12 For we do not dare to classify or to compare ourselves with some who commend themselves, but they themselves, when they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, do not understand. 13 But we will not boast ⌊beyond limits⌋e, but according to the measure of the assignment that God has assigned to us as a measure to reach even as far as you. 14 For we are not overextending ourselves, as if we* had not reached you, because we have reached even as far as you with the gospel of Christ, 15 not boasting ⌊beyond limits⌋f in the labors of others, but having hope that as your faith is growing to be enlarged greatly by you according to our assignment, 16 so that we may proclaim the gospel in the regions that lie beyond you, and not boast in the things accomplished in the area assigned to someone else. 17 But “the one who boasts, let him boast in the Lord.”g 18 For it is not the one commending himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.

Paul Defends His Apostleship

11 I wish that you would put up with me ⌊in something a little foolish⌋a—but indeed you are putting up with me. 2 For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy, because I promised you in marriage to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. 3 But I am afraid lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds may be led astray from the sincerity and the purity of devotion to Christ. 4 For if the one who comes proclaims another Jesus whom we have not proclaimed, or you receive a different spirit which you did not receive, or a different gospel which you did not accept, you put up with it well enough!