GalatiansChapter 1

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¹This letter is from Paul, an apostle. I was not sent by people, and no person sent me. I was sent by Jesus Christ and by God the Father, who raised him from the dead. ²All the brothers and sisters who are with me join me. We are writing to the churches of Galatia. ³May grace and peace be yours from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ⁴Jesus gave himself for our sins. He did it to rescue us from this present evil age. This was what our God and Father wanted. ⁵May glory be his forever and ever. Amen. ⁶I am amazed at how fast you are leaving the One who called you by the grace of Christ. You are turning to a different good news. ⁷But it is not really good news at all. It is clear that some people are troubling you. They are trying to twist the good news about Christ. ⁸But suppose we, or even an angel from heaven, preached a good news different from the one we preached to you. Then let that one be under a curse! ⁹We have said it before, and now I say it again. If anyone preaches to you a good news different from the one you received, let that person be under a curse! ¹⁰Am I now trying to win the approval of people, or of God? Am I working hard to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. ¹¹Brothers and sisters, I want you to know this. The good news I preached was not made up by any person. ¹²I did not get it from any person, and no one taught it to me. Instead, Jesus Christ showed it to me. ¹³You have heard how I used to live when I followed the Jewish religion. You heard how cruelly I attacked God's church. I tried to destroy it. ¹⁴I was moving ahead in the Jewish religion faster than many people my own age. I was very eager to keep the old ways handed down by my ancestors. ¹⁵But God set me apart from the time I was in my mother's womb. He called me by his grace. Then he was pleased ¹⁶to show his Son in me, so I could preach about him among the Gentiles. When this happened, I did not hurry off to ask advice from any person. ¹⁷I did not go up to Jerusalem to see the men who were apostles before me. Instead, I went away into Arabia. Later I went back to Damascus. ¹⁸Only after three years did I go up to Jerusalem to meet with Cephas. I stayed with him fifteen days.a ¹⁹I did not see any of the other apostles. I only saw James, the Lord's brother. ²⁰I promise you before God that what I am writing to you is not a lie. ²¹After that I went to the areas of Syria and Cilicia. ²²But the churches in Judea that belong to Christ had never met me face to face. ²³They only heard people say, "The man who used to attack us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy." ²⁴And they praised God because of me.