¹³ For if we ^(A)are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.

Paul's Sufferings as an Apostle

¹⁶ I repeat, ^(A)let no one think me foolish. But even if you do, accept me as a fool, so that I too may boast a little. ¹⁷ What I am saying ^(B)with this boastful confidence, ^(C)I say not as the Lord would^[a] but as a fool.

Paul and the False Apostles

11 I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me!

Concern for the Corinthian Church

^11 (A)I have been a fool! You forced me to it, for I ought to have been commended by you. For I was ^(B)not at all inferior to these super-apostles, ^(C)even though I am nothing.

⁶ though if I should wish to boast, ^(A)I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me.

²⁴ And as he was saying these things in his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, ^(A)you are out of your mind; your great learning is driving you out of your mind.” ²⁵ But Paul said, “I am not out of my mind, ^(B)most excellent Festus, but I am speaking ^(C)true and ^(D)rational words.

^10 (A)We are fools for Christ's sake, but ^(B)you are wise in Christ. ^(C)We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. ¹¹ To the present hour ^(D)we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and ^(E)buffeted and ^(F)homeless, ¹² and we ^(G)labor, working with our own hands. ^(H)When reviled, we bless; ^(I)when persecuted, we endure; ¹³ when slandered, we entreat. ^(J)We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, ^(K)the refuse of all things.

Gifts of Grace

³ For ^(A)by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you ^(B)not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, ^(C)each according to ^(D)the measure of faith that God has assigned.

²¹ And David said to Michal, “It was before the Lord, ^(A)who chose me above your father and above all his house, to appoint me as prince^[a] over Israel, the people of the Lord—and I will celebrate before the Lord. ²² I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in your^[b] eyes. But by the female servants of whom you have spoken, by them I shall be held in honor.”