²¹ To our shame ^(A)I say that we were too weak for that! But ^(B)in whatever anyone is bold—I speak foolishly—I am bold also.

¹⁰ “For his letters,” they say, “are weighty and powerful, but ^(A)his bodily presence is weak, and his ^(B)speech contemptible.”

¹⁷ What I speak, ^(A)I speak not according to the Lord, but as it were, foolishly, in this confidence of boasting.

The Spiritual War

10 Now ^(A)I, Paul, myself am pleading with you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—^(B)who in presence am lowly among you, but being absent am bold toward you. ² But I beg you ^(C)that when I am present I may not be bold with that confidence by which I intend to be bold against some, who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh.

³ For we are ^(A)the circumcision, ^(B)who worship ^[a]God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh, ⁴ though ^(C)I also might have confidence in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I ^(D)more so: ⁵ circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, ^(E)of the tribe of Benjamin, ^(F)a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, ^(G)a Pharisee; ⁶ concerning zeal, ^(H)persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

^10 (A)Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the ^(B)authority which the Lord has given me for edification and not for destruction.

Suffering for Christ

²² Are they ^(A)Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I. ²³ Are they ministers of Christ?—I speak as a fool—I am more: ^(B)in labors more abundant, ^(C)in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, ^(D)in deaths often. ²⁴ From the Jews five times I received ^(E)forty ^(F)stripes minus one. ²⁵ Three times I was ^(G)beaten with rods; ^(H)once I was stoned; three times I ^(I)was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; ²⁶ in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, ^(J)in perils of my own countrymen, ^(K)in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; ²⁷ in weariness and toil, ^(L)in sleeplessness often, ^(M)in hunger and thirst, in ^(N)fastings often, in cold and nakedness—