1 I wish ye could bear with me a little in my folly and indeed bear with me. 2 For I am jealous over you with the jealousy of God, for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to the Christ. 3 But I fear that as the serpent deceived Eve through his craftiness, so your senses should be corrupted in some way, and ye should fall from the simplicity that is in the Christ. 4 Therefore if anyone comes preaching another Jesus whom we have not preached or if ye receive another spirit from that which ye have received or another gospel from that which ye have accepted, ye bear well with it. 5 I reckon that I have not been inferior in any way to those grandiose apostles. 6 But though I am rude in speech, yet not in knowledge, but we have been thoroughly made manifest among you in all things.
7 Have I committed an offence in humbling myself that ye might be exalted because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely? 8 I deprived the other congregations {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones}, taking wages of them, to do you service. 9 And when I was present with you and had need, I was not a burden to any of you, for that which was lacking to me was supplied by the brethren which came from Macedonia; and in all things I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself. 10 It is the truth of Christ in me that this glory shall not be sealed up unto me in the regions of Achaia. 11 Why? because I do not love you? God knows.
12 But what I do, I will continue to do that I may take away the occasion from those who desire it to be found like unto us in that in which they glory. 13 For these false apostles are deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. 14 And it is no marvel, for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers transform themselves as ministers of righteousness, whose end shall be according to their works.