2 COR. 10: 16.

BOASTING IN THE LORD.

109

way we shall carry the Good News to districts beyond you, and not boast of work furnished ready to hand within the field of another man's activities.

Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.

For it is not he who recommends himself who wins approval, but he whom the Lord recommends.

I wish you would tolerate a little folly in me! But I need not wish it, for you are indeed tolerating it. For my boasting is not a selfish boasting. It springs from my zealous affection for you.

For

I have given you in marriage to one husband, to present you as a pure bride to the Christ. But I am afraid that, as the Serpent by his craftiness deceived Eve, so your minds may in some way be seduced from the single-minded devotion due from you to the Christ. For if a newcomer is proclaiming Jesus as different from him whom I proclaimed, or if you are receiving a Spirit of another kind altogether from him whom you did receive, or a Good News different altogether from that which you welcomed, you are nobly tolerant! For I consider myself in no way inferior to the most prominent Apostles. And even if I am rude in speech, I am not deficient in knowledge. On the contrary, we made this perfectly plain to everybody in what we did for you.

11:7.

Or, did I do wrong in humbling myself so that you might be exalted, when I brought you the Good News of God without accepting anything for my services? I robbed other Churches by taking pay from them so that I might serve you. And when I was with you, and in want, I became a burden to none of you. For my want was supplied by our brothers who came from Macedonia. Yes, in every way, I kept myself from being a burden to you, and I will continue to do so. As surely as the truth of Christ is in me I will allow no one in any part of Greece to deprive me of my right to make this boast. Why? Because I do not love you? God knows I do.

At any rate, what I am doing I will also continue to do, so that I may cut away the ground from under those who are looking for an opportunity to attack me, and further, so that in what they are boasting about they may appear in their true characters just as we also do. For such men are false Apostles, sham laborers. They keep assuming the appearance of the Apostles of Christ. And no wonder. For Satan himself is continually assuming the appearance of an angel of light. So it is not surprising if his servants also assume the appearance of servants of goodness. Their end will

be in harmony with their doings.

2 COR. LABORS, IMPRISONMENTS, BEATINGS. 111

11: 16.

I say again, then, let no one think me a fool. But if you do, at least receive me as a fool, so that I, also, may indulge in a little boasting. But when I speak with this boastful confidence I do not speak as impelled by the Lord, but as in my foolishness. For since many are boasting in what pertains to carnal nature, I also will boast. For being wise yourselves, you gladly bear with fools. For you bear it all, if any one makes you his slaves, if he eats you out of house and home, if he deceives you, if he exalts himself, if he strikes you in the face. I admit the dishonor cast on me by the fact that we were indeed weak, when it came to such treatment of you as that. But, to resume my foolish boasting, on whatever subject any one is bold, I am bold also.

Are they Hebrews?

So am I.

Are they Israelites?

So am I.

Are they descendants of Abraham?

So am I.

Are they servants of Christ?

(I speak as a man out of his mind), I am more;

In more abundant labors,

In more frequent imprisonments,

In numberless beatings.

In frequent danger of death;

11: 23.

Five times have I received one short of
forty lashes at the hands of the Jews.
Three times was I beaten with rods.
Once was I stoned.

Three times was I shipwrecked.

A night and a day have I been in the sea.

On many journeys have I gone;

I have been in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers,

Dangers from my own people, dangers from the heathen,

Dangers in towns, dangers in the country,

Dangers from the sea, dangers from false brothers.

I have been through toil and hardship.
I have often had sleepless nights.

I have endured hunger and thirst.

I have often passed days without food.

I have been cold and poorly clad.

And not to mention other things,

There is my daily anxiety about all the Churches.

2 COR. 11:29.

STRENGTH IN WEAKNESS.

113

Who is weak,

And I am not weak?

Who is led astray,

And I am not indignant?

If I must boast,

I will boast of the things
Which show my weakness.

The God and Father of the Lord Jesus,

He who is forever blessed,

Knows that I am not lying.

When I was in Damascus, the Governor under King Aretas guarded the gates of the city so that he might arrest me, but I was let down by a hamper through a window in the wall, and escaped him.

It is necessary for me to boast. It is not a good thing to do, but I must do it, and so I will now pass to visions and revelations given by the Lord. I know a Christian who, fourteen years ago,-whether in the body, or out of the body, I do not know, God knows, such a man, I say, was caught up even to the third heaven. And I know that such a man,—whether in the body, or separated from the body, I do not know, God knows,-was caught up into Paradise and heard words so sacred that no man is permitted to give utterance to them. About