11:1. Would to God you could bear with some little of my folly! But do bear with me.
My folly. . .So he calls his reciting his own praises, which, commonly speaking is looked upon as a piece of folly and vanity; though the apostle was constrained to do it, for the good of the souls committed to his charge.
11:2. For I am jealous of you with the jealousy of God. For I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.
11:3. But I fear lest, as the serpent seduced Eve by his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted and fall from the simplicity that is in Christ.
11:4. For if he that cometh preacheth another Christ, whom we have not preached; or if you receive another Spirit, whom you have not received; or another gospel, which you have not received: you might well bear with him.
11:5. For I suppose that I have done nothing less than the great apostles.
11:6. For although I be rude in speech, yet not in knowledge: but in all things we have been made manifest to you.
11:7. Or did I commit a fault, humbling myself that you might be exalted, because I preached unto you the Gospel of God freely?
11:8. I have taken from other churches, receiving wages of them for your ministry.
11:9. And, when I was present with you and wanted, I was chargeable to no man: for that which was wanting to me, the brethren supplied who came from Macedonia. And in all things I have kept myself from being burthensome to you: and so I will keep myself.