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

¹ I would that you were bearing with me a little in foolishness; but indeed bear with me. ² For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy. For I have espoused you to one Man, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. ³ But I fear lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness, so your thoughts should be corrupted from the simplicity due to Christ. ⁴ For if, indeed, the one coming proclaims another Jesus, whom we have not proclaimed, or if you receive another spirit, which you did not receive, or another gospel, which you never accepted, you might well endure these .

⁵ For I judge myself to have come behind the highest apostles in nothing. ⁶ But even if I am unskilled in speech, yet not in knowledge; but in every way I have been clearly revealed to you in all things. ⁷ Or did I commit sin in humbling myself that you might be exalted, because I preached the gospel of God to you without charge? ⁸ I stripped other churches, taking wages for the serving of you. ⁹ And being present with you, and in need, I was not a burden to anyone. For the brothers from Macedonia made up completely my need. And in every way I have kept myself from being burdensome to you, and I will keep myself. ¹⁰ The truth of Christ is in me that this boasting shall not be silenced in me in the regions of Achaia. ¹¹ Why? Because I do not love you? God knows.

¹² But what I do, that I will do, so that I may cut off occasion from those who desire occasion; so that in the thing in which they boast, they may be found even as we. ¹³ For such ones are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. ¹⁴ Did not even Satan marvelously transform himself into an angel of light? ¹⁵ Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves as ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works.