Paul and the False Apostles

1I wish ye would bear with me a little in my folly; and indeed bear with me. 2For I am jealous over you with a godly jealousy, having espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. 3But I fear least as the serpent seduced Eve by his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the purity that is in Christ. 4For if he, that cometh to you, 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 embraced, ye might indeed bear with him. 5For I think I was not inferior to the very chiefest apostles: and if I am unskilled in speech, 6yet not in knowledge ---but we have been fully manifested among you in all things.

7Have I committed an offence in humbling myself that ye might be exalted? and in that I have preached the gospel of God to you gratis? 8I trespassed on other churches, receiving maintenance from them for your service. 9And when I was present among you, and in want, I was chargeable to no one. For the brethren that came from Macedonia supplied my want: and in every thing I have kept myself from being burdensome to you, and so I will keep myself. 10As the truth of Christ is in me, this boast shall not be taken from me in the regions of Achaia. 11Wherefore? because I love you not?

12God knoweth. But what I do, I will do, that I may cut off occasion from those that desire an occasion of boasting or censure, that in what they boast of they may be found to do even as we do. 13For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transformed into apostles of Christ. 14And no wonder: for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 15It is therefore no great thing, if his ministers also be transformed into ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

Paul’s Suffering and Service
(Colossians 1:24–29)

16I say again, let no one think me foolish herein; but if they do, yet bear with my weakness, that I also may boast a little. 17What I speak I speak not as from the Lord, but as in weakness, in this confidence of boasting. 18Since many boast in the flesh, I will boast also. 19For ye bear with fools willingly, being yourselves so wise: 20ye bear it, even if any one enslave you, if any devour you, if any take your substance, if any be lifted up, yea if any one smite you on the face. 21I speak of their reproaches, as if we were weak: but whereinsoever any one may be confident (though I speak foolishly) I may be confident too. 22Are they Hebrews? so am I: are they Israelites? so am I: are they the seed of Abraham? 23so am I: are they ministers of Christ? (if I may speak as a fool) I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes far exceeding, in prisons more frequently, and often even in deaths. 24From the Jews I have five times received forty stripes save one. 25Thrice I have been beaten with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I have been shipwrecked, and was a night and a day on the deep: 26in journies often, in perils from rivers, in perils from robbers, in perils from my own nation, in perils from the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the desert, in perils on the sea, in perils among false brethren: 27in labor and toil, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness: and beside these outward troubles, 28that which besets me daily, the care of all the churches. 29Who is infirm, and I am not infirm also? who is offended, and I am not inflamed?

30If I must boast, I will boast of the things which relate to my infirmity. 31And the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed for ever, knoweth that I lye not. 32In Damascus the governor under king Aretas, placed guards about the city to seize me: 33and I was let down by the wall through a window in a basket, and so escaped his hands.