Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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Paul and the False Apostles
1 I wish you would tolerate me,
even when I am a bit foolish.
Please do!
2 I am jealous for you, just
as God is; you are like a pure virgin
whom I have promised in marriage
to one man only, Christ himself.
3 I
am afraid that your minds will be
corrupted and that you will abandon
your full and pure devotion to
Christ—in the same way that Eve
was deceived by the snake's clever
lies. note
4 For you gladly tolerate anyone
who comes to you and preaches a
different Jesus, not the one we
preached; and you accept a spirit
and a gospel completely different
from the Spirit and the gospel you
received from us!
5 I do not think that I am the least
bit inferior to those very special so-called
“apostles” of yours!
6 Perhaps
I am an amateur in speaking, but
certainly not in knowledge; we have
made this clear to you at all times
and in all conditions.
7 I did not charge you a thing
when I preached the Good News of
God to you; I humbled myself in order
to make you important. Was
that wrong of me?
8 While I was
working among you, I was paid by
other churches. I was robbing them,
so to speak, in order to help you.
9 And during the time I was with you
I did not bother you for help when I
needed money; the brothers who
came from Macedonia brought me
everything I needed. As in the past,
so in the future: I will never be a burden
to you! note
10 By Christ's truth in me,
I promise that this boast of mine will
not be silenced anywhere in all of
Achaia.
11 Do I say this because I
don't love you? God knows I love
you!
12 I will go on doing what I am
doing now, in order to keep those
other “apostles” from having any
reason for boasting and saying that
they work in the same way that we
do.
13 Those men are not true apostles—
they are false apostles, who lie
about their work and disguise themselves
to look like real apostles of
Christ.
14 Well, no wonder! Even Satan
can disguise himself to look like
an angel of light!
15 So it is no great
thing if his servants disguise themselves
to look like servants of righteousness.
In the end they will get exactly
what their actions deserve.
Paul's Sufferings as an Apostle
16 I repeat: no one should think
that I am a fool. But if you do, at
least accept me as a fool, just so I
will have a little to boast of.
17 Of
course what I am saying now is not
what the Lord would have me say; in
this matter of boasting I am really
talking like a fool.
18 But since there
are so many who boast for merely
human reasons, I will do the same.
19 You yourselves are so wise, and so
you gladly tolerate fools!
20 You tolerate
anyone who orders you around
or takes advantage of you or traps
you or looks down on you or slaps
you in the face.
21 I am ashamed to
admit that we were too timid to do
those things!
21 But if anyone dares to boast about
something—I am talking like a
fool—I will be just as daring.
22 Are
they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites?
So am I. Are they Abraham's
descendants? So am I.
23 Are
they Christ's servants? I sound like a
madman—but I am a better servant
than they are! I have worked much
harder, I have been in prison more
times, I have been whipped much
more, and I have been near death
more often. note
24 Five times I was given
the thirty-nine lashes by the Jews; note
25 three times I was whipped by the
Romans; and once I was stoned. I
have been in three shipwrecks, and
once I spent twenty-four hours in
the water. note
26 In my many travels I
have been in danger from floods and
from robbers, in danger from fellow
Jews and from Gentiles; there have
been dangers in the cities, dangers in
the wilds, dangers on the high seas,
and dangers from false friends. note
-- --
27 There has been work and toil; often
I have gone without sleep; I have
been hungry and thirsty; I have often
been without enough food, shelter,
or clothing.
28 And not to mention
other things, every day I am
under the pressure of my concern
for all the churches.
29 When someone
is weak, then I feel weak too;
when someone is led into sin, I am
filled with distress.
30 If I must boast, I will boast
about things that show how weak I
am.
31 The God and Father of the
Lord Jesus—blessed be his name
forever!—knows that I am not lying.
32 When I was in Damascus, the governor
under King Aretas placed
guards at the city gates to arrest me.
33 But I was let down in a basket
through an opening in the wall and
escaped from him. note
Good News [1976], GOOD NEWS BIBLE WITH DEUTEROCANONICALS / APOCRYPHA Today's English Version (AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY, New York) [word count] [B15000].
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