8. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.
9. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
10. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
11. I have been a fool! You forced me to it, for I ought to have been commended by you. For I was not at all inferior to these super-apostles, even though I am nothing.
12. The signs of a true apostle were performed among you with utmost patience, with signs and wonders and mighty works.
13. For in what were you less favored than the rest of the churches, except that I myself did not burden you? Forgive me this wrong!
14. Here for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be a burden, for I seek not what is yours but you. For children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.
15. I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?
16. But granting that I myself did not burden you, I was crafty, you say, and got the better of you by deceit.