Galatians 4:13-20 - Paul's Personal Appeal

¹³ And you know that in those early days it was on account of bodily infirmity that I proclaimed the Good News to you, ¹⁴ and yet the bodily infirmity which was such a trial to you, you did not regard with contempt or loathing, but you received me as if I had been an angel of God or Christ Jesus Himself!

¹⁵ I ask you, then, what has become of your self-congratulations? For I bear you witness that had it been possible you would have torn out your own eyes and have given them to me. ¹⁶ Can it be that I have become your enemy through speaking the truth to you? ¹⁷ These men pay court to you, but not with honourable motives. They want to exclude you, so that you may pay court to them. ¹⁸ It is always an honourable thing to be courted in an honourable cause; always, and not only when I am with you, my children-- ¹⁹ you for whom I am again, as it were, undergoing the pains of childbirth, until Christ is fully formed within you. ²⁰ Would that I were with you and could change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.