11:1 I hope you will put up with me in a little foolishness. Yes, please put up with me!
11:2 I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.
11:3 But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
11:4 For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.
11:5 I do not think I am in the least inferior to those “super-apostles.”* / *Or to the most eminent apostles
11:6 I may indeed be untrained as a speaker, but I do have knowledge. We have made this perfectly clear to you in every way.
11:7 Was it a sin for me to lower myself in order to elevate you by preaching the gospel of God to you free of charge?
11:8 I robbed other churches by receiving support from them so as to serve you.
11:9 And when I was with you and needed something, I was not a burden to anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied what I needed. I have kept myself from being a burden to you in any way, and will continue to do so.
11:10 As surely as the truth of Christ is in me, nobody in the regions of Achaia will stop this boasting of mine.
11:11 Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do!
11:12 And I will keep on doing what I am doing in order to cut the ground from under those who want an opportunity to be considered equal with us in the things they boast about.
11:13 For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ.
11:14 And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.
11:15 It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.
11:16 I repeat: Let no one take me for a fool. But if you do, then tolerate me just as you would a fool, so that I may do a little boasting.
11:17 In this self-confident boasting I am not talking as the Lord would, but as a fool.
11:18 Since many are boasting in the way the world does, I too will boast.
11:19 You gladly put up with fools since you are so wise!
11:20 In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or puts on airs or slaps you in the face.
11:21 To my shame I admit that we were too weak for that! Whatever anyone else dares to boast about - I am speaking as a fool - I also dare to boast about.
11:22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham’s descendants? So am I.
11:23 Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again.
11:24 Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.
11:25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea,
11:26 I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers.
11:27 I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.
11:28 Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.
11:29 Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?
11:30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.
11:31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to be praised forever, knows that I am not lying.
11:32 In Damascus the governor under King Aretas had the city of the Damascenes guarded in order to arrest me.
11:33 But I was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall and slipped through his hands.