Hold on to the Gospel of Christ – Galatians 1:1-24
1 Paul, an apostle—not sent by men nor through any man, but sent by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—(2) and all the brothers who are with me, to the churches of Galatia: (3) Grace and peace to you, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (4) who gave himself for our sins, so that he might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, (5) to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
(6) I am astonished that you are so quickly turning away from the one who called you by grace, and turning to a different gospel—(7) which is not another gospel. Certain men are troubling you and seeking to distort the gospel of Christ. (8) But even if we or an angel from heaven were to preach a gospel other than the gospel we preached to you, let him be accursed! (9) As we said before, so now I say again, If anyone preaches to you a gospel other than the one you received, let him be accursed. (10) Am I now seeking the approval of men, or of God? Or am I seeking to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.
(11) Now I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel that I preached is not of human origin;(12) for neither did I receive it from a man, nor was it taught to me. On the contrary, I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. (13) You have heard about my former way of life in Judaism, that I persecuted the church of God with great intensity and tried to destroy it. (14) I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries from my own country, being extremely zealous for the traditions of my forefathers. (15) But when God, who appointed me from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased (16) to reveal his Son to me, so that I might preach him to the Gentile nations, I immediately refrained from conferring with mortal men. (17) Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to confer with those who were apostles before me; on the contrary, I went out to Arabia, and after that I returned again to Damascus. (18) Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem in order to become acquainted with Cephas, and I stayed with him for fifteen days. (19) But I did not see any of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. (20) Now concerning the things I am writing to you, I swear before God that I am not lying. (21) Then I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia. (22) But I was still unknown personally to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. (23) But they kept hearing the report: The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he formerly tried to destroy; (24) and they glorified God because of me.
A note on the Scripture text that accompanies each individual message: The American Standard Version and the New International Version, along with the original Greek and Hebrew, have been used in an effort to achieve the greatest degree of accuracy and clarity. Where words or phrases have been added to the original text in an effort to better express its meaning, those words or phrases have usually been indicated by means of italics.
Now proceed to the next section of this study, entitled, Exploring the Passage.
