Galatians
Chapter 1
Overview
Paul opens this letter to the communities of Jesus’ followers in Galatia with no leisurely small talk. Other teachers are changing the good news he first announced, and the Galatians are quickly accepting their version. Paul responds with alarm and defends both his message and his authority to deliver it. He insists that his commission came from Jesus the Messiah, not from human leaders. Then he begins telling his own surprising story: once a fierce enemy of God’s people, he was called to announce the very faith he had tried to destroy.
1From Paul, an apostle—a commissioned messenger. I was not appointed by a group of people or through the authority of any human being. I was appointed through Jesus the Messiah and God the Father, who raised Jesus from the dead.
2All the fellow believers who are with me join in writing to the communities of believers in Galatia.
3May God our Father and our Lord Jesus the Messiah give you generous kindness and peace.
4Jesus gave himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age, in keeping with the will of our God and Father.
5May God receive honor forever and ever. May it be so.
6I am astonished that you are turning away so quickly from the one who called you through the Messiah’s generous kindness. You are accepting a different message as good news,
7though it is not really another good-news message at all. Certain people are confusing you and want to distort the good news about the Messiah.
8But even if we ourselves—or an angel from heaven—announce to you a message different from the good news we announced before, may that messenger fall under God’s curse.
9We have said this before, and now I say it again: If anyone announces to you a message different from the one you received, may that person fall under God’s curse.
10Am I now trying to win the approval of people, or of God? Am I trying to please people? If pleasing people were still my goal, I would not be the Messiah’s servant.
11Fellow believers, I want you to understand that the good news I announced did not come from human beings.
12I did not receive it from any human being, and no one taught it to me. It came through a revelation from Jesus the Messiah.
13You have heard how I once lived within the Jewish religion. I violently persecuted God’s community of believers and tried to destroy it.
14I advanced in the Jewish religion beyond many people of my own age and nation. I was far more devoted than they were to the traditions handed down by my ancestors.
15But God had set me apart from before my birth and called me through his generous kindness. When he chose
16to reveal his Son in me so that I could announce the good news about him among the non-Jewish peoples, I did not immediately consult any human being.
17Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before me. Instead, I went away to Arabia and later returned to Damascus.
18Then, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to meet Cephas, and I stayed with him for fifteen days.
19I did not see any other apostle except James, the Lord’s brother.
20As God is my witness, what I am writing to you is true. I am not lying.
21After that, I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia.
22The communities of Messiah-followers in Judea still did not know me by sight.
23They had only heard people say, “The man who once persecuted us is now announcing the faith he once tried to destroy.”
24And they praised God because of what had happened to me.