Galatians 1 Christian Standard Bible (CSB)

Greeting

1 Paul, an apostle—not from men or by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead— ² and all the brothers who are with me:

To the churches of Galatia.

³ Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord^[a] Jesus Christ, ⁴ who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father. ⁵ To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

No Other Gospel

⁶ I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from him who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— ⁷ not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are troubling you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. ⁸ But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, a curse be on him!^{[b] 9} As we have said before, I now say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, a curse be on him!

¹⁰ For am I now trying to persuade people,^[c] or God? Or am I striving to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Paul Defends His Apostleship

¹¹ For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel preached by me is not of human origin. ¹² For I did not receive it from a human source and I was not taught it, but it came by a revelation of Jesus Christ.

¹³ For you have heard about my former way of life in Judaism: I intensely persecuted God’s church and tried to destroy it. ¹⁴ I advanced in Judaism beyond many contemporaries among my people, because I was extremely zealous for the traditions of my ancestors. ¹⁵ But when God, who from my mother’s womb set me apart and called me by his grace, was pleased ¹⁶ to reveal his Son in me, so that I could preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with anyone.^{[d] 17} I did not go up to Jerusalem to those who had become apostles before me; instead I went to Arabia and came back to Damascus.

¹⁸ Then after three years I did go up to Jerusalem to get to know Cephas,^[e] and I stayed with him fifteen days. ¹⁹ But I didn’t see any of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. ²⁰ I declare in the sight of God: I am not lying in what I write to you.

²¹ Afterward, I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia. ²² I remained personally unknown to the Judean churches that are in Christ. ²³ They simply kept hearing: “He who formerly persecuted us now preaches the faith he once tried to destroy.” ²⁴ And they glorified God because of me.^[f]