Read the New Testament in 24 Weeks

10 Now I Paul myself entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I who in your presence am lowly among you, but being absent am of good courage toward you: ² yea, I beseech you, that I may not when present show courage with the confidence wherewith I count to be bold against some, who count of us as if we walked according to the flesh. ³ For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh ⁴ (for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the casting down of strongholds); ⁵ casting down ^[a]imaginations, and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ; ⁶ and being in readiness to avenge all disobedience, when your obedience shall be made full. ^7 [b]Ye look at the things that are before your face. If any man trusteth in himself that he is Christ’s, let him consider this again with himself, that, even as he is Christ’s, so also are we. ⁸ For though I should glory somewhat abundantly concerning our authority (which the Lord gave for building you up, and not for casting you down), I shall not be put to shame: ⁹ that I may not seem as if I would terrify you by my letters. ¹⁰ For, His letters, they say, are weighty and strong; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech of no account. ¹¹ Let such a one reckon this, that, what we are in word by letters when we are absent, such are we also in deed when we are present. ¹² For we are not bold ^[c]to number or compare ourselves with certain of them that commend themselves: but they themselves, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves with themselves, are without understanding. ¹³ But we will not glory beyond our measure, but according to the measure of the ^[d]province which God apportioned to us as a measure, to reach even unto you. ¹⁴ For we stretch not ourselves overmuch, as though we reached not unto you: for we ^[e]came even as far as unto you in the ^[f]gospel of Christ: ¹⁵ not glorying beyond our measure, that is, in other men’s labors; but having hope that, as your faith groweth, we shall be magnified in you according to our ^[g]province unto further abundance, ¹⁶ so as to ^[h]preach the gospel even unto the parts beyond you, and not to glory in another’s ^[i]province in regard of things ready to our hand. ^17 [j]But he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. ¹⁸ For not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth.

11 Would that ye could bear with me in a little foolishness: ^[k]but indeed ye do bear with me. ² For I am jealous over you with ^[l]a godly jealousy: for I espoused you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ. ³ But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness, your ^[m]minds should be corrupted from the simplicity and the purity that is toward Christ. ⁴ For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we did not preach, or if ye receive a different spirit, which ye did not receive, or a different ^[n]gospel, which ye did not accept, ye do well to bear with him. ⁵ For I reckon that I am not a whit behind ^[o]the very chiefest apostles. ⁶ But though I be rude in speech, yet am I not in knowledge; ^[p]nay, in every way have we made this manifest unto you in all things. ⁷ Or did I commit a sin in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I ^[q]preached to you the gospel of God for nought? ⁸ I robbed other churches, taking wages of them that I might minister unto you; ⁹ and when I was present with you and was in want, I was not a burden on any man; for the brethren, when they came from Macedonia, supplied the measure of my want; and in everything I kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself. ¹⁰ As the truth of Christ is in me, no man shall stop me of this glorying in the regions of Achaia. ¹¹ Wherefore? because I love you not? God knoweth. ¹² But what I do, that I will do, that I may cut off ^[r]occasion from them that desire an occasion; that wherein they glory, they may be found even as we. ¹³ For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, fashioning themselves into apostles of Christ. ¹⁴ And no marvel; for even Satan fashioneth himself into an angel of light. ¹⁵ It is no great thing therefore if his ministers also fashion themselves as ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

¹⁶ I say again, Let no man think me foolish; but if ye do, yet as foolish receive me, that I also may glory a little. ¹⁷ That which I speak, I speak not after the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of glorying. ¹⁸ Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also. ¹⁹ For ye bear with the foolish gladly, being wise yourselves. ²⁰ For ye bear with a man, if he bringeth you into bondage, if he devoureth you, if he taketh you captive, if he exalteth himself, if he smiteth you on the face. ²¹ I speak by way of disparagement, as though we had been weak. Yet whereinsoever any is bold (I speak in foolishness), I am bold also. ²² Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I. ²³ Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as one beside himself) I more; in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in deaths oft. ²⁴ Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. ²⁵ Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day have I been in the deep; ²⁶ in journeyings often, in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in perils from my ^[s]countrymen, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; ²⁷ in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. ^28 [t]Besides those things that are without, there is that which presseth upon me daily, anxiety for all the churches. ²⁹ Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is caused to stumble, and I burn not? ³⁰ If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things that concern my weakness. ^31 [u]The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, he who is blessed ^[v]for evermore knoweth that I lie not. ³² In Damascus the ^[w]governor under Aretas the king guarded the city of the Damascenes in order to take me: ³³ and through a window was I let down in a basket by the wall, and escaped his hands.