Gálatas 1

I am afraid that when I come my God may again humble me before you and that I may have to grieve over many who formerly lived in sin and have not repented of their impurity, sexual immorality, and promiscuity that they once practiced.

¹ From Paul—an apostle not sent from men or by a 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 in Galatia.

³ May grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be yours!

⁴ He gave himself for our sins in order 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.

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

⁷ which is not really another one. To be sure, there are certain people who are troubling you and want to distort the gospel about Christ.

⁸ But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that person be condemned!

⁹ What we have told you in the past I am now telling you again: If anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that person be condemned!

¹⁰ Am I now trying to win the approval of people or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be Christ's servant.

¹¹ For I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel that was proclaimed by me is not of human origin.

¹² For I did not receive it from a man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

¹³ For you have heard about my earlier life in Judaism—how I kept violently persecuting God's church and was trying to destroy it.

¹⁴ I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries, because I was far more zealous for the traditions of my ancestors.

¹⁵ But when God, who set me apart before I was born and who called me by his grace, was pleased

¹⁶ to reveal his Son to me so that I might proclaim him among the Gentiles, I did not confer with another human being at any time,

¹⁷ nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before me. Instead, I went away to Arabia and then came back to Damascus.

¹⁸ Then three years later I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas, and I stayed with him for fifteen days.

¹⁹ But I did not see any other apostle except James, the Lord's brother.

²⁰ (I declare before God that what I am writing to you is not a lie.)

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

²² But I was unknown by sight to the churches of Christ in Judea.

²³ The only thing they kept hearing was this: “The man who used to persecute us is now proclaiming the faith he once tried to destroy!”

²⁴ So they kept glorifying God for what had happened to me.