New Testament in a Year

¹⁶ So as I said before, please don’t mark me a fool; but if you must, then please accept me even as that and give me a little more room to boast. ¹⁷ What I am saying now is not in character with our Lord but is the bragging of a self-assured fool. ¹⁸ Just as other fools brag according to their worldly accomplishments, so I, too, will have to boast; ¹⁹ meanwhile, you—so wise, so tolerant—gladly bear this kind of foolishness. ²⁰ How easily you tolerate becoming another’s slave, having them consume you, letting them rob you blind, or allowing them to edge their way past you or slap you in the face. ²¹ Embarrassingly I admit that next to them we must look very weak!

But in whatever way they dare to boast—remember, I’m speaking in character as a fool—I dare to boast even more! ²² Are they Hebrews, God’s chosen? So am I. Are they true Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. ²³ Are they servants to the Anointed One, the Liberating King? I am even more so! (I can’t believe how foolish I sound.) I have worked harder for God’s kingdom, taken more beatings, been dragged in and out of prisons, and have been eye-to-eye with death. ²⁴ Five times I have withstood thirty-nine lashes from Jewish authorities, ²⁵ three times I was battered with rods, once I was almost stoned to death, three times I was shipwrecked, and I spent one day and night adrift on the sea. ²⁶ I have been on many journeys and faced the most extreme circumstances: perilous rivers, violent thieves, and threats by my own people and by the Gentile outsiders alike. I have faced dangers in the city, in the wilderness, and at sea; and danger from spies among our brothers and sisters. ²⁷ I have survived toil and hardships, sleepless nights, hunger and thirst without a crumb in sight, bare to the cold. ²⁸ As if these external trials weren’t enough, there is the daily stress I feel and anxiety I carry for all the churches under my care. ²⁹ Who is weak without this arousing my empathy? Who gets hurt and offended without this inciting my burning anger?

³⁰ So as you can see, if I have to boast, I will, but only in my own weaknesses. ³¹ The God and Father of our Lord Jesus, He who is worthy of eternal blessing, can confirm that I am telling you the truth. ³² Once, in Damascus, the governor under King Aretas had his people in the city looking for me in order to arrest me. ³³ But I crouched in a basket and was lowered out of a window in the city wall, and I narrowly escaped his tight grip.