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New Testament Reading - Labours of an apostle

¹⁶Again I plead, don’t think that I have lost my wits to talk like this; but even if you do, listen to me anyway — a witless man, a fool — while I also boast a little as they do.

²³They say they serve Christ? But I have served him far more! (Have I gone mad to boast like this?) I have worked harder, been put in jail more often, been whipped times without number, and faced death again and again and again. ²⁴Five different times the Jews gave me their terrible thirty-nine lashes. ²⁵Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I was in the open sea all night and the whole next day. ²⁶I have traveled many weary miles and have been often in great danger from flooded rivers and from robbers and from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the hands of the Gentiles. I have faced grave dangers from mobs in the cities and from death in the deserts and in the stormy seas and from men who claim to be brothers in Christ but are not. ²⁷I have lived with weariness and pain and sleepless nights. Often I have been hungry and thirsty and have gone without food; often I have shivered with cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm.

²⁸Then, besides all this, I have the constant worry of how the churches are getting along: ²⁹Who makes a mistake and I do not feel his sadness? Who falls without my longing to help him? Who is spiritually hurt without my fury rising against the one who hurt him?

³⁰But if I must brag, I would rather brag about the things that show how weak I am. ³¹God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is to be praised forever and ever, knows I tell the truth.