Boasting in Visions and Weakness

12 I must go on boasting—though it does no good, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. ² I know a man in Messiah (whether in the body I don’t know, or whether out of the body I don’t know—God knows)—fourteen years ago, he was caught up to the third heaven. ^{[a] 3} I know such a man (whether in the body or outside of the body I don’t know—God knows)— ⁴ he was caught up into Paradise and heard words too sacred to tell, which a human is not permitted to utter. ⁵ On behalf of such a man I will boast—but about myself I will not boast, except in regard to my weaknesses. ⁶ For if I should want to boast, I would not be foolish—for I will speak the truth. But I refrain, so that no one may think more of me than what he sees in me or hears from me— ⁷ even in the extraordinary quality of the revelations. So that I would not exalt myself, a thorn in the flesh was given to me—a a messenger of satan to torment me,^[b] so I would not exalt myself. ⁸ I pleaded with the Lord three times about this, that it might leave me. ⁹ But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Messiah may dwell in me. ¹⁰ For Messiah’s sake, then, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in distresses, in persecutions, in calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

¹¹ I have become a fool—you drove me to it, for I ought to have been commended by you. For I am in no way inferior to the super-special emissaries—though I am nothing. ¹² Truly the signs of an emissary were worked out among you, with patient endurance, by signs and wonders and mighty miracles. ¹³ For in what respect were you treated worse than the rest of Messiah’s communities—except that I myself did not burden you? Pardon me this injustice!

¹⁴ Look, I am ready to come to you this third time, and I will not burden you—for I seek not your possessions, but you! For the children are not obliged to save up for the parents, but the parents for the children. ¹⁵ I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less? ¹⁶ But be that as it may, I did not burden you myself. Nevertheless, crafty fellow that I am, I caught you with trickery! ¹⁷ I haven’t taken advantage of you through any of those I sent to you, have I? ¹⁸ I did urge Titus to visit you, and I sent the brother with him. Titus didn’t take any advantage of you, did he? Didn’t we walk in the same spirit, in the same footsteps?

¹⁹ All along you’ve been thinking that we are defending ourselves to you.^[c] It is before God that we’ve been speaking in Messiah—and all for building you up, loved ones. ²⁰ For I am afraid that perhaps when I come, I may find you not as I wish, or I may be found by you not as you wish—that there may be strife, envy, outbursts of anger, self-seeking disputes, lashon ha-ra, gossip, arrogance, unruly commotions. ²¹ I am afraid that when I come again my God may humiliate me before you, and I will mourn for many of those who have sinned before and not repented of the impurity and sexual immorality and indecency which they committed.