Paul Defends His Apostleship

11 I wish that you would put up with me in something a little foolish^[a]—but indeed you are putting up with me. ² For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy, because I promised you in marriage to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. ³ But I am afraid lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds may be led astray from the sincerity and the purity of devotion to Christ. ⁴ For if the one who comes proclaims another Jesus whom we have not proclaimed, or you receive a different spirit which you did not receive, or a different gospel which you did not accept, you put up with it well enough! ⁵ For I consider myself in no way to be inferior to the preeminent apostles.^{[b] 6} But even if I am unskilled in speech, yet I am not in knowledge; certainly in everything we have made this clear to you in every way.