6. For if I shall wish to boast, I shall not be a fool, for I shall speak the truth. But I refrain, lest anyone should think more of me than what he sees in me, or hears of me.
7. And to keep me from exalting myself because of the exceeding greatness of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to hit me, to keep me from exalting myself.
8. Concerning this I pleaded with the Master three times to take it away from me.
9. And He said to me, “My favour is sufficient for you, for My power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, then, I shall rather boast in my weaknesses, so that the power of Messiah rests on me.
10. Therefore I take pleasure in weaknesses, in insults, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for the sake of Messiah. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
11. I have become a fool – you have compelled me. For I should have been commended by you, for in no respect was I behind the most eminent emissaries, though I am a nobody.
12. Indeed, the signs of an emissary were wrought among you with all endurance, in signs and wonders and powers.
13. For what is there in which you were inferior to other assemblies, except that I myself was not a burden to you? Forgive me this wrong!
14. See, I am ready to come to you for the third time. And I shall not be a burden to you, for I do not seek yours, but you. For the children should not lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.
15. And I shall most gladly spend and be spent for your lives. If I love you more and more, am I to be loved less?
16. But be it so, I did not burden you. But being crafty, did I catch you with guile?