I Am a Fool

I say again, let no one think me foolish. But if so, yet receive me as foolish, that I also may boast a little.
That which I speak, I don’t speak according to the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting.
Seeing that many boast after the flesh, I will also boast.
For you bear with the foolish gladly, being wise.
For you bear with a man, if he brings you into bondage, if he devours you, if he takes you captive, if he exalts himself, if he strikes you on the face.
I speak by way of disparagement, as though we had been weak. Yet in whatever way anyone is bold (I speak in foolishness), I am bold also.
Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the offspring of Abraham? So am I.
Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as one beside himself) I am more so; in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in deaths often.
Five times from the Jews I received forty stripes minus one.
Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I suffered shipwreck. I have been a night and a day in the deep.
I have been in travels often, perils of rivers, perils of robbers, perils from my countrymen, perils from the Gentiles, perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, perils among false brothers;
in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, and in cold and nakedness.
Besides those things that are outside, there is that which presses on me daily: anxiety for all the assemblies.
Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is caused to stumble, and I don’t burn with indignation?