Reflections on Galatians 1

Galatians 01 (Contemporary English Version)


1. From the apostle Paul and from all the Lord's followers with me. I was chosen to be an apostle by Jesus Christ and by God the Father, who raised him from death. No mere human chose or appointed me to this work. To the churches in Galatia.
2. (SEE 1:1)
3. I pray that God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ will be kind to you and will bless you with peace!
4. Christ obeyed God our Father and gave himself as a sacrifice for our sins to rescue us from this evil world.
5. God will be given glory forever and ever. Amen.
6. I am shocked that you have so quickly turned from God, who chose you because of his wonderful kindness. You have believed another message,
7. when there is really only one true message. But some people are causing you trouble and want to make you turn away from the good news about Christ.
8. I pray that God will punish anyone who preaches anything different from our message to you! It doesn't matter if that person is one of us or an angel from heaven.
9. I have said it before, and I will say it again. I hope God will punish anyone who preaches anything different from what you have already believed.
10. I am not trying to please people. I want to please God. Do you think I am trying to please people? If I were doing that, I would not be a servant of Christ.
11. My friends, I want you to know that no one made up the message I preach.
12. It wasn't given or taught to me by some mere human. My message came directly from Jesus Christ when he appeared to me.
13. You know how I used to live as a Jew. I was cruel to God's church and even tried to destroy it.
14. I was a much better Jew than anyone else my own age, and I obeyed every law that our ancestors had given us.
15. But even before I was born, God had chosen me. He was kind and had decided
16. to show me his Son, so that I would announce his message to the Gentiles. I didn't talk this over with anyone.
17. I didn't say a word, not even to the men in Jerusalem who were apostles before I was. Instead, I went at once to Arabia, and afterwards I returned to Damascus.
18. Three years later I went to visit Peter in Jerusalem and stayed with him for fifteen days.
19. The only other apostle I saw was James, the Lord's brother.
20. And in the presence of God I swear I am telling the truth.
21. Later, I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia.
22. But no one who belonged to Christ's churches in Judea had ever seen me in person.
23. They had only heard that the one who had been cruel to them was now preaching the message that he had once tried to destroy.
24. And because of me, they praised God.
    
    

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    This letter from the apostle Paul is addressed to the churches of Galatia. Thus, it is a circular letter that was to be passed from church to church among the churches located in the region of Galatia. As with the church in Corinth, the churches of Galatia were infected with false teachers. While those among the church at Corinth took aim at Paul personally, questioning his authority as an apostle, the attacks of those in Galatia were aimed primarily at the gospel he preached. Though this, too, eroded Paul's authority, it is more indirect.
    
    Paul immediately addressed the issues among the Galatian churches starting with his status as an apostle whose claim as such came not from men, but from Jesus Christ Himself. Therefore, the message he preached came not from men but from Jesus Christ. And the core of that message he stated in verse 4 concerning Jesus, "who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father." Paul did not arrive at this gospel message through any human source, and certainly not through his own reasoning or study. For his own study and practice was in Judaism which was the very teaching influencing the false teachers and pulling the Galatian believers away from the gospel of Christ.
    
    The gospel Paul preached could not be attributed to any human point of view. All human-based religious perspectives attribute salvation to man's own efforts, but the gospel of Christ teaches only one way of salvation, and that is through faith in Christ "who gave Himself for our sins." (1:4) This is point one. The gospel Paul preached didn't come from any human source because it follows no human reasoning. Point two is that it follows no human reasoning, Paul's in particular, because it does not resemble any influence upon Paul's life either prior to or immediately following his conversion experience. Prior to this experience he persecuted those who taught and believed this gospel. Following his conversion he went into isolation in Arabia for three years. When he returned from Arabia, by way of Damascus, he became known for preaching the gospel that was being challenged by the false teachers among the churches of Galatia. No, there is only one source for the gospel Paul preached, and that is God Himself.