Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am humble among you, but being absent am bold toward you:

But I beseech you, that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, though I think to be bold against some, who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh.

For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.

Therefore I write these things being absent, lest being present I should use sharpness, according to the power which the Lord has given me to edification, and not to destruction.

Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the descendants of Abraham? so am I.

Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes less one.

In journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in perils by the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;

For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.

Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee;

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

Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; in labors more abundant, in stripes beyond measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths often.