¹¹ The Lord said to me, ‘Get up, go on your journey at the head of the people, that they may go in and occupy the land that I swore to their ancestors to give them.’

The Essence of the Law

¹² “So now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? Only to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,^{(A) 13} and to keep the commandments of the Lord and his decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being. ¹⁴ Although heaven and the heaven of heavens belong to the Lord your God, the earth with all that is in it,^{(B) 15} yet the Lord set his heart in love on your ancestors alone and chose you, their descendants after them, out of all the peoples, as it is today.^{(C) 16} Circumcise, then, the foreskin of your heart, and do not be stubborn any longer.^{(D) 17} For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe,^{(E) 18} who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing.^{(F) 19} You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.^{(G) 20} You shall fear the Lord your God; him you shall serve; to him you shall hold fast; and by his name you shall swear.^(H)

Paul and the False Apostles

11 I wish you would put up with me in a little foolishness. Yes, do put up^[a] with me!^{(A) 2} I feel a divine jealousy for you, for I promised you in marriage to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.^{(B) 3} But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by its cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure^[b] devotion to Christ.^{(C) 4} For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaimed, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough.^{(D) 5} I think that I am not in the least inferior to these super-apostles.^{(E) 6} Even if I am untrained in speech, I certainly am not with respect to knowledge; certainly in every way and in all things we have made this evident to you.^(F)

⁷ Did I commit a sin by humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I proclaimed God’s good news^[c] to you free of charge?^{(G) 8} I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you. ⁹ And when I was with you and was in need, I did not burden anyone, for my needs were supplied by the brothers who came from Macedonia. So I refrained and will continue to refrain from burdening you in any way.^{(H) 10} As the truth of Christ is in me, this boast of mine will not be silenced in the regions of Achaia.^{(I) 11} And why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do!^(J)

¹² And what I do I will also continue to do, in order to deny an opportunity to those who want an opportunity to be recognized as our equals in what they boast about. ¹³ For such boasters are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.^{(K) 14} And no wonder! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. ¹⁵ So it is not strange if his ministers also disguise themselves as ministers of righteousness. Their end will match their deeds.^(L)

Paul’s Sufferings as an Apostle

¹⁶ I repeat, let no one think that I am a fool, but if you do, then accept me as a fool, so that I, too, may boast a little. ¹⁷ What I am saying in regard to this boastful undertaking, I am saying not with the Lord’s authority but as a fool;^{(M) 18} since many boast according to human standards,^[d] I will also boast. ¹⁹ For you gladly put up with fools, being wise yourselves! ²⁰ For you put up with it when someone makes slaves of you or preys upon you or takes advantage of you or puts on airs or gives you a slap in the face. ²¹ To my shame, I must say, we were too weak for that!

But whatever anyone dares to boast of—I am speaking as a fool—I also dare to boast of that.^(N)

Jesus and Zacchaeus

19 He entered Jericho and was passing through it.^{(A) 2} A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. ³ He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. ⁴ So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way.^{(B) 5} When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” ⁶ So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. ⁷ All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.”^{(C) 8} Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.”^{(D) 9} Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham.^{(E) 10} For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”