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| [1]It is not expedient for me no doubt to rejoice: for I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. |
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| [2]I know a man in Christ above fourteen years agone, (whether he were in the body, I can not tell, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth) which was taken up into the third heaven. |
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| [3]And I know such a man (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth,) |
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| [4]How that he was taken up into Paradise, and heard words which cannot be spoken, which are not possible for man to utter. |
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| [5]Of such a man will I rejoice: of myself will I not rejoice, except it be of mine infirmities. |
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| [6]For though I would rejoice, I should not be a fool: for I will say the truth, but I refrain, lest any man should think of me above that he seeth in me, or that he heareth of me. |
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| [7]And lest I should be exalted out of measure through the abundance of revelations, there was given unto me a prick in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, because I should not be exalted out of measure. |
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| [8]For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. |
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| [9]And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my power is made perfect through weakness. Very gladly therefore will I rejoice rather in mine infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. |
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| [10]Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in anguish for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong. |
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| [11]I was a fool to boast myself: ye have compelled me: for I ought to have been commended of you: for in nothing was I inferior unto the very chief Apostles, though I be nothing. |
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| [12]The signs of an Apostle were wrought among you with all patience, with signs, and wonders, and great works. |
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| [13]For what is it, wherein ye were inferiors unto other Churches, except that I have not been slothful to your hinderance? forgive me this wrong. |
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| [14]Behold, the third time I am ready to come unto you, and yet will I not be slothful to your hinderance: for I seek not yours, but you: for the children ought not to lay up for the fathers, but the fathers for the children. |
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| [15]And I will most gladly bestow, and will be bestowed for your souls: though the more I love you, the less I am loved. |
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| [16]But be it that I charged you not: yet for as much as I was crafty, I took you with guile. |
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| [17]Did I pill you by any of them whom I sent unto you? |
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| [18]I have desired Titus, and with him I have sent a brother: did Titus pill you of any-thing? walked we not in the selfsame spirit? walked we not in the same steps? |
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| [19]Again, think ye that we excuse ourselves unto you? We speak before God in Christ. But we do all things, dearly beloved, for your edifying. |
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| [20]For I fear lest when I come, I shall not find you such as I would: and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not, and lest there be strife, envying, wrath, contentions, backbitings, whisperings, swellings and discord. |
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| [21]I fear lest when I come again, my God abase me among you, and I shall bewail many of them which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness, and fornication, and wantonness which they have committed. |
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