Galatians 1

Greeting

1Paul, ^aan apostle—not from men or by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father ^bwho raised Him from the dead ^c— ²and all the brothers who are with me:

To the churches of Galatia. ^de

³Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord ^fJesus Christ, ⁴who gave Himself for our sins ^gto rescue us from this present evil age, ^haccording to the will of our God and Father. ⁱ⁵To whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

No Other Gospel

⁶I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from Him who called ^jyou by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— ⁷not that there is another gospel, ^kbut there are some ^lwho are troubling you and want to change the good news ^mabout the Messiah. ⁸But even if we or an angel ⁿfrom heaven should preach to you a gospel other than what we have preached to you, ^oa curse be on him! ^p9As we have said before, I now say again: If anyone preaches to you a gospel contrary to what you received, ^qa curse be on him!

¹⁰For am I now trying to win the favor of people, or God? ^rOr am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a slave of Christ.

Paul Defends His Apostleship

¹¹Now I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel preached by me is not based on human thought. ^s12For I did not receive it from a human source and I was not taught it, but it came by a revelation ^tfrom Jesus Christ. ^u

¹³For you have heard about my former way of life ^vin Judaism: ^wI persecuted ^xGod’s church to an extreme degree 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. ^y15But when God, who from my birth set me apart and called ^zme by His grace, was pleased ¹⁶to reveal His Son ^ain me, so that I could preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone. ^b17I did not go up to Jerusalem ^cto those who had become apostles ^dbefore me; instead I went to Arabia ^eand came back to Damascus. ^f

¹⁸Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem ^gto get to know Cephas, ^hiand I stayed with him 15 days. ¹⁹But I didn’t see any of the other apostles except James, ^jthe Lord’s brother. ²⁰Now I am not lying in what I write to you. God is my witness. ^k

²¹Afterward, I went to the regions of Syria ^land Cilicia. ^m22I remained personally unknown to the Judean churches in Christ; ²³they simply kept hearing: “He who formerly persecuted ⁿus now preaches the faith ^ohe once tried to destroy.” ²⁴And they glorified God because of me.