2 Corinthians 11:1-15 - Paul Defends His Apostleship

¹ I wish you could bear with me a little in my folly; but yet bear with me: ² for 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. ³ But I fear lest, as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity which pertains to Christ. ⁴ For 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.

⁵ I count myself indeed to be in no respect inferior to the very greatest of the apostles. ⁶ But 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. ⁷ Have I committed a sin, in making myself lowly, that you might be exalted, because I preached the gospel to you without cost? ⁸ I 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; ⁹ for 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. ¹⁰ As the truth of Christ is in me, this boasting shall not be silenced, in my case, in the regions of Achaia. ¹¹ Why? Because I do not love you? God knows.

¹² But 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. ¹³ For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, trans forming themselves into the apostles of Christ; ¹⁴ and no wonder, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. ¹⁵ Therefore, 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.