2 Corinthians 11 — Berean Standard Bible

¹ I hope you will put up with a little of my foolishness, but [you are already doing that]. ² I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. For I promised you to one husband, to present [you] [as] a pure virgin to Christ. ³ I am afraid, however, that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may be led astray from [your] simple and pure [devotion] to Christ. ⁴ For if [someone] comes [and] proclaims [a] Jesus other [than the One] we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit [than the One] you received, or a different gospel [than the one] you accepted, you put up with it very easily. ⁵ I consider myself in no way inferior to those “super-apostles. ⁶ Although [I am] not a polished speaker, I am certainly not lacking in knowledge. We have made this clear to you in every way possible. ⁷ [Was it] a sin [for me] to humble myself in order to exalt you, because I preached the gospel of God to you free of charge? ⁸ I robbed other churches by accepting [their] support in order to serve you. ⁹ And when I was with you and in need, I was not a burden [to anyone]; for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my needs. I have refrained from being a burden to you in any way, and I will continue to do so. ¹⁰ [As surely as the] truth of Christ is in me, this boasting of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia. ¹¹ Why? Because I do not love you? God knows [I do]! ¹² But I will keep on doing what I am doing, in order to undercut those who want an opportunity to be regarded as our equals in the things of which they boast. ¹³ For such men [are] false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. ¹⁴ And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. ¹⁵ [It is] not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. [Their] end will correspond to their actions. ¹⁶ I repeat: {Let} no one take me for a fool. But if [you do], [then] receive me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little. ¹⁷ In this confident boasting [of mine], I am not speaking as [the] Lord {would}, but as a fool. ¹⁸ Since many are boasting according to the flesh, I too will boast. ¹⁹ For you gladly put up with fools, since you are so wise. ²⁰ In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you [or] exploits [you] [or] takes advantage [of you] [or] exalts himself [or] strikes you in the face. ²¹ To [my] shame I concede that we were too weak [for that]! Speaking as a fool, however, I can [match] what anyone else dares [to boast about]. ²² Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. ²³ Are they servants of Christ? (I am speaking as if I were out of my mind.) I am so much more: in harder labor, in more imprisonments, in worse beatings, in frequent danger of death. ²⁴ Five times I received from [the] Jews [the] forty [lashes] minus one. ²⁵ Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a day in the open [sea]. ²⁶ In my frequent journeys, [I have been] in danger from rivers [and] from bandits, in danger from [my] countrymen [and] from [the] Gentiles, in danger in [the] city [and] in [the] country, in danger on [the] sea [and] among false brothers, ²⁷ in labor and toil [and] often without sleep, in hunger and thirst [and] often without food, in cold and exposure. ²⁸ Apart from these external [trials], I [face] daily the pressure [of my] concern for all the churches. ²⁹ Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is led into sin, and I {do} not burn with grief? ³⁰ If I must boast, I will boast [of] the things [that show] my weakness. ³¹ The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is forever worthy of praise, knows that I am not lying. ³² In Damascus, the governor under King Aretas secured the city of the Damascenes in order to arrest me. ³³ But I was lowered in a basket through a window in the wall and escaped his grasp.