Greeting

1Paul,a an apostle — not from men or by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Fatherb who raised Him from the deadc — 2and all the •brothers who are with me:

To the churches of Galatia.d, e

3Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lordf Jesus Christ, 4who gave Himself for our sinsg to rescue us from this present evil age,h according to the will of our God and Father.i 5To whom be the glory forever and ever. •Amen.

No Other Gospel

6I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from Him who calledj you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel — 7not that there is another gospel,k but there are somel who are troubling you and want to change the good newsm about the •Messiah. 8But even if we or an angeln from heaven should preach to you a gospel other than what we have preached to you,o a curse be on him!p 9As we have said before, I now say again: If anyone preaches to you a gospel contrary to what you received,q a curse be on him!

10For am I now trying to win the favor of people, or God?r Or 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.s 12For I did not receive it from a human source and I was not taught it, but it came by a revelationt from Jesus Christ.u

13For you have heard about my former way of lifev in Judaism:w I persecutedx God’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.y 15But when God, who from my birth set me apart and calledz me by His grace, was pleased 16to reveal His Sonaa in me, so that I could preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone.ab 17I did not go up to Jerusalemac to those who had become apostlesad before me; instead I went to Arabiaae and came back to Damascus.af

18Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalemag to get to know •Cephas,ah, ai and I stayed with him 15 days. 19But I didn’t see any of the other apostles except James,aj the Lord’s brother. 20Now I am not lying in what I write to you. God is my witness.ak

21Afterward, I went to the regions of Syriaal and Cilicia.am 22I remained personally unknown to the Judean churches in Christ; 23they simply kept hearing: “He who formerly persecutedan us now preaches the faithao he once tried to destroy.” 24And they glorified God because of me.