Chapter 11

  Would to God ye could bear with me a little in [my] folly: and indeed bear with me.  

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  For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present [you as] a chaste virgin to Christ.  

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  But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.  

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  For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or [if] ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with [him].  

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  For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles.  

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  But though [I be] rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been throughly made manifest among you in all things.  

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  Have I committed an offence in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely?  

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  I robbed other churches, taking wages [of them], to do you service.  

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  And when I was present with you, and wanted, I was chargeable to no man: for that which was lacking to me the brethren which came from Macedonia supplied: and in all [things] I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and [so] will I keep [myself].  

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  As the truth of Christ is in me, no man shall stop me of this boasting in the regions of Achaia.  

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  Wherefore? because I love you not? God knoweth.  

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  But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion; that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we.  

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  For such [are] false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.  

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  And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.  

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  Therefore [it is] no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.  

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  I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little.  

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  That which I speak, I speak [it] not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting.  

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  Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also.  

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  For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye [yourselves] are wise.  

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  For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour [you], if a man take [of you], if a man exalt himself, if a man smite you on the face.  

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  I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also.  

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  Are they Hebrews? so [am] I. Are they Israelites? so [am] I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so [am] I.  

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  Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I [am] more; in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.  

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  Of the Jews five times received I forty [stripes] save one.  

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  Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;  

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  [In] journeyings often, [in] perils of waters, [in] perils of robbers, [in] perils by [mine own] countrymen, [in] perils by the heathen, [in] perils in the city, [in] perils in the wilderness, [in] perils in the sea, [in] perils among false brethren;  

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  In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.  

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  Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.  

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  Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?  

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  If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities.  

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  The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not.  

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  In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me:  

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  And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands.  

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