Dual Panel1FROM Paul, an apostle commissioned not by any human authority or human act, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead.
2I and all the friends now with me send greetings to the churches of Galatia.
3Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ,
4who gave himself for our sins, to rescue us out of the present wicked age as our God and Father willed;
5to him be glory for ever and ever! Amen.
One gospel for all
6I AM astonished to find you turning away so quickly from him who called you by grace, and following a different gospel.
7Not that it is in fact another gospel; only there are some who unsettle your minds by trying to distort the gospel of Christ.
8But should anyone, even I myself or an angel from heaven, preach a gospel other than the gospel I preached to you, let him be banned!
9I warned you in the past and now I warn you again: if anyone preaches a gospel other than the gospel you received, let him be banned!
10Now do I sound as if I were asking for human approval and not for God's alone? Am I currying favour with men? If I were still seeking human favour, I should be no servant of Christ.
11I must make it clear to you, my friends, that the gospel you heard me preach is not of human origin.
12I did not take it over from anyone; no one taught it me; I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
13You have heard what my manner of life was when I was still a practising Jew: how savagely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it;
14and how in the practice of our national religion I outstripped most of my Jewish contemporaries by my boundless devotion to the traditions of my ancestors.
15But then in his good pleasure God, who from my birth had set me apart, and who had called me through his grace, chose
16to reveal his Son in and through me, in order that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles. Immediately, without consulting a single person,
17without going up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before me, I went off to Arabia, and afterwards returned to Damascus.
18Three years later I did go up to Jerusalem to get to know Cephas, and I stayed two weeks with him.
19I saw none of the other apostles, except James, the Lord's brother.
20What I write is plain truth; God knows I am not lying!
21Then I left for the regions of Syria and Cilicia.
22I was still unknown by sight to the Christian congregations in Judaea;
23they had simply heard it said, “Our former persecutor is preaching the good news of the faith which once he tried to destroy,”
24and they praised God for what had happened to me.