Oh, that you would bear with me a little in my foolishness; but indeed you do bear with me.

Again I say, let no one think me a fool. Otherwise, at least receive me as a fool, that I also may boast a little.

What I speak, I speak not according to the Lord, but as it were, foolishly, in this confidence of boasting.

For if I should desire to boast, I will not be foolish; for I will speak [the] truth. But I spare [you], lest anyone consider me to be beyond what he sees me [to be] or hears something from me.

I have become a fool in boasting; you have compelled me! For I ought to have been commended by you; for in nothing have I been inferior to the super apostles, though I am nothing.

Now as he spoke these things, Festus said with a loud voice, "You are mad, Paul! Your higher learning is driving you to madness!"

But he said, "I am not mad, most excellent Festus, but I boldly declare words of truth and reason.

We are fools for Christ's sake, but you are wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are distinguished, but we are despised!

And we labor, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure;

For our exhortation [was] not from error nor from uncleanness, nor in trickery,

For neither were we using flattering speech, as you know, nor covering up greed, God is [our] witness.

But we proved to be gentle in your midst, as a nursing [mother] cherishes her own children.

For you remember, brothers, our labor and toil; for laboring night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.

as indeed you know how each one of you, as a father [to] his own children, we exhorted, and comforted [you], and imploring you,

And David said to Michal, I will dance before the Lord. Blessed [be] the Lord who chose me before your father, and before all his house, to make me head over His people, even over Israel. Therefore I will play and dance before the Lord.

And I will again uncover myself thus, and I will be vile in your eyes, and with the maid servants by whom you said that I was not held in honor.

But he said, "I am not mad, most excellent Festus, but I boldly declare words of truth and reason.

For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself too highly, beyond what you should think, but to think soberly, as God has imparted to each one a measure of faith.

Therefore, although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of him who did the wrong, nor for the sake of him who was wronged, but so that your diligence on our behalf might be made known to you before God.

I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for His body, which is the church,

For our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit and in much assurance, just as you know what kind [of men] we were among you for your sake.

Because of this, I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.