1I want to say something a little bit foolish. But please listen to me! 2I love you as God loves you. I see you as a woman who has not been married and I am giving you to be the wife of a husband. That husband is Christ. 3But the snake fooled Eve by his trick. And I am afraid that your minds will be drawn away from a clean, pure love of Christ. 4You listen to a new man when he comes to tell you about a different Jesus, which is not the one we told you about. And when you receive a spirit and a message which are not the ones you had first, then you listen too much. 5But I really do not think that the chief apostles are any better than I am! 6Maybe I am not a good talker, but I surely know what I am talking about! Yes, we made this plain to you in every way in all things. 7Perhaps it was wrong for me to bring myself down in order to raise you up. Do you think that? Was it wrong for me to tell you the good news without pay? 8I took pay from other churches. I made them poor so that I might help you. 9When I was with you and needed money, I did not make any of you pay me. When the brothers came from Macedonia, they gave me what I needed. So I was not, and I will not be, any trouble to you. 10Surely, the true word of Christ is in me. I will never stop being proud of this anywhere in Achaia Greece . 11Why is this? Is it because I do not love you? God knows that I love you. 12And I will keep on doing what I am doing now. Some teachers are praising themselves. They say they are like us. By doing this I prove they are not like us. 13Men like that are not true apostles. They work to fool people. They try to make themselves look like apostles of Christ. 14I am not surprised. Satan tries to make himself look like an angel of light. 15So it is not strange if his workers also try to make themselves look like Gods workers who do right. They will come to an end like the work they do! think that I am foolish. But if you do, then please listen to me as if I were foolish. I also want to do a little talking about myself. 16I am not talking like the Lord when I say this. It seems foolish to say so much about myself. 17Many people talk about themselves in the world. So I will too. 18Since you are wise, you still agree to listen to foolish people. 19You listen to a man even if he makes slaves of you, even if he spends all your money, even if he catches you in a trap, even if he is proud of himself, even if he slaps you in the face. 20I am ashamed, but I must say that we were too weak to be like that! Anything that others want to be proud of, I can talk about too. And yet it is really foolish to do so. 21Are they Hebrew people? So am I. Are they Israels people? So am I. Is Abraham their father? He is mine too. 22Are they workers for Christ? (I talk like one who is not in his right mind.) I am a better worker. I have worked much harder. I have been in prison more often. I have been beaten many, many times. Often I have almost died. 23The Jewish leaders five times gave me thirty nine strikes with the rope. 24Three times people beat me with sticks, and once they threw rocks at me. Three times I was in a boat when it broke in the sea. I have been in the water all one night and day. 25I have travelled much. I have crossed bad rivers. I have gone where men might steal my things. The Jews and those who are not Jews have troubled me. I have been in hard places in the city. I have had hard times in the desert. I have had hard times on the water. I have had hard times among those who should have been my brothers and were not. 26I have worked hard. I have been tired out. I have often had no sleep at night. I have been hungry and thirsty. I have often had nothing to eat. I have been cold and did not have enough clothes to wear. 27Beside all other things, my heart is troubled about the churches. That is a load I carry every day. 28When anyone is weak, I am weak too. When anyone is made to fall away, my heart burns within me 29If I must talk about myself, I will talk about the things that show I am weak. 30God knows I am not telling lies. He is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and he is to be praised forever. 32In the city of Damascus a man ruled for king Aretas. He had the gates of the city guarded because he wanted to catch me. 31But I sat in a basket. Then it was put out through a window in the wall and was let down. And so I got away from him. 32missing fehlt/missing