Paul and the False Apostles

1I wish you could bear with me a little in my folly; but yet bear with me: 2for I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy: for I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you a chaste virgin to Christ. 3But I fear lest, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity which pertains to Christ. 4For if he that comes should preach another Jesus, whom we did not preach, or, if you receive another Spirit, which you did not receive, or another gospel, which you have not accepted, you would well bear with him. 5I count myself indeed to be in no respect inferior to the very greatest of the apostles. 6But if I am unpolished in my style of speech, yet I am not so in knowledge. But we have been fully manifested among you in all things.

7Have I committed a sin, in making myself lowly, that you might be exalted, because I preached the gospel to you without cost? 8I robbed other churches, taking wages to do you service: and when I was present with you, and wanted, I was not a burden to any one; 9for the brethren who came from Macedonia supplied my wants; and in every thing I have kept myself from being burdensome to you, and will continue to keep myself. 10As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting shall not be silenced, in my case, in the regions of Achaia. 11Why? Because I do not love you? God knows.

12But what I am doing I will also continue to do, that I may cut off occasion from those who desire an occasion, that in what they boast, they may be found even as we. 13For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ; 14and no wonder, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 15Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves so as to be like the ministers of righteousness; of such, the end shall be according to their works.

Paul’s Suffering and Service
(Colossians 1:24–29)

16I say again, let no one think that I am without understanding; but if so, even as one without understanding bear with me, that I also may boast a little. 17What I say, I say not according to the Lord, but as in folly, in this same confidence of boasting. 18Since many boast according to the flesh, I also will boast. 19For it is a pleasure to you to bear with men of no understanding, since you yourselves are wise. 20For you bear it, if one enslave you, if one devour you, if one take from you, if one exalt himself, if one smite you on the face. 21I speak of their reproaches, as if we were weak. In what ever matter any one is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I also am bold. 22Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they of the posterity of Abraham? So am I. 23Are they ministers of Christ? (I say it foolishly,) I am above them. In labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths often. 24From the Jews, five times I received forty stripes, save one; 25three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I have been shipwrecked; a night and a day I spent in the deep. 26In journeyings often, in perils from rivers, in perils from robbers, in perils from my own race, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the desert, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27in weariness and in toil, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness: 28besides those things which come upon me from other sources, I have a daily concourse of troubles?my anxiety for all the churches. 29Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is led into sin, and I am not incensed?

30If I must boast, I will boast in my infirmities. 31The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed for ever, knows that I do not lie. 32In Damascus, the governor under Aretas the king, guarded the city of the Damascenes, desiring to apprehend me: 33and through a window I was let down in a basket through the wall, and escaped his hands.