Galatians 1:6-12
Chapter 1
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.
Commentaries
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.