Part 44 (1/2)

WOULD that ye could bear with me in a little folly! Nay, ye do bear with me. (2)For I am jealous over you with a G.o.dly jealousy; for I espoused you to one husband, that I may present a chaste virgin to Christ. (3)But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve by his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from your simplicity toward Christ. (4)For if indeed he that comes preaches another Jesus, whom we preached not, or if ye receive a different spirit, which ye received not, or a different gospel, which ye accepted not, ye might well bear with it. (5)For I reckon that I am in no respect behind these overmuch apostles. (6)And though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but in everything we have been made manifest among all, in respect to you.

(7)Did I commit an offense in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I preached to you the gospel of G.o.d without charge. (8)I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, in order to do you service. (9)And when I was present with you, and in want, I was a charge to no one; for what was lacking to me the brethren who came from Macedonia supplied; and in every thing I kept myself from being burdensome to you, and so will keep myself.

(10)As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting shall not be shut up against me in the regions of Achaia. (11)Wherefore? Because I love you not? G.o.d knows. (12)But what I do, and will do, is that I may cut off the occasion of those who desire an occasion, that wherein they boast they may be found even as we. (13)For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ.

(14)And no wonder; for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. (15)It is no great thing then, if also his ministers transform themselves as ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

(16)I say again, let no one think me foolish; but if it can not be so, yet receive me even if as foolish, that I too may boast myself a little. (17)What I speak, I speak not after the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting. (18)Seeing that many boast after the flesh, I also will boast. (19)For ye gladly bear with the foolish, being yourselves wise. (20)For ye bear with it, if one brings you into bondage, if one devours you, if one takes you, if one exalts himself, if one smites you on the face.

(21)I say it as a reproach, that we were weak. But in whatever any one is bold (I say it in foolishness), I also am bold. (22)Are they Hebrews? So am I Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they Abraham's seed? So am I. (23)Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as beside myself,) I am more; in labors more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in prisons more abundantly, in deaths often; (24)of the Jews five times I received forty stripes save one; (25)thrice I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; thrice I suffered s.h.i.+pwreck; a night and a day I have spent in the deep; (26)by journeyings often, by perils of rivers, by perils of robbers, by perils from my countrymen, by perils from the heathen, by perils in the city, by perils in the wilderness, by perils in the sea, by perils among false brethren; (27)by weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. (28)Beside those things that are without, there is that which comes upon me daily, the care of all the churches. (29)Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is offended, and I do not burn? (30)If I must needs boast, I will boast of things which belong to my infirmity. (31)G.o.d, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed forevermore, knows that I lie not. (32)In Damascus, the governor under Aretas the king kept guard over the city of the Damascenes, wis.h.i.+ng to apprehend me; (33)and through a window I was let down in a basket through the wall, and escaped his hands.

XII.

TO boast is surely not expedient for me; for I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord.

(2)I know a man in Christ, above fourteen years ago (whether in the body I know not, or whether out of the body I know not, G.o.d knows) such a one caught up even to the third heaven. (3)And I know such a man (whether in the body or without the body I know not, G.o.d knows), (4)that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

(5)Of such a one I will boast; but of myself I will not boast, save in my infirmities. (6)For if I should desire to boast, I shall not be foolish, for I shall speak truth; but I forbear, lest any one should reckon of me above what he sees me to be, or hears from me.

(7)And that I might not be exalted overmuch through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, that I might not be exalted overmuch.

(8)Concerning this I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. (9)And he said to me: My grace is sufficient for thee; for my power is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may abide upon me.

(10)Wherefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then I am powerful.

(11)I have become foolish; ye compelled me. For I ought to have been commended by you; for in nothing was I behind these overmuch apostles, though I am nothing. (12)Truly the signs of an apostle were wrought among you in all patience, by signs, and wonders, and miracles.

(13)For what is there, wherein ye were inferior to the rest of the churches, except that I myself was not a charge to you? Forgive me this wrong.

(14)Behold, I am ready to come to you the third time; and I will not be a charge to you; for I seek not yours, but you; for the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.

(15)And I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I am loved. (16)But be it so, I was not myself a charge to you[12:16]; but yet, being crafty, I caught you with guile. (17)Did I make gain of you, by any of those whom I have sent to you? (18)I exhorted t.i.tus [to go], and sent with him the brother. Did t.i.tus make gain of you? Did we not walk in the same spirit; did we not in the same steps?

(19)Do ye again suppose that we are excusing ourselves to you[12:19]?

Before G.o.d in Christ we speak; and all, beloved, for your edification.

(20)For I fear, lest haply, when I come, I shall find you not such as I would, and I too shall be found by you such as ye would not; lest there be wranglings, envyings, wraths, rivalries, backbitings, whisperings, swellings, tumults; (21)lest, when I come again, my G.o.d shall humble me among you, and I shall bewail many of those who have sinned before, and repented not of the uncleanness, and fornication, and wantonness, which they committed.

XIII.

THIS third time I am coming to you. In the mouth of two witnesses, and of three, shall every word be established. (2)I have before said, and now say beforehand, as when present the second time, so also now when absent, to those who heretofore have sinned, and to all the rest, that if I come again I will not spare; (3)since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, who toward you is not weak, but is mighty in you.

(4)For even if he was crucified through weakness, yet he lives by the power of G.o.d. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of G.o.d toward you.

(5)Try your own selves, whether ye are in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye are reprobate? (6)But I trust that ye shall know, that we are not reprobate.

(7)Now I pray to G.o.d that ye do no evil; not that we should appear approved, but that ye may do what is good, though we be as reprobate.