2 Corinthians 11:29

²²To the weak I became as weak, that I might gain the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I may by all means save some.

¹³Therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will eat no meat forever more, that I don’t cause my brother to stumble.

⁸However at that time, not knowing God, you were in bondage to those who by nature are not gods. ⁹But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, why do you turn back again to the weak and miserable elemental principles, to which you desire to be in bondage all over again? ¹⁰You observe days, months, seasons, and years. ¹¹I am afraid for you, that I might have wasted my labor for you.

¹²I beg you, brothers, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong, ¹³but you know that because of weakness in the flesh I preached the Good News to you the first time. ¹⁴That which was a temptation to you in my flesh, you didn’t despise nor reject; but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.

¹⁵What was the blessing you enjoyed? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me. ¹⁶So then, have I become your enemy by telling you the truth? ¹⁷They zealously seek you in no good way. No, they desire to alienate you, that you may seek them. ¹⁸But it is always good to be zealous in a good cause, and not only when I am present with you.

¹⁹My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ is formed in you— ²⁰but I could wish to be present with you now, and to change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.

^1[+] Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of the weak, and not to please ourselves.

¹⁵In those days I saw some men treading wine presses on the Sabbath in Judah, bringing in sheaves, and loading donkeys with wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of burdens which they brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; and I testified against them in the day in which they sold food. ¹⁶Some men of Tyre also lived there, who brought in fish and all kinds of wares, and sold on the Sabbath to the children of Judah, and in Jerusalem. ¹⁷Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, and said to them, “What evil thing is this that you do, and profane the Sabbath day? ¹⁸Didn’t your fathers do this, and didn’t our God bring all this evil on us and on this city? Yet you bring more wrath on Israel by profaning the Sabbath.”

¹⁹It came to pass that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath, I commanded that the doors should be shut, and commanded that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. I set some of my servants over the gates, so that no burden should be brought in on the Sabbath day. ²⁰So the merchants and sellers of all kinds of wares camped outside of Jerusalem once or twice.

⁵For this cause I also, when I couldn’t stand it any longer, sent that I might know your faith, for fear that by any means the tempter had tempted you, and our labor would have been in vain.

⁶But Timothy has just now come to us from you, and brought us glad news of your faith and love, and that you have good memories of us always, longing to see us, even as we also long to see you. ⁷For this cause, brothers, we were comforted over you in all our distress and affliction through your faith. ⁸For now we live, if you stand fast in the Lord.

¹³For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as Christ’s apostles. ¹⁴And no wonder, for even Satan masquerades as an angel of light. ¹⁵It is no great thing therefore if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.

¹⁴But when I saw that they didn’t walk uprightly according to the truth of the Good News, I said to Peter before them all, “If you, being a Jew, live as the Gentiles do, and not as the Jews do, why do you compel the Gentiles to live as the Jews do?

²³In those days I also saw the Jews who had married women of Ashdod, of Ammon, and of Moab; ²⁴and their children spoke half in the speech of Ashdod, and could not speak in the Jews’ language, but according to the language of each people. ²⁵I contended with them, cursed them, struck certain of them, plucked off their hair, and made them swear by God, “You shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor take their daughters for your sons, or for yourselves.

²⁰But I have this against you, that you tolerate your^[+] woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. She teaches and seduces my servants to commit sexual immorality and to eat things sacrificed to idols.