Galatians 1:1-5

I, Paul, as God’s chosen apostle, am sending this letter to the churches in Galatia and asking God’s blessings on you.

1I, Paul, write this letter to you. I remind you that I am an apostle. That is not because a group of people appointed me, nor because a human being sent me to be an apostle. Instead, Jesus Christ and God our heavenly Father, who caused Jesus to become alive again after he died, have appointed and sent me to be an apostle.

2All the fellow believers who are here with me approve of this message that I am writing. I am sending this letter to the congregations that are in Galatia province.

3I pray that God, our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ will kindly help you and enable you to have inner peace.

4Christ offered himself as a sacrifice in order that he might remove the guilt for our sins. He did that in order that he might enable us to not do the evil things that people who do not know him do. He did this because God, who is our Father, wanted it.

5I pray that people will praise God forever. ◄May it be so!/Amen!►

I am disappointed that you are believing a message that is not the good news about Christ, and I ask God to eternally punish those who are teaching such a message.

6I am very disappointed [IRO] that so soon after you trusted in Christ you have turned away from God. He chose you in order that you might have what Christ freely/kindly gives. I am also disappointed that so soon you are believing a different message which some say is “good news.”

7Their message is not a true message. What is happening is that certain persons are confusing your minds. They are desiring to change the good message ◄that Christ revealed/about Christ► and are creating another message.

8But even if we (exc) apostles or an angel from heaven would tell you a message that is different from the good message that we told you before, I appeal to God that he punish such a person forever.

9As I told you previously, so now I tell you this once more: Someone is telling you what he says is a good message, but it is a message that is different from the good message that I gave you. So I appeal to God that he severely punish that person.

10I said that because [RHQ] I do not desire that people approve me, contrary to what some have said about me. It is God whom I desire to approve me. Specifically, I do not say and do [RHQ] things just to please people. If it were still people whom I was trying to please, then I would not be one who willingly and completely serves Christ.

It was Jesus Christ, not any human, who revealed the message that I proclaim.

11My fellow believers, I want you to know that the message about Christ that I proclaim to people is not one that some person created/thought up.

12I did not receive this message from a human messenger, and no human being taught it to me. Instead, Jesus Christ revealed it to me.

For 17 years after God showed his Son to me, I had no contact with the apostles.

13People have told you how I used to behave when I practiced the Jewish religion. They told you that I continually did very harmful things to the groups of believers that God established, and they told you that I tried to get rid of those people.

14I practiced the Jewish religion more thoroughly than many other Jews who were my age practiced it. I much more enthusiastically tried to get others to obey the traditions that my ancestors kept.

15Nevertheless, before I was born, God ◄set me apart/selected me►. He chose me to live eternally, something that I did not deserve.

16He wanted me to know that Jesus is ◄his Son/the man who is also God►, so that I would tell others the message about him in regions where non-Jews live. But I did not immediately go to any human beings [SYN] in order to gain an understanding of that message. I received it directly from Christ!!

17I did not immediately leave Damascus and go to Jerusalem for that purpose to those who were apostles before I was. Instead, I went away to Arabia region, a desert area. Later I returned once more to Damascus city.

18Then three years after God revealed this good message to me, I went up to Jerusalem in order that I might meet Peter. But I stayed with him for only 15 days, which was not long enough for him to teach me thoroughly about Christ.

19I also saw James, the brother of our Lord Jesus and the leader of the believers there, but I did not see any other apostle.

20God knows that what I am writing to you is completely true [LIT]!

21After I left Jerusalem, I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia.

22At that time, people in the Christian congregations that are in Judea province still had not met me [SYN] personally.

23They only heard others say about me repeatedly, “Paul, the one who was formerly doing harmful things to us, is now telling the same message which we believe and which formerly he was trying ◄to destroy/to cause people to stop believing►!”

24And they praised God because of what had happened to me.