1: Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my
folly: and indeed bear with me. |
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2: For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have
espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin
to Christ. |
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3:
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve
through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the
simplicity that is in Christ. |
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4: For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have
not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not
received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well
bear with him. |
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5: For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest
apostles. |
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6: But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we
have been throughly made manifest among you in all things. |
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7: Have I committed an offence in abasing myself that ye might be
exalted, because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely? |
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8: I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do you
service. |
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9: And when I was present with you, and wanted, I was chargeable
to no man: for that which was lacking to me the brethren which came from
Macedonia supplied: and in all things I have kept myself from being
burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself. |
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10: As the truth of Christ is in me, no man shall stop me of this
boasting in the regions of Achaia. |
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11: Wherefore? because I love you not? God knoweth. |
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12: But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off occasion
from them which desire occasion; that wherein they glory, they may be
found even as we. |
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13: For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming
themselves into the apostles of Christ. |
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14: And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel
of light. |
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15: Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be
transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be
according to their works. |
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16: I say again, Let no man think me a fool; if otherwise, yet as
a fool receive me, that I may boast myself a little. |
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17: That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it
were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting. |
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18: Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also.
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19: For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise.
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20: For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man
devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite
you on the face. |
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21: I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak.
Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also.
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22: Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are
they the seed of Abraham? so am I. |
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23: Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more;
in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more
frequent, in deaths oft. |
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24: Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.
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25: Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I
suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; |
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26: In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of
robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in
perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea,
in perils among false brethren; |
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27: In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger
and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. |
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28: Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon
me daily, the care of all the churches. |
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29: Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn
not? |
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30: If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which
concern mine infirmities. |
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31: The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed
for evermore, knoweth that I lie not. |
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32: In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city
of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me: |
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33: And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall,
and escaped his hands. |