Galatians 1

¹Paul, an apostle — not from men nor through a man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead —

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

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

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

⁵to whom be the glory forever and ever, amen.

⁶I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ to a different gospel —

⁷which is not another gospel at all — except that there are some who are troubling you and wanting to distort the gospel of Christ.

⁸But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel to you contrary to what we preached to you, let him be accursed.

⁹As we have said before, so now I say again: if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let him be accursed.

¹⁰For am I now seeking the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still pleasing men, I would not be a slave of Christ.

¹¹For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not according to man.

¹²For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

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

¹⁴and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my own people, being far more zealous for the traditions of my fathers.

¹⁵But when God, who had set me apart from my mother's womb and called me through his grace, was pleased

¹⁶to reveal his Son in me, so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood,

¹⁷nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went away into Arabia, and returned again to Damascus.

¹⁸Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas and remained with him fifteen days.

¹⁹But I saw none of the other apostles except James the brother of the Lord.

²⁰Now in what I am writing to you, behold, before God, I am not lying!

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

²²And I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ;

²³but they were only hearing, 'The one who formerly was persecuting us is now proclaiming the faith he once was trying to destroy.'

²⁴And they were glorifying God because of me.