Galatians · chapter 1 of 6
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Galatians 1 opens the letter with a greeting in which Paul affirms that his apostleship comes from Jesus Christ and God the Father, not from men. He is astonished that the Galatians are so quickly deserting the gospel of grace for another that is no gospel at all, and he pronounces a curse on anyone who preaches it. Then he tells how he received the gospel by revelation from Christ, how his life changed and how little contact he had with Jerusalem.
Galatians is Paul's most urgent letter: teachers have come to the churches of Galatia saying that Gentile believers must be circumcised and keep the law of Moses to belong fully to God's people. Chapter 1 sets out at once what is at stake: the authority of the message and faithfulness to the one gospel of Christ.
Paul introduces himself as an apostle sent not by men or through a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead. With the brothers who are with him he greets the churches of Galatia, wishes them grace and peace and reminds them that Christ gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of God. The praise closes with an amen, but something is missing: unlike in his other letters, Paul gives no thanks for his readers.
Instead he voices his astonishment: the Galatians are quickly turning from the one who called them by the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is really not another gospel but a distortion of the only one. Paul places under a curse anyone, himself or an angel from heaven included, who preaches a gospel other than the one they received, and he repeats it so there is no doubt. He makes clear that he is not seeking human approval, for then he would not be a servant of Christ.
Next he defends the origin of his message: he did not receive it from any man but through a revelation of Jesus Christ. He recalls his former life in Judaism, when he violently persecuted the church of God and advanced beyond many of his own age in zeal. But God, who had set him apart from his mother's womb, was pleased to reveal his Son in him so that he might preach him among the Gentiles. He consulted no one and did not go up to Jerusalem; he went to Arabia and returned to Damascus.
Three years later he went up to Jerusalem to get to know Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days; besides him he saw only James, the Lord's brother. Then he went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia. The churches of Judea did not know him by sight; they only heard that the former persecutor was now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy, and they glorified God because of him.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
Christ gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father. Paul sums up the gospel as Christ's work on our behalf, not a human achievement.
Even if Paul himself or an angel from heaven preached a gospel different from the one already received, he would be accursed. The warning shows that the gospel admits no additions: it does not depend on who preaches it but on what Christ has done.
Paul insists that he neither received the gospel from a man nor was taught it, but that it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ. His authority as an apostle and the truth of his message rest on Christ himself.
God set him apart from his mother's womb, called him by his grace and was pleased to reveal his Son in him so that he would preach him to the Gentiles. It is the testimony that Paul's conversion was God's initiative, not his own merit.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: From Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead, not from men or through a man. — Galatians 1:1
Answer: He gave himself to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of God. — Galatians 1:4
Answer: That they are so quickly deserting the one who called them by the grace of Christ for a different gospel. — Galatians 1:6
Answer: Through a revelation of Jesus Christ, not from a man or by human teaching. — Galatians 1:11-12
Answer: He violently persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it, and he was extremely zealous for the traditions of his fathers. — Galatians 1:13-14
Answer: They glorified God because of him. — Galatians 1:23-24
Galatians 1 reminds us that the gospel is not an opinion we can adjust to our taste. In a small group you can ask what things, even good ones, we tend to add to the grace of Christ as if they were necessary to be accepted by God, and return to verse 4: Christ has already given himself for our sins.
The chapter also shows the value of testimony. Paul does not hide his past as a persecutor; he tells it so that God's grace can be seen. A Sunday school teacher can do the same: rather than impress, point to Christ and admit that God works in people who do not deserve it. And seeking to please God before people remains a test for every servant of Christ.
Galatians 1 makes clear that Paul's gospel came from Christ and that the Galatians must not accept another. In chapter 2, Paul continues to defend that same gospel by telling of his meeting with the apostles in Jerusalem and his disagreement with Cephas at Antioch.
The word translates a strong term meaning handed over to God's condemnation. Paul is not speaking out of personal resentment but because of what is at stake: replacing the message of grace in Christ with a path of merit endangers people's salvation, which is why he says it twice.
The text says only that he went to Arabia and returned to Damascus (v. 17); it does not explain what he did there. Many think it was a time of withdrawal, reflection and perhaps preaching, but the letter gives no more detail, and it is wise not to claim more than it says.
He is the James Paul met in Jerusalem on his first visit (v. 19). Tradition identifies him as a leader of the church in Jerusalem and the author of the letter of James; he was not one of the twelve, though Paul's wording can be read as counting him among the apostles in a wider sense.