Some Foolish Boasting

Faced with false apostles who boasted of their credentials, Paul answers with a list of his own sufferings: imprisonments, beatings, shipwrecks, dangers, sleepless nights, hunger, and daily anxiety for all the churches. He even boasts of escaping Damascus in a basket let down through a window, the opposite of a soldier's glory as first over the wall. True ministry follows Christ in service and suffering, and the church stands firm in the faith when the world's messengers oppose it.