3. I know such a man (whether in the body or outside of the body I don’t know—God knows)—
4. he was caught up into Paradise and heard words too sacred to tell, which a human is not permitted to utter.
5. On behalf of such a man I will boast—but about myself I will not boast, except in regard to my weaknesses.
6. For if I should want to boast, I would not be foolish—for I will speak the truth. But I refrain, so that no one may think more of me than what he sees in me or hears from me—
7. even in the extraordinary quality of the revelations. So that I would not exalt myself, a thorn in the flesh was given to me—a a messenger of satan to torment me, so I would not exalt myself.
8. I pleaded with the Lord three times about this, that it might leave me.
9. But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Messiah may dwell in me.
10. For Messiah’s sake, then, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in distresses, in persecutions, in calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
11. I have become a fool—you drove me to it, for I ought to have been commended by you. For I am in no way inferior to the super-special emissaries—though I am nothing.
12. Truly the signs of an emissary were worked out among you, with patient endurance, by signs and wonders and mighty miracles.
13. For in what respect were you treated worse than the rest of Messiah’s communities—except that I myself did not burden you? Pardon me this injustice!
14. Look, I am ready to come to you this third time, and I will not burden you—for I seek not your possessions, but you! For the children are not obliged to save up for the parents, but the parents for the children.
15. I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?