8 Do you already have everything you need? Are you already rich? Have you become kings, even though we are not? Well, I wish you really were kings, so that we could be kings together with you.
9 For it seems to me that God has given the very last place to us apostles, like people condemned to die in public as a spectacle for the whole world of angels and of human beings.
10 For Christ's sake we are fools; but you are wise in union with Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! We are despised, but you are honored!
11 To this very moment we go hungry and thirsty; we are clothed in rags; we are beaten; we wander from place to place;
12 we wear ourselves out with hard work. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure;
13 when we are insulted, we answer back with kind words. We are no more than this world's garbage; we are the scum of the earth to this very moment!
14 I write this to you, not because I want to make you feel ashamed, but to instruct you as my own dear children.