Paul's Jealousy for Christ and the Deception of False Apostles
2 Corinthians 11:1-15
1I wish that you would bear with me in a little foolishness, but indeed you are bearing with me.2For I am eager for you with a zeal of God, for I betrothed you to one man as a pure virgin to present you to the Christ.3Then I fear that somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by its craftiness, your minds might be corrupted away from the openness and the purity that are toward the Christ.4For if the one who comes preaches another Jesus whom we did not preach, or you receive a different spirit which you did not receive, or a different gospel which you did not accept, you bear with it well.5For I consider that I have not fallen short in any way of the super-apostles.6But even if I am unskilled in speech, yet I am not so in knowledge; rather, in every way we have made this clear to you in all things.7Or did I commit a sin by humbling myself so that you might be exalted, because I preached the gospel of God to you without charge?8I robbed other assemblies by accepting support from them in order to serve you.9And when I was with you and was in need, I did not burden anyone, for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied my deficiency, and in everything I kept myself from being a burden to you, and I will continue to do so.10As the truth of Christ is in me, this boast of mine will not be stopped in the regions of Achaia.11Why? Because I do not love you? God knows that I do.12And what I am doing I will continue to do, in order that I may cut off the opportunity of those who want an opportunity, so that in what they boast they may be found just as we are.13For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.14And no wonder, for Satan himself disguises himself as an angel of light.15Therefore it is no great thing if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.