¹² The signs of an apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, signs and wonders and mighty works.^(A)

¹⁸ For I will not be so bold as to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to win obedience from the gentiles, by word and deed, ¹⁹ by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit,^[a] so that from Jerusalem and as far around as Illyricum I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ.^(A)

² We have renounced the shameful, underhanded ways; we refuse to practice cunning or to falsify God’s word, but by the open statement of the truth we commend ourselves to the conscience of everyone in the sight of God.^(A)

⁶ Even if I am untrained in speech, I certainly am not with respect to knowledge; certainly in every way and in all things we have made this evident to you.^(A)

⁴ For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.^(A)

¹⁸ I thank God that I speak in tongues more than all of you;

The Rights of an Apostle

9 Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord?^{(A) 2} If I am not an apostle to others, at least I am to you, for you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.^(B)

⁵ for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind— ⁶ just as the testimony of^[a] Christ has been strengthened among you^(A)— ⁷ so that you are not lacking in any gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.^(B)

⁴⁸ Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you^[a] see signs and wonders you will not believe.”^(A)

⁴ but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: in great endurance, afflictions, hardships, calamities, ⁵ beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger;^{(A) 6} in purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, ⁷ truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left;^{(B) 8} in honor and dishonor, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors and yet are true, ⁹ as unknown and yet are well known, as dying and look—we are alive, as punished and yet not killed,^{(C) 10} as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet making many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing everything.