Paul’s desire and fear for believers there
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📚Would to God you would bear with me a little in my folly. And indeed you are bearing with me. 2 📚For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy✭, for I have betrothed you to one husband✭, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. 3 📚✭But I am afraid that by some means, as the serpent deceived Eve through his cunning, so your minds might be corrupted from the integrity that is in Christ.False apostles
4 📚✭For if the one coming to you preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if you receive another spirit, which you have not received, or another gospel, which you have not accepted, you put up with that well enough! 5 📚But I do not think that I am at all inferior to those “super” apostles. 6 📚Even though I am untrained in speech✭, I am not untrained in knowledge✭. What we are has been made completely evident to you in all matters.
Paul’s behavior toward the Corinthians
7 📚✭Did I commit a sin in lowering myself that you might be exalted, because I preached to you the gospel of God freely? 8 📚I robbed✭ other churches by receiving support from them to do you service. 9 📚✭And when I was present with you, and in need, I was a burden to no one. For what I lacked the brethren who came from Macedonia supplied. And in everything I have kept myself from being a burden to you, and I will continue to keep myself so. 10 📚As the truth of Christ is in me, no one in the regions of Achaia will stop me from this boasting. 11 📚Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do. 12 📚✭But I will continue to do what I am doing, so that I may cut off the opportunity from those who desire opportunity to be regarded as we are in the things they boast about.
False teachers are Satan’s servants
13 📚✭For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, outwardly changing themselves into the apostles of Christ. 14 📚✭And no wonder, for even Satan outwardly changes himself into an angel of light.
Paul’s further “boasting”
15 📚So it is no big thing if his servants also outwardly change themselves into servants of righteousness. Their end will be according to their works.
16 📚 ✭I say again, Let no one think me a fool; if otherwise, then receive me as you would a fool, so that I may boast of myself a little. 17 📚What I am saying in this confident boasting, I am not saying according to the Lord, but as if in foolishness. 18 📚Seeing that many boast according to the flesh, I will boast also. 19 📚✭For you gladly bear with fools, since you yourselves are wise! 20 📚For you bear it, if someone brings you into bondage✭, if a man devours you, if a man takes from you, if a man exalts himself, if a man hits you in the face. 21 📚To my shame, I say we were too weak for that! But in whatever matter anyone else dares to boast✭ (I speak foolishly), I too dare.
22 📚✭Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the offspring of Abraham? So am I.
Faithfully serving in troubles and dangers
23 📚✭Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more, in more abundant labours✭, in beatings above measure, in prisons✭ more frequent, in deaths✭ often. 24 📚✭From the Jews five times I received forty lashes with a whip, minus one. 25 📚Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones✭, three times I was shipwrecked✭, a night and a day I have been in the sea, 26 📚in frequent travels, in perils✭ from waters, in perils from robbers, in perils from my own 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, 27 📚in weariness and hardship, in frequent sleepless✭ vigils, in hunger and thirst, in frequent fastings, in cold and nakedness✭. 28 📚Beside those outward things, there is that which presses on me daily: concern for all the churches✭. 29 📚✭Who is weak, and I am not weak✭? Who is offended, and I do not burn✭ with indignation?
30 📚If I must boast, I will boast of the things which relate to my weaknesses✭. 31 📚✭The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever, knows that I am not lying. 32 📚✭In Damascus the governor under King Aretas kept the city of the Damascenes under a military guard, wanting to capture me. 33 📚But I was lowered in a basket through a window in the wall, and escaped from his hands.