Introduction
1
📚Paul, an apostle 📖 (not sent from men or by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead) 📖, 2 📚and all the brethren who are with me, to the churches of Galatia:1:2 Galatia was a large area in the land now called Turkey. Iconium, Lystra and Derbe (Acts 14:1-20) were in that province.⚜
3 📚 Grace 📖 be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 📚who gave himself for our sins 📖, that he might deliver us 📖 from this present evil world 📖, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 📚to whom be glory 📖 for ever and ever. Amen.
Some were trying to pervert the gospel of Christ
6 📚I am amazed that you are turning away 📖 so soon from him who called you 📖 by the grace of Christ, to a different gospel 📖, 7 📚which is not another 📖. But there are some who are troubling you 📖, and want to pervert 📖 the gospel of Christ. 8 📚But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than the one we have preached to you, let him be under a curse 📖. 9 📚As we already said, so now I say again: If anyone preaches any other gospel to you than the one you received, let him be under a curse.
1:9 He repeats this for emphasis. He wants no one to be in doubt about the wickedness of tampering with God’s revealed truth. Compare Rev 22:18-19. Other references to false teachers: Matt 7:15; 24:11; Acts 20:29-30; Rom 16:17-18; 2 Cor 11:13-15; 1 Tim 4:1-2; 2 Tim 4:3-4; 2 Pet 2:1; Jude 4.⚜
Paul sets forth his apostleship
10 📚For do I now try to gain men’s favor, or God’s? Or am I seeking to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be the servant of Christ.
1:10 Did Paul’s enemies accuse him of preaching only what he thought men wanted to hear? Verses 6-9 should show them that the opposite was true. Paul always preached the truth God had revealed and held none of it back for fear he might offend someone (Acts 20:20, 26, 27). As far as his message was concerned he did not try to please anyone but Christ. He knew that no one can be a true servant of Christ if he is not willing to preach the whole message of Christ whether men like it or not. But in other matters he was willing to please men in order to win them to Christ or help them grow in Christ. See Rom 15:1-3; 1 Cor 9:19-23; 10:33. We should follow him in both these ways.⚜
Christ Himself revealed the gospel to Paul
11 📚But I tell you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not of man. 12 📚For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but learned it by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
1:12 Eph 3:2-5; Rom 16:25-27; 1 Cor 15:3; Acts 22:14-15; 26:15-16. This is of the utmost importance. Paul insisted on this because the false teachers who had gone to Galatia denied it. He knew he was not guessing about the truth. He was not passing on something he heard from men and which he might have misunderstood. Christ Himself had revealed the truth to him, and so he could speak with complete authority. He did not have to compare the gospel he preached with any other so-called gospel to see if it was true. (But we need to compare the gospel we preach with Paul’s. If ours is not the same as his, it is not the true gospel.) See also 2 Cor 1:12-14.⚜
Paul’s early days after he believed in Christ
13 📚For you have heard of my former conduct in the Jews’ religion, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure, and tried to destroy it.
14 📚And I advanced in the Jews’ religion more than many of my contemporaries in my own nation, far surpassing them in zeal for the traditions of my fathers. 15 📚But when it pleased God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb 📖 and called me by his grace 📖, 16 📚to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles 📖, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood,
1:16 Christ was revealed to Paul (Acts 9:3-4; 1 Cor 9:1). But here he speaks of God’s purpose to reveal Christ in him. Paul understood that Christ was living and working in him and that he was to show forth Christ to others (Gal 2:20; 2 Cor 4:10-11; Col 1:29). This is God’s purpose for all believers.⚜
17 📚nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went to Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.
1:17 This is the only place the New Testament speaks of this trip into Arabia. It took place sometime during the events described in Acts 9:19-22. Paul does not tell us why he went there, but seems to imply that it was for the purpose of prayer, fellowship with Christ, and thought and meditation. He did not consult any man (v 16); he wanted to consult God.⚜
18 📚Then, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and stayed with him fifteen days. 19 📚But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother.
1:18-19 Acts 9:26-30. The other apostles were probably not in Jerusalem at that time. If Peter and James welcomed him it is reasonable to think the others would have done so had they been there.⚜
20 📚Now about these things I am writing to you, look, in the presence of God, I am not lying.
1:20 He solemnly states this matter because their acceptance of the true gospel was at stake. If they did not believe him they might continue to do what they began to do (v 6).⚜
21 📚Afterwards I came to the regions of Syria and Cilicia,
22 📚but my face was not known to the churches of Judea that are in Christ.
1:22 Paul’s work was in other areas and he spent only a very brief time in Jerusalem. So most of the Christians in Judea had no personal acquaintance with him.⚜
23 📚They had only heard that “He who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy”. 24 📚And they glorified God in me.
1:23-24 They knew of the change in Paul but they didn’t praise Paul for it. They praised God who changed Paul. And this was just what Paul desired above all (1 Cor 3:4-7; Eph 1:6, 12, 14; Phil 1:11).⚜