King James Version KJV
The Message Bible MSG
1 Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed bear with me.
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Will you put up with a little foolish aside from me? Please, just for a moment.
2 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.
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The thing that has me so upset is that I care about you so much - this is the passion of God burning inside me! I promised your hand in marriage to Christ, presented you as a pure virgin to her husband.
3 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.
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And now I'm afraid that exactly as the Snake seduced Eve with his smooth patter, you are being lured away from the simple purity of your love for Christ.
4 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.
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It seems that if someone shows up preaching quite another Jesus than we preached - different spirit, different message - you put up with him quite nicely.
5 For I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles.
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But if you put up with these big-shot "apostles," why can't you put up with simple me? I'm as good as they are.
6 But though I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge; but we have been throughly made manifest among you in all things.
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It's true that I don't have their voice, haven't mastered that smooth eloquence that impresses you so much. But when I do open my mouth, I at least know what I'm talking about. We haven't kept anything back. We let you in on everything.
7 Have I committed an offence in abasing myself that ye might be exalted, because I have preached to you the gospel of God freely?
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I wonder, did I make a bad mistake in proclaiming God's Message to you without asking for something in return, serving you free of charge so that you wouldn't be inconvenienced by me?
8 I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do you service.
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It turns out that the other churches paid my way so that you could have a free ride.
9 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.
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Not once during the time I lived among you did anyone have to lift a finger to help me out. My needs were always supplied by the Christians from Macedonia province. I was careful never to be a burden to you, and I never will be, you can count on it.
10 As the truth of Christ is in me, no man shall stop me of this boasting in the regions of Achaia.
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With Christ as my witness, it's a point of honor with me, and I'm not going to keep it quiet just to protect you from what the neighbors will think.
11 Wherefore? because I love you not? God knoweth.
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It's not that I don't love you; God knows I do.
12 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.
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I'm just trying to keep things open and honest between us.
13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
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They're a sorry bunch - pseudo-apostles, lying preachers, crooked workers - posing as Christ's agents but sham to the core.
14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
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And no wonder! Satan does it all the time, dressing up as a beautiful angel of light.
15 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.
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So it shouldn't surprise us when his servants masquerade as servants of God. But they're not getting by with anything. They'll pay for it in the end. Many a Long and Lonely Night
16 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.
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Let me come back to where I started - and don't hold it against me if I continue to sound a little foolish. Or if you'd rather, just accept that I am a fool and let me rant on a little.
17 That which I speak, I speak it not after the Lord, but as it were foolishly, in this confidence of boasting.
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I didn't learn this kind of talk from Christ.
18 Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also.
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Oh, no, it's a bad habit I picked up from the three-ring preachers that are so popular these days.
19 For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise.
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Since you sit there in the judgment seat observing all these shenanigans, you can afford to humor an occasional fool who happens along.
20 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.
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You have such admirable tolerance for impostors who rob your freedom, rip you off, steal you blind, put you down - even slap your face!
21 I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also.
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I shouldn't admit it to you, but our stomachs aren't strong enough to tolerate that kind of stuff.
22 Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I.
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Do they brag of being Hebrews, Israelites, the pure race of Abraham? I'm their match.
23 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.
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Are they servants of Christ? I can go them one better. (I can't believe I'm saying these things. It's crazy to talk this way! But I started, and I'm going to finish.)
24 Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.
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I've been flogged five times with the Jews' thirty-nine lashes,
25 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;
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beaten by Roman rods three times, pummeled with rocks once. I've been shipwrecked three times, and immersed in the open sea for a night and a day.
26 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;
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In hard traveling year in and year out, I've had to ford rivers, fend off robbers, struggle with friends, struggle with foes. I've been at risk in the city, at risk in the country, endangered by desert sun and sea storm, and betrayed by those I thought were my brothers.
27 In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
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I've known drudgery and hard labor, many a long and lonely night without sleep, many a missed meal, blasted by the cold, naked to the weather.
28 Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.
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And that's not the half of it, when you throw in the daily pressures and anxieties of all the churches.
29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?
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When someone gets to the end of his rope, I feel the desperation in my bones. When someone is duped into sin, an angry fire burns in my gut.
30 If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things which concern mine infirmities.
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If I have to "brag" about myself, I'll brag about the humiliations that make me like Jesus.
31 The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not.
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The eternal and blessed God and Father of our Master Jesus knows I'm not lying.
32 In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me:
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Remember the time I was in Damascus and the governor of King Aretas posted guards at the city gates to arrest me?
33 And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands.
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I crawled through a window in the wall, was let down in a basket, and had to run for my life.
The King James Version is in the public domain.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.