Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks

10 Now it is I myself, Sha’ul, making an appeal to you with the meekness and forbearance that come from the Messiah, I who am considered timid when face-to-face with you but intimidating from a distance. ² But I beg you not to force me to be intimidating when I am with you, as I expect to be toward some who regard us as living in a worldly way. ³ For although we do live in the world, we do not wage war in a worldly way; ⁴ because the weapons we use to wage war are not worldly. On the contrary, they have God’s power for demolishing strongholds. We demolish arguments ⁵ and every arrogance that raises itself up against the knowledge of God; we take every thought captive and make it obey the Messiah. ⁶ And when you have become completely obedient, then we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience.

⁷ You are looking at the surface of things. If anyone is convinced that he belongs to the Messiah, he should remind himself that we belong to the Messiah as much as he does. ⁸ For even if I boast a little too much about the authority the Lord has given us — authority to build you up, not tear you down — I am not ashamed. ⁹ My object is not to seem as if I were trying to frighten you with these letters. ¹⁰ Someone says, “His letters are weighty and powerful, but when he appears in person he is weak, and as a speaker he is nothing.” ¹¹ Such a person should realize that what we say in our letters when absent, we will do when present.

¹² We don’t dare class or compare ourselves with some of the people who advertise themselves. In measuring themselves against each other and comparing themselves with each other, they are simply stupid. ¹³ We will not boast about what lies outside the area of work which God has given us; rather, we will boast within our assigned area, and that area does reach as far as you. ¹⁴ We are not overextending our boasting as if we had not reached as far as you; for we did come all the way to you with the Good News of the Messiah. ¹⁵ We do not boast about the area in which others labor; but our hope is that as your trust grows, we will be magnified in your midst in relation to our own area of work, so that we can go on to do even more, ¹⁶ namely, to proclaim the Good News in regions beyond you. Our hope is not to boast about the work already done by someone else.

¹⁷ So, let anyone who wants to boast, boast about Adonai;^{[a] 18} because it is not the one who recommends himself who is worthy of approval, but the one whom the Lord recommends.

11 I would like you to bear with me in a little foolishness — please do bear with me! ² For I am jealous for you with God’s kind of jealousy; since I promised to present you as a pure virgin in marriage to your one husband, the Messiah; ³ and I fear that somehow your minds may be seduced away from simple and pure devotion to the Messiah, just as Havah was deceived by the serpent and his craftiness. ⁴ For if someone comes and tells you about some other Yeshua than the one we told you about, or if you receive a spirit different from the one you received or accept some so-called “good news” different from the Good News you already accepted, you bear with him well enough! ⁵ For I don’t consider myself in any way inferior to these “super-emissaries.” ⁶ I may not be a skilled speaker, but I do have the knowledge; anyhow, we have made this clear to you in every way and in every circumstance.

⁷ Or did I sin in humbling myself so that you could be exalted, in proclaiming God’s Good News to you free of charge? ⁸ I robbed other congregations by accepting support from them in order to serve you. ⁹ And when I was with you and had needs, I did not burden anyone: my needs were met by the brothers who came from Macedonia. In nothing have I been a burden to you, nor will I be. ¹⁰ The truthfulness of the Messiah is in me, so that this boast concerning me is not going to be silenced anywhere in Achaia. ¹¹ Why won’t I ever accept your support? Is it that I don’t love you? God knows I do! ¹² No, I do it — and will go on doing it — in order to cut the ground from under those who want an excuse to boast that they work the same way we do. ¹³ The fact is that such men are pseudo-emissaries: they tell lies about their work and masquerade as emissaries of the Messiah. ¹⁴ There is nothing surprising in that, for the Adversary himself masquerades as an angel of light; ¹⁵ so it’s no great thing if his workers masquerade as servants of righteousness. They will meet the end their deeds deserve.

¹⁶ I repeat: don’t let anyone think I am a fool. But even if you do, at least receive me as a fool; so that I too may do a little boasting! ¹⁷ What I am saying is not in accordance with the Lord; rather, this conceited boasting is spoken as a fool would speak. ¹⁸ Since many people boast in a worldly way, I too will boast this way. ¹⁹ For since you yourselves are so wise, you gladly put up with fools! ²⁰ You put up with it if someone makes slaves of you, exploits you, takes you in, puffs himself up, slaps you in the face. ²¹ To my shame, I must admit that we have been too “weak” to do such things!

But if anyone dares to boast about something — I’m talking like a fool! — I am just as daring. ²² Are they Hebrew-speakers? So am I. Are they of the people of Isra’el? So am I. Are they descendants of Avraham? So am I. ²³ Are they servants of the Messiah? (I’m talking like a madman!) I’m a better one! I’ve worked much harder, been imprisoned more often, suffered more beatings, been near death over and over. ²⁴ Five times I received “forty lashes less one” from the Jews. ²⁵ Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a day in the open sea. ²⁶ In my many travels I have been exposed to danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the desert, danger at sea, danger from false brothers. ²⁷ I have toiled and endured hardship, often not had enough sleep, been hungry and thirsty, frequently gone without food, been cold and naked. ²⁸ And besides these external matters, there is the daily pressure of my anxious concern for all the congregations. ²⁹ Who is weak without my sharing his weakness? Who falls into sin without my burning inside?

³⁰ If I must boast, I will boast about things that show how weak I am. ³¹ God the Father of the Lord Yeshua — blessed be he forever — knows that I am not lying! ³² When I was in Dalmanuta, the governor under King Aretas had the city of Dalmanuta guarded in order to arrest me; ³³ but I was lowered in a basket through an opening in the wall and escaped his clutches.