Paul and the False Apostles

1Would that ye could bear with me in some little foolishness! Yea, indeed, ye do bear with me. 2For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy; for I espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a pure virgin to Christ; 3but I fear lest, by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness, your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity and purity which is toward Christ. 4For, if he that comes preaches another Jesus, Whom we did not preach; or, if ye receive a different spirit, which ye did not receive, or a different Gospel, which ye did not accept; well do ye bear with him. 5For I reckon that I am in no respect behind the most eminent apostles. 6And, though I be rude in speech, yet am I not rude in knowledge; but in every way having manifested it toward you in all things.

7Or did I commit a sin in abasing myself, that ye might be exalted, because I proclaimed to you the Gospel of God without cost? 8I robbed other assemblies, taking wages of them, that I might minister to you; 9and, being present with you, and being in want, I was a burden to no one; for the brethren, coming from Macedonia, supplied my lack; and in everything I kept myself from being burdensome to you, and so will keep myself. 10As the truth of Christ is in me, this glorying shall not be stopped in regard to me in the regions of Achaia. 11Wherefore? because I do not love you? God knoweth!

12But what I am doing, I also will do, that I may cut off the occasion from those desiring occasion, that wherein they glory they may be found even as we. 13For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ; 14and no wonder, for even Satan transforms himself into an angel of light! 15It is no great thing, therefore, if his ministers also transform themselves as ministers of righteousness; whose end will be according to their works.

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

16I say again, let no one think me foolish; but, if ye do, yet as foolish receive me, that I too may glory a little. 17What I am speaking I speak not according to the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting. 18Since many glory according to the flesh, I also will glory; 19for ye gladly bear with the foolish, being yourselves wise. 20For ye bear with it, if one brings you into bondage, if one devours you, if one takes you captive, if one exalts himself, if one smites you on the face. 21I speak by way of dishonor, as though we were weak; but in whatever anyone is bold (I speak in foolishness), I also am bold. 22Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they Abraham's seed? so am I. 23Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as beside myself) I am more; in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in deaths often; 24from the Jews five times I received forty stripes save one; 25thrice I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; thrice I suffered shipwreck; a night and a day I have spent in the deep; 26in journeyings often, in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in perils from my countrymen, 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 toil and hardship, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. 28Apart from those things without, that which is a pressure upon me daily, anxiety for all the assemblies. 29Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is caused to stumble, and I burn not?

30If I must glory, I will glory in the things that pertain to my weakness. 31The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is blessed forevermore, knoweth that I lie not. 32In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king guarded the city of the Damascenes in order to arrest me; 33and through a window I was let down in a basket by the wall, and escaped his hands.