Galatians
Chapter 1
Greeting
From Paul, an apostle sent not by humans or through human action, but by Christ Jesus and God the Father who raised him from the dead;
along with all the brothers and sisters with me, greet the churches in Galatia:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,
who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from this evil world, fulfilling the will of God the Father,
to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
There Is Only One Good News
I am surprised at how quickly you have abandoned God, who called you by the grace of Christ, and have turned to a different gospel.
Indeed, there is no other gospel, but some people are causing confusion among you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
But even if we, ourselves, were to preach to you a different gospel than the one we originally preached, or if an angel from heaven were to announce it, I would say: let God’s curse be on him!
As I have said before, I now repeat: if anyone preaches a gospel contrary to what you received, let him be cursed!
Are we trying to please people or obey God? Do you think I try to get human approval? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.
Paul’s Vocation
Let me remind you, brothers and sisters, that the gospel we preached to you is not a human message,
nor did I receive it from anyone. I was not taught about it, but it came to me as a revelation from Christ Jesus.
You have heard of my previous involvement in the Jewish community; I vehemently persecuted the Church of God and tried to destroy it.
For I was more committed to the Jewish religion than many of my fellow Jews my age, and I defended my ancestors’ traditions more passionately.
But one day, God called me, out of his great love, he, who had chosen me from my mother’s womb; and he was pleased
to reveal his Son to me, that I might make him known among the Gentiles. Then, I did not seek human advice
nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me. I immediately went to Arabia and then returned to Damascus.
Later, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to meet Cephas, and I stayed with him for fifteen days.
But I did not see any other apostles except James, the LORD’s brother.
As I write this to you, I affirm before God that I am not lying.
After that, I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.
The churches of Christ in Judea did not know me personally;
they had only heard of me: ‘He, who once persecuted us, is now preaching the faith he tried to uproot.’
And they praised God because of me.
Commentaries
Greeting.
This is Paul’s sternest letter. He writes to the churches in the region of Galatia, which question the legitimacy of his apostleship and embrace a different gospel than the one he has preached to them. He introduces himself with his official title, “apostle,” and strongly emphasizes that he owes his apostleship to Jesus Christ and God the Father, not to any man, alluding to the problem that has prompted this letter. The Christian greeting of “grace and peace” must have resonated in the assembled congregation as a serious call to repentance and unity of faith.
There Is Only One Good News.
It had been just over a year since Paul preached the Gospel to the Galatians, so he was surprised to find that in such a short time they had been misled by impostors. Without delay, skipping the usual thanksgiving, he goes straight to what he considers most important: the Gospel he preached has no substitutes, and anyone who tries to replace it deserves the severe condemnation of anathema. Preserving the “memory of Jesus” or the “apostolic tradition” passed down by the witnesses of the resurrection has always been a significant challenge for the Christian community. It was then, and it still is today. For the Apostle, the “memory of Jesus” was not just an abstract doctrine, but the living experience of the Gospel.
Paul’s Vocation.
Paul is an apostle solely by God’s and Jesus Christ’s choice. For him, personal conversion and missionary calling are inseparable. Faith will be the central theme of the letter. Regarding his apostleship, he emphasizes that he acts on equal footing with the original apostles.