Goodspeed(i)
16 I repeat, no one should think me a fool, but if you do, show me at least the patience you would show a fool, and let me have my little boast like the others.
17 When I boast in this reckless way, I do not say what I am saying for the Lord, but as a fool would talk.
18 Since many are so human as to boast, I will do it also.
19 For you like to put up with fools, you are so wise yourselves!
20 For you put up with it if a man makes you his slaves, or lives on you, or takes you in, or puts on airs, or gives you a slap in the face.
21 To my shame I must admit that I was too weak for that sort of thing. But whatever anyone else dares to boast of—I am playing the part of a fool—I will dare to boast of too.
22 If they are Hebrews, so am I! If they are Israelites, so am I! If they are descended from Abraham, so am I!
23 If they are Christian workers—I am talking like a madman!—I am a better one! with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, vastly worse beatings, and in frequent danger of death.
24 Five times I have been given one less than forty lashes, by the Jews.
25 I have been beaten three times by the Romans, I have been stoned once, I have been shipwrecked three times, a night and a day I have been adrift at sea;
26 with my frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from the heathen, danger in the city, danger in the desert, danger at sea, danger from false brothers,
27 through toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, through hunger and thirst, often without food, and exposed to cold.
28 And besides everything else, the thing that burdens me every day is my anxiety about all the churches.
29 Who is weak without my being weak? Whose conscience is hurt without my being fired with indignation?
30 If there must be boasting, I will boast of the things that show my weakness!