Galatians 1

¹Paul, an apostle (not sent from any group of people, nor by any person, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from among the dead),

²and all the brothers and sisters who are with me, to the churches of Galatia:

³Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,

⁴who gave himself for our sins to deliver us out of this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,

⁵to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

⁶I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ, and are turning to a different “good news,”

⁷which is not really another good news. But there are some who are confusing you, and who want to change the good news of Christ.

⁸But even if we, or an angel from heaven, were to proclaim to you a good news that is contrary to the good news we proclaimed to you, let him be cursed.

⁹As we have said before, I now say again: if anyone proclaims to you a good news that is contrary to the one you received, let him be cursed.

¹⁰Am I now trying to gain the approval of people, or of God? Or am I seeking to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

¹¹Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the good news that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin.

¹²For I did not receive it from any person, nor was I taught it, but I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.

¹³For you have heard about my former way of life in Judaism, how intensely I was persecuting the church of God and was trying to destroy it.

¹⁴And I was advancing in Judaism beyond many my own age among my people, because I was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.

¹⁵But when God (who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace) was pleased

¹⁶to reveal his Son to me so that I could proclaim the good news about him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood,

¹⁷neither did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; instead I went away into Arabia, and then returned to Damascus.

¹⁸Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him for 15 days.

¹⁹But I did not see any other apostles except James the Lord’s brother.

²⁰(In what I am writing to you, I assure you in the sight of God, I am not lying!)

²¹Then I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia.

²²But my face was still unknown to the churches in Judea that are in Christ.

²³They were only hearing, “The one who once persecuted us is now proclaiming the good news of the faith that he once tried to destroy,”

²⁴and so they glorified God because of me.