Paul’s Greeting to the Galatians 1 UST I, Paul, write this letter to you.{ I remind you that} God sent me to represent him. That is not because a group of people appointed me, nor because a human being sent me to be an apostle. Instead, I am an apostle because Jesus the Messiah and God the Father have appointed and sent me to be an apostle— yes, God the Father, who made the Messiah alive again after he died! BSB BSB: Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead—
2 UST All 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 the province of Galatia. BSB BSB: and all the brothers with me, To the churches of Galatia:
3 UST { May} God our Father and our Lord Jesus the Messiah{ continue to be} kind to you and{ make you} peaceful. BSB BSB: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,
4 UST The Messiah offered himself as a sacrifice in order that he might remove the guilt for the sinful things we have done. 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. BSB BSB: who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
5 UST { Because that is true,} let us praise God forever and ever. May it be so! BSB BSB: to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
No Other Gospel 7 UST Their message is not a true message. What is happening is that certain persons are confusing your minds. They are desiring to change the good news about the Messiah and are creating another message. BSB BSB: which is not even a gospel. Evidently some people are troubling you and trying to distort the gospel of Christ.
9 UST As we told you previously, so now I tell you this once more: Someone is telling you what he says is good news, but it is a message that is different from the good news that I gave you. So I appeal to God that he eternally condemn that person. BSB BSB: As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be under a curse!
Paul Preaches the Gospel 10 UST I said that because I do not desire that people approve me, contrary to what some people have said about me. It is God whom I desire to approve me. Specifically, I do not say and do 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 the Messiah. BSB BSB: Am I now seeking the approval of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.
11 UST My fellow believers, I want you to know that the message about the Messiah that I proclaim to people is not one that some person created. BSB BSB: For I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached was not devised by man.
12 UST I was not given this good news by a human being, and no human being taught it to me. Instead, it was God who revealed Jesus the Messiah to me. BSB BSB: I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.
14 UST I was practicing the Jewish religion more thoroughly than many other Jews who were my age were practicing it. I was also trying much more enthusiastically to get others to obey the traditions that my ancestors kept. BSB BSB: I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.
15 UST Nevertheless, before I was born God selected me for a special task and he kindly chose me. When God thought that it was good, BSB BSB: But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by His grace, was pleased
16 UST he showed me who his Son really is. He did this so that I would tell others the good news about his Son in regions where the non- Jews live. But I did not immediately go to any human beings in order to gain an understanding of that message. BSB BSB: to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not rush to consult with flesh and blood,
17 UST I also did not immediately leave Damascus and go to Jerusalem{ for that purpose} to those who were representatives of Jesus before I was. Rather, I went away into the region of Arabia{, a desert area}. Later I returned once more to the city of Damascus. BSB BSB: nor did I go up to Jerusalem to the apostles who came before me, but I went into Arabia and later returned to Damascus.
20 UST God knows that what I am writing to you is completely true! BSB BSB: I assure you before God that what I am writing to you is no lie.
21 UST After I left Jerusalem, I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. BSB BSB: Later I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia.
22 UST At that time people in the Christian congregations who were in the province of Judea still had not met me personally BSB BSB: I was personally unknown, however, to the churches of Judea that are in Christ.
23 UST They only heard others say about me repeatedly,“Paul, the one who in the past was doing harmful things to us, is now telling the same message which we believe and which formerly he was trying to cause people to stop believing!” BSB BSB: They only heard the account: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.”
24 UST So they kept praising God because he had caused me to believe in Jesus and because I was now telling people the good news about him. BSB BSB: And they glorified God because of me.
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.