Paul asks us to excuse him while he speaks as a fool, but he does not consistently get into that character. He keeps breaking voice to remind us that he is being sarcastic—because he really doesn’t want us to think that he is actually taking any glory for himself. There are parallel lines of boasting here. In the first instance, he indicates that he fully able to meet the false apostles on their own ground. But secondly, he itemizes all the ways in which he trounces them with accomplishments that they never aspired to at all—to their shame. “As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ” (Galatians 6:12).