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Chapter 11
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1
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Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly:
and indeed bear with me. |
2
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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.
The
Church Compared to a Virgin - |
3
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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. |
4
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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. |
5
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For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest
apostles. |
6
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But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge;
but we have been throughly made manifest among you in
all things. |
7
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Have I committed an offence in abasing myself that
ye might be exalted, because I have preached to you the
gospel of God freely? |
8
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I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do
you service. |
9
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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. |
10
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As the truth of Christ is in me, no man shall stop
me of this boasting in the regions of Achaia. |
11
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Wherefore? because I love you not? God knoweth. |
12
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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. |
13
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For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming
themselves into the apostles of Christ. |
14
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And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into
an angel of light. |
15
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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. |
16
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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. |
17
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That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord,
but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting. |
18
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Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory
also. |
19
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For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are
wise. |
20
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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. |
21
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I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been
weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,)
I am bold also. |
22
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Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so
am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I. |
23
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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. |
24
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Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save
one. |
25
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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; |
26
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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; |
27
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In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in
hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. |
28
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Beside those things that are without, that which cometh
upon me daily, the care of all the churches. |
29
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Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and
I burn not? |
30
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If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which
concern mine infirmities. |
31
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The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which
is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not. |
32
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In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept
the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous
to apprehend me: |
33
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And through a window in a basket was I let down by
the wall, and escaped his hands. |
