Paul and the False Apostles

1I would that you bear with me a little in my folly: yes indeed you do bear with me. 2For I am jealous of you with the jealousy of God: for I espoused you to one husband, to present you a pure virgin to Christ; 3but I fear, lest, as the serpent beguiled Eve by his craftiness, your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity which is in Christ. 4For if indeed one coming preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or you receive another spirit, which you did not receive, or another gospel which you did not receive, well do you bear with him. 5For I consider that I am not inferior to the chief of the apostles. 6If indeed rude in speech, but not in knowledge; but in every thing making manifest unto you in all things.

7Did I commit sin humbling myself that you may be exalted, because I preached unto you the gospel of God gratuitously? 8I robbed other churches, having received support for your ministry, and being present with you and being destitute, I burdened no one; 9for the brethren, having come from Macedonia, supplied my deficiency; and in everything I rendered myself not burdensome to you, and will so render. 10The truth of Christ is in me, that this glorying shall not cease unto me in the regions of Achaia. 11Why? because I do not love you with divine love? God knows.

12But what I am doing, I indeed will do, in order that I may cut off occasion from those wishing occasion, in order that in whatsoever they may glory, they may be found even as we are. 13For such 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. 15Then it is no great wonder if his ministers are transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose, end shall be according to their works.

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

16Again I say, Let no one consider me to be a fool; but if not, receive me as a fool, in order that I may indeed glory some little. 17What I say, I am not saying according to the Lord, but as it were in folly, in this confidence of glorying. 18Since many glory in the flesh, I will glory also. 19For cheerfully do you, being wise, bear with the foolish: 20for you bear with them, if any one enslaves you, if any one devours you, if any one captures you, if any one is exalted against you, if any one smites you in the face. 21I speak according to disparagement, as that we are weak; but in whatsoever any one is bold, (I speak it in folly,) I am bold also. 22Are they Hebrews? I am also. Are they Israelites? I am also. Are they the seed of Abraham? I am also. 23Are they the ministers of Christ? (I speak as a mad man,) I am more; in labors more abundantly, in stripes more abundantly, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often; 24from the Jews five times I received forty stripes save one, 25thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice was I shipwrecked, a day and a night I spent in the deep. 26Often in journeys, in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in perils from my own race, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27in labor and in toil, in vigils often, in hunger and in thirst, in fastings often, in cold and in nakedness. 28Besides all these, that which comes upon me daily, the care of all the churches. 29Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I do not burn?

30But if it behooves me to glory, I will glory in those things appertaining to my infirmities. 31The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the one being blessed forever, knows that I lie not. 32In Damascus Areta the governor of the king, guarded the city of the Damascenes, to arrest me: 33and through a window was I let down in a basket by the wall, and escaped his hands.