²³ Are they ^(A)servants of Christ? ^(B)I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, ^(C)far more imprisonments, ^(D)with countless beatings, and ^(E)often near death.

⁴ but ^(A)as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: ^(B)by great endurance, ^(C)in afflictions, ^(D)hardships, calamities, ^5 (E)beatings, imprisonments, ^(F)riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger;

²⁴ Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the ^(A)forty lashes less one. ²⁵ Three times I was ^(B)beaten with rods. ^(C)Once I was stoned. Three times I ^(D)was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea;

⁹ as unknown, and ^(A)yet well known; ^(B)as dying, and behold, we live; ^(C)as punished, and yet not killed;

⁶ who has made us sufficient to be ^(A)ministers of ^(B)a new covenant, not of ^(C)the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but ^(D)the Spirit gives life.

⁹ Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us ^(A)rely not on ourselves ^(B)but on God ^(C)who raises the dead. ^10 (D)He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. ^(E)On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again.

¹⁰ But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, ^(A)I worked harder than any of them, ^(B)though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.

²⁹ For this ^(A)I toil, ^(B)struggling ^(C)with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.

Paul's Ministry to the Church

²⁴ Now ^(A)I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh ^(B)I am filling up ^(C)what is lacking in Christ's afflictions ^(D)for the sake of his body, that is, the church,