2 Corinthians 11

₁Please forgive me if I am speaking like a fool now. Yes, you must forgive me. ₂I love you very much, like God loves you. I am worried about you like a father who has chosen a husband for his daughter and has promised that man that he can marry his daughter. That man is Christ. I want you to be like a virgin. I want to give you to Christ, and you must belong only to Him. ₃But I am afraid that someone will deceive you and that you will forget the love of Christ and then you will not belong only to Him. It is like the snake that deceived Eve because he was cunning. ₄It seems to me as if you believe and accept anyone who comes and tells you about a different Jesus, not the same Jesus whom we preached about to you. Or you accept a different Spirit and message, not the Spirit of God or the Good_News that we have preached to you. ₅I think I am just as good as those false_apostles, but they think that they are better than I am. ₆Maybe I can not speak as well as they do, but I know everything that is important. You saw that when we were with you and we explained everything to you in different ways.

₇Do you think that I was wrong because I did not ask you for money when I preached the Good_News of God to you? Some people think that I have humiliated myself, but that was because you were important to me. ₈I did take money from the congregations in the province of Macedonia to work for you. ₉When I was with you and I had no money, I did not come to one of you to ask for money. When the believers from Macedonia came to Corinth, they helped me. I have never asked you for money for myself and I never will. ₁₀I am proud that I did not ask you for money and I will talk about it everywhere in the province of Achaia. I speak the truth, and Christ knows it. ₁₁Why do you think I do not want to ask you for money? Do you think it is because I do not love you? No, God knows how much I love you.

₁₂I do not ask you for money and I will not because this is how I want to stop the false_apostles. I do not want them to work in your congregation. These people are jealous. They want you to be proud of them as you are proud of us. ₁₃These men are false_apostles. The things they do lead people to take the wrong way. They say that they are apostles of Christ. ₁₄I am not surprised, because even Satan comes to people and says he is an angel of light. ₁₅That is why we are not surprised that the people who serve Satan say that they are servants of righteousness who do good things. But God will punish these false_apostles for everything that they have done wrong.

₁₆I am telling you again, do not think I am a fool. Or maybe you must think I am a fool, because then I can boast a little. ₁₇I want to say something now, but it does not come from God. Now I will speak like a fool when I boast. ₁₈There are many people who boast like people of this world, and I also want to boast like them now. ₁₉Because I think you love fools, you who think you are very wise. ₂₀You love being someone's slave and you love it when someone takes your money, when someone does with you what he wants, when someone thinks he is wonderful and when someone says bad things to you. ₂₁I am sorry to say this, but we were too weak to do the same to you.

I know that I am speaking like a fool, but if other people can boast, then I can do it too. ₂₂They boast that they are Hebrews, but I am also a Hebrew. They boast that they are Israelites, but I am also an Israelite. They boast that they are the descendants of Abraham, but I am also a descendant of Abraham. ₂₃They boast that they are servants of Christ, and now I am really speaking like a foolish person when I say that I am a better servant of Christ. I have worked harder than they have, I have been in jail more than they have, people have beaten me more than they have beaten them, and I have almost been killed many times. ₂₄The Jews have beaten me with a stick 5 times and each time they hit me 39 times. ₂₅The Romans have beaten me 3 times with a stick, people have stoned me and almost killed me, I was on 3 boats that broke and went down into the sea, and at one time I was floating on the sea for a whole night and day. ₂₆I have often been on journeys far away. I went through dangerous rivers and there were many other dangerous things. There were thieves, there were my own Jewish people, there were Gentiles, there were towns where I suffered a lot and there were deserts. I was on the sea and was with people who said they were Christians but they were false. ₂₇I have worked so much that I have been very, very tired many times when I could not sleep. I was hungry and thirsty, and I often had no food. I was cold and I did not have enough clothes.

₂₈There are many other troubles that I can tell you about, but I am worried about the work that I have to do every day and I am worried about all the congregations. ₂₉When someone in a congregation is weak, then I am weak with him. When someone deceives a believer and makes him sin, then I get very angry. ₃₀If I must boast, then I will boast and say that I am weak. ₃₁God knows that I do not lie. He is the God and Father of the Lord Jesus and we must always praise Him.

₃₂Long ago when I was in Damascus, the governor at the time of King Aretas told the guards at the city gates to arrest me. ₃₃My friends put me in a basket and put it through a window in the wall. They lowered me down to the ground and I escaped from him.