Galatians - Chapter 1

Galatia was a region in Central Asia Minor that included cities such as Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, and Antioch. Paul is writing to all the churches in this area. These were churches he had preached in, or helped establish, during his first missionary journey. The entire journey and the visiting of these areas is described in detail in chapters 13 & 14 of Acts.

In my last blog, I explained how the Judaizers were saying Paul had no authority from God and was not to be listened to…

Greeting (vs. 1-5):

Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—and all the brothers with me, To the churches in Galatia: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Paul introduces himself as being sent by Jesus Christ and God the Father, not by men. He is re-iterating that his authority is from God. He stresses that God raised Jesus from the dead. This is important because the resurrection is the central affirmation of the Christian faith and because Paul had actually SEEN the risen Christ for himself and therefore was qualified to be an apostle, even though he wasn’t one of the original twelve.

Paul is not alone when he writes this letter. He has others with him who agree with what he is writing. Also, he is identifying the people to which he is writing: the people within the churches of Galatia.

First he greets them, wishing them grace and peace from God and the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, the entire gospel he has been preaching is all about God’s grace and the peace Christ gives us.

He glorifies Christ here and once again uses this opportunity to emphasize what Christ did for us: gave himself for our sins so we may be rescued from the evil in this world; and this was all a part of God’s plan and done according to His will.


Purpose (vs. 6-10):

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned! Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Paul is surprised that these fellow Christians could be so fickle, turning so quickly from what he has taught them about Christ to the new teachings of the false teachers. He can’t believe they would so quickly desert God, who sent Christ so we could be saved through grace rather than by works and deeds, as these Jews were teaching.

He’s telling them that these false teachings are not any kind of gospel. Gospel means ‘good news’ and the things these Jews were teaching were basicly the same ‘old news’ that had been taught for centuries. He tells them these false teachers are trying to confuse them and are distorting and misrepresenting the gospel of Christ.

He is saying here that ANYONE, including himself, or even an angel from heaven, who preaches anything other than the true gospel of Christ, should be eternally condemned, not just reprimanded, but thrown into the fires of hell for eternity.

So here we see we need to be extremely careful of what we teach to others about the gospel. If we get it wrong and go around telling people something that is not Biblical, we are guilty of the same thing these people were doing. Remember the verse in James 3:1 which tells us teachers will be judged more harshly. This is what Paul is saying.

He says, take a good look at me. Does it look like I’m trying to please men? If I were trying to please men, I would be preaching what they want to hear. I wouldn’t be traveling around trying to convince people about Christ and being chased out of cities and taking the risk of being imprisoned or beaten so I can be a servant of Christ. But he says he IS a servant of Christ, re-iterating his authority from God.


Paul’s testimony ( vs. 11-24):

I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But when God, who set me apart from birth (from my mother’s womb) and called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus.


Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter (who’s Greek name was Cephas) and stayed with him fifteen days. I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord's brother. I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie. Later I went to Syria and Cilicia. I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. They only heard the report: "The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy." And they praised God because of me.

Paul is saying that he, nor any other man, made up the gospel he preaches. (This gospel message was simple: “Salvation is for all and is received by faith in Christ”).

He says no one taught him these things. He received his knowledge from revelations from Jesus Christ. This is literally true because Christ visited him on the road to Damascus after Christ’s resurrection.

Here he is confessing to, and reminding them, of his past, how he persecuted Christians and tried with wholehearted zeal to destroy the church of God.

He says he was very knowledgable about Judaism, more so than anyone else at his age at the time and believed completely in traditions of the Jews.

Here is a case of ‘predestination’. Paul says God had chosen him from birth to be His servant. He had ‘set him apart’, not because Paul had done anything special, but strictly because of God’s grace.

God had, in His own time, revealed His Son to Paul so he could teach about Jesus to the Gentiles (the Greek word here translates literally to “nations” or “peoples” who were designated foreigners. In this case, they would have meant pagans or non-Jews). And Paul said he didn’t go to any man (Greek word here translates to “flesh and blood”) to see what he should do. He only listened to God and received his message from God.

The Judaizers were saying Paul was not an original apostle, but received his teachings from the twelve apostles and was merely repeating what he had heard them say.

Paul says he didn’t even go to Jerusalem (which was the religious center of Judaism and the birthplace of Christianity) and talk to the apostles of Christ to get their opinion. They were apostles before he was, but he didn’t need their blessing, he already had God’s blessing and God’s grace.

After being in Arabia and then going to Damascus, he spent three years preaching the gospel before he decided to go get acquainted with Peter (A.K.A. Cephas). He stayed with him for 15 days, probably rejoicing in their shared love of Jesus. He’s letting these people know he received the gospel from Christ and had taught it in Damascus three years before he ever met any of the apostles. So he couldn’t have received his knowledge of Christ from them.

NOTE: His time in Arabia is not talked about in Acts, but it is believed Paul had been so stunned by his visit from Jesus and the new knowledge he had been given, he needed a time of solitude to absorb it all. It was in Arabia that many of his revelations came. God was preparing him for his calling.

He lets the people of Galatia know this was not some kind of summit meeting or conspiracy to come up with a story, he never even saw any of the other apostles. But he did see James (Jesus’ brother, not the apostle James). At this time, James was the leader of the elders in the Jerusalem church.

Paul tries to assure them, in the name of God, he is being completely truthful.

When he left Peter, he went to Syria and Cilicia (in Tarsus, Paul’s home).

He didn’t go to these places to see anyone, he went there to preach. He says no one in Syria or Cilicia knew him at all, he was a total stranger to the Christian Jews there. (This was his home, but he’d been gone for a long time, and when he’d left, he had been a different person. He had been Saul, the young man who was to be a leader in Judaism and who persecuted Christians.)

These people had heard of Saul, the man who had persecuted Jews that had become Christians, and they had heard of his conversion and how he was now preaching Christ’s gospel. So they welcomed him and praised God for him. Imagine how good this made him feel, to be finally accepted in his hometown among a group of people who already knew Christ. I imagine those years between his conversion and when he went to see Peter, he had felt pretty alone in trying to preach the message that Christ had given him to teach.

We can get a small sampling of this joy when we find a church that welcomes us and has the same faith we do. Anyone who says they don’t need church is going it alone much in the same way Paul did for those three years. It can be done, but it’s so much easier and more joyful when you can share your faith with others of the same faith.

How can we prepare ourselves for the times in our future when we will hear a distorted message about Christ?

• Through Bible study we can know when it is a distorted message.
• Through prayer, the Holy Spirit will help guide us to know the truth.
• Cling to the Word of God, rather than things we may have heard or been taught in the past, even if it was taught by people we thought to be Christians.

Should we argue with the messenger or condemn him in front of others?

• No, we should take him aside, show him from the Bible where he is wrong, try to persuade him into the truth so he can go back and correct his wrong teaching. If this does not work, then we are to separate ourselves from him and his teachings.