, being wise yourselves. 20For ye bear with a man, if he bringeth you into bondage, if he devoureth you, if he taketh you captive, if he exalteth himself, if he smiteth you on the face. 21I speak by way of disparagement, as though we had been weak. Yet whereinsoever any is bold (I speak in foolishness), 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 one beside himself) I more; in labours more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, 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 have I been in the deep; 26in journeyings often, in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in perils from my countrymen, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27in labour and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. 28Beside those things that are without, there is that which presseth upon me daily, anxiety for all the churches. 29Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is made to stumble, and I burn not?

30If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things that concern my weakness. 31The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not. 32In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king guarded the city of the Damascenes, in order to take me: 33and through a window was I let down in a basket by the wall, and escaped his hands.