Galatians 1

Greeting

¹Paul, ^a an apostle #— #not from men or by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father ^b who raised him from the dead ^c #— # ²and all the brothers who are with me:

To the churches of Galatia. ^d

³Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord ^e Jesus Christ, ⁴who gave himself for our sins ^f to rescue us from this present evil age, ^g according to the will of our God and Father. ^{h 5}To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

No Other Gospel

⁶I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from him who called ⁱ you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel #— # ⁷not that there is another gospel, ^j but there are some ^k who are troubling you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. ⁸But even if we or an angel ^l from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, ^m a curse be on him! ^{n 9}As we have said before, I now say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, ^o a curse be on him!

¹⁰For am I now trying to persuade people, ^p or God? ^q Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

The Origin of Paul’s Gospel

¹¹For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel preached by me is not of human origin. ¹²For I did not receive it from a human source and I was not taught it, but it came by a revelation ^r of Jesus Christ. ^s

¹³For you have heard about my former way of life ^t in Judaism: ^u I intensely persecuted ^v God’s church and tried to destroy it. ¹⁴I advanced in Judaism beyond many contemporaries among my people, because I was extremely zealous for the traditions of my ancestors. ^{w 15}But when God, who from my mother’s womb set me apart and called ^x me by his grace, was pleased ¹⁶to reveal his Son ^y in me, so that I could preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone. ^{z 17}I did not go up to Jerusalem ^aa to those who had become apostles ^ab before me; instead I went to Arabia ^ac and came back to Damascus. ^ad

¹⁸Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem ^ae to get to know Cephas, ^af,^ag and I stayed with him fifteen days. ¹⁹But I didn’t see any of the other apostles except James, ^ah the Lord’s brother. ²⁰I declare in the sight of God: I am not lying in what I write to you.

²¹Afterward, I went to the regions of Syria ^ai and Cilicia. ^{aj 22}I remained personally unknown to the Judean churches that are in Christ. ²³They simply kept hearing, “He who formerly persecuted ^ak us now preaches the faith ^al he once tried to destroy.” ²⁴And they glorified God because of me. ^am