Reluctant Boasting

I say again, let no one think me a fool. If otherwise, at least receive me as a fool, that I also may boast a little.

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

For you put up with fools gladly, since you yourselves are wise!

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

Are they ministers of Christ?—I speak as a fool—I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often.

For though I might desire to boast, I will not be a fool; for I will speak the truth. But I refrain, lest anyone should think of me above what he sees me to be or hears from me.

Signs of an Apostle

I have become a fool in boasting; you have compelled me. For I ought to have been commended by you; for in nothing was I behind the most eminent apostles, though I am nothing.