Chapter 11                    

2 Corinthians: Chapters -1- -2- -3- -4- -5- -6- -7- -8- -9- -10- -11- -12- -13- 
  11:1 Please bear with me in a little foolishness; indeed, you do bear with me. 2 For I am zealous of God for you with zeal; for I have betrothed you to one husband, as a devoted virgin in the now-presence of Christ. 3 I am afraid, however, lest by any means your thoughts might be corrupted away from your singleness, sincerity and devotion into Christ, in the same way that the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness. 4 For if anyone coming to you proclaims another Jesus whom we did not proclaim, or if you receive a different spirit which you did not receive, or a gospel which you did not accept, are you indeed now accepting it? .

5 For I reckon to have been inferior in nothing to those most eminent apostles [k]. 6 If I am even unskilled in speech, however, I am not unskilled in knowledge, but in every way we have been made visible to you inside of all things.

7 Or did I miss the target when I humbled myself so that you might be lifted up, or when I preached the gospel of God freely to you? 8 I even robbed other churches, receiving support from them to serve you. 9 And when I had needs while I was with you, I did not burden anyone; for my need was completely met by the brothers who came from Macedonia. In all I kept and will keep myself from being a burden to you. 10 The truth of Christ is inside of me, that my boasting will not be spoken against in the regions of Achaia. 11 Why? Because I do not love you? God knows that I do.

12 What I do, however, I will continue to do, so that I might cut off the opportunity of those seeking an opportunity themselves to boast, that they might be found also as we. 13 For such are fake apostles, deceitful workers, altering their outward appearances [disguising themselves] into apostles of Christ. 14 And no wonder; for Satan himself alters his outward appearance [masquerades] into an angel of light. 15 It is not surprising, then, that his servants also alter their outward appearance [masquerade] as dispensers of just approval, whose completion will come out from their deeds.

16 I say it again. No one should think me to be a fool, yet I ask you to receive me even as a fool, that I might boast a little as well. 17 What I am saying now, I am not saying as from the Lord, but as in foolishness inside of a confidence of boasting. 18 Since many boast according to the flesh, I also will boast. 19 For you, being wise, bear gladly with fools! 20 For you accept it if anyone enslaves you, if anyone devours you, if anyone takes from you, if anyone exalts himself, if anyone strikes you in the face. 21 I speak as to dishonor, as if we have been weak! However, in whatever anyone might be daring (I speak in foolishness), I am daring also.

22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. 23 Are they servants of Christ? I speak above measure as one deranged. I also have been, more than they, in  toils more abundantly, in imprisonments more abundantly, in beatings above measure, in deaths often. 24 I received from the Judeans forty lashes minus one five different times. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I spent in the depths of the sea. 26 In journeyings often, in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers; in perils from my own race, in perils from the other ethnic groups, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness; in perils on the sea, in perils among false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, in sleeplessness often; in hunger and thirst, in fasting often; in cold and nakedness. 28 Besides these outer things, the tumult coming on me every day, my anxious care over all the churches. 29 Who is weak and I am not also weak? Who is ensnared and I do not burn inside?

30 If it is fitting for me to boast in the things of my weakness, I will boast. 31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus knows, the One blessed and spoken well of into the ages, that I am not lying. 32 In Damascus, the governor under Aretas the king was guarding the city of the Damascenes to seize me. But I was let down in a basket through a window in the wall, and I escaped his hands.
 		  
 
Gospel Word Notes
• Ruling Verse 9: Resting inside of Jesus as our All-Sufficiency (see 2 Cor. 12:9), we share His heart. And in sharing His heart, we look out upon all who belong to Him across the earth. The anxious care of Jesus now becomes our anxious care as well. In spite of all the tumult, we CARE for every gathering of those who call upon Him in some way. k. This is a few months before Paul writes Galatians. He is pointing out that Peter, John, and the other disciples did not yet understand the Gospel.