2 Corinthians 12

Revised Geneva Translation

12 Doubtless, it is not profitable for me to boast. Yet, I will now come to visions and revelations of the Lord.

² More than fourteen years ago I knew a man in Christ, (whether he was in the body, I cannot tell, or out of the body, I cannot tell; God knows.) who was taken up into the third heaven.

³ And I knew such a man (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell; God knows).

⁴ How that he was taken up into Paradise, and heard words which cannot be spoken, which are not possible for man to utter.

⁵ Of such a man I will boast. Of myself I will not boast, except that it be of my weakness.

⁶ For though I would desire to boast, I shall not be a fool; for I will say the truth. But I refrain, lest anyone should think me above that which he sees in me, or hears of me;

⁷ and lest I should be exalted out of measure through the abundance of revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, because I should not be exalted out of measure.

⁸ For this thing I implored the Lord three times, that it might depart from me.

⁹ And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you. For My power is made perfect through weakness.” Therefore, rather, I will very gladly boast in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

¹⁰ Therefore, I take pleasure in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in anguish for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

¹¹ I have become a fool in boasting. You have compelled me. For I ought to have been commended by you. For in nothing was I inferior to the very chief Apostles, though I am nothing.

¹² Indeed, the signs of an Apostle were worked out among you with all patience; with signs and wonders and great works.

¹³ For in what have you been inferior to other churches, except that I myself have not been burdensome to you? Forgive me this wrong.

¹⁴ Behold, I am ready to come to you this third time. And yet I will not be burdensome to you. For I seek not what is yours, but you. For the children ought not to lay up for the fathers, but the fathers for the children.

¹⁵ And I will most gladly spend, and will be spent, for your souls; though, the more I love you, the less I am loved.

¹⁶ But let it be that I do not burden you. Yet for as much as I was crafty, I took you with guile.

¹⁷ Did I defraud you by any of those whom I sent to you?

¹⁸ I have urged Titus to go. And with him I have sent a brother. Did Titus defraud you of anything? Have we not walked in the selfsame spirit, in the same steps?

¹⁹ Again, do you think that we defend ourselves to you? We speak before God, in Christ. But we do all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying.

²⁰ For I fear that when I come, I shall not find you as I would like - and that I shall not be found by you as you would like - and that there is strife, envying, wrath, rivalry, slander, gossip, pride, and discord;

²¹ that when I come again, my God humbles me among you. And I shall lament many of those who have sinned already and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lewdness which they have committed.