Galatians Chapter 1

Salutation

¹ Paul, apostle—not appointed by human agency or by human authority, but by Jesus Christ^Messiah and God the Father who resurrected him— ² and the Christians that are with me, to the churches in Galatia. ³ Grace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ⁴ He gave himself for our sins to deliver us from this sinful age, as God had willed. ⁵ Glory to him forevermore. Amen.         

Gal 1:1-5

The Only Gospel

⁶ I’m amazed that you’re turning away so quickly from the One that called you by the grace that comes from Christ and turning to a different kind of gospel that’s ⁷ not really another gospel at all. It’s just that some people are confusing you by distorting Christ’s gospel. ⁸ But, even if we or an angel from heaven would present a gospel different from what we presented, consider him under a curse. ⁹ I repeat, if anybody presents a gospel different from the one you’ve received, consider him under a curse. ¹⁰ Am I trying to please people or God? If I was trying to please people, I wouldn’t be serving Christ. ^11-12 I’m telling you, the message I presented to you didn’t come from other people; Jesus Christ revealed it to me.    Gal 1:6-12

Paul’s History

¹³ You’ve heard that when I was in Judaism, I was persecuting God’s church to the extreme. I was trying to destroy it. ¹⁴ I was moving up the ranks in Judaism past many contemporaries in my nation because I was more fanatical about the traditions of my ancestors. ¹⁵ But God set me apart at birth and called me by his grace. It pleased him ¹⁶ to reveal his Son in me so I could present him among the Gentiles. Right away, I didn’t consult other people ¹⁷ or go up to Jerusalem to the ones that were apostles before me. I went away to Arabia and then back to Damascus. ¹⁸ Three years later I did go up to Jerusalem to visit Peter and stayed with him fifteen days. ¹⁹ I didn’t see any of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. ²⁰ What I’m writing to you is the truth. ²¹ After that, I went to Syria and Cilicia. ²² Christ’s churches in Judaea didn’t know me by sight. ²³ The only thing they kept hearing was that the one who used to persecute them was now preaching the faith he tried to destroy, ²⁴ and they praised God because of me.

Gal 1:13-24