Galatians 1

¹Paul, an apostle—an emissary sent not by any human commission nor through any human agency, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead— ²and all the brothers who are with me, to the ekklesias of Galatia:

³Charis to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, ⁴who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, ⁵to whom be the glory into the ages of ages. Amen.

⁶I am stunned that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the charis of Christ for a different "good news"— ⁷not that there is another one. It is simply that there are some who are throwing you into confusion and wanting to pervert the good news of the Christ. ⁸But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a "good news" contrary to what we preached to you, let that person be anathema. ⁹As we have said before, so now I say again: if anyone is preaching to you a "good news" contrary to what you received, let that person be anathema.

¹⁰Am I now trying to win the approval of humans, or of God? Or am I seeking to be a "people-pleaser"? If I were still trying to please humans, I would not be Christ’s slave.

¹¹For I want you to know, brothers, that the good news preached by me is not of human origin. ¹²For I did not receive it from any human, nor was I taught it, but it came through an unveiling of Jesus Christ. ¹³For you heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the ekklesia of God beyond all measure and was trying to destroy it. ¹⁴I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, being far more a zealot for the traditions of my ancestors.

¹⁵But when it pleased the one who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me through his charis ¹⁶to unveil his Son in me, so that I might preach him as good news among the nations, 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 later returned to Damascus.

¹⁸Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to get to know Cephas personally, and I stayed with him fifteen days. ¹⁹But I saw no other apostle except James, the brother of the Lord. ²⁰Now concerning what I am writing to you—look!—before God, I am not lying. ²¹Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia. ²²But I remained personally unknown to the ekklesias of Judea that are in Christ. ²³They only kept hearing: “The one who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” ²⁴And they were glorifying God because of me.