Passage: Galatians 1, 2 (RSV)


Galatians 1


1Paul an apostle -- not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead --
2and all the brethren who are with me, To the churches of Galatia:
3Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ,
4who gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father;
5to whom be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.
6I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and turning to a different gospel --
7not that there is another gospel, but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.
8But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we preached to you, let him be accursed.
9As we have said before, so now I say again, If any one is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed.
10Am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still pleasing men, I should not be a servant of Christ.
11For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not man's gospel.
12For I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
13For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it;
14and I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people, so extremely zealous was I for the traditions of my fathers.
15But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and had called me through his grace,
16was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not confer 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 again I returned to Damascus.
18Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to visit Cephas, and remained with him fifteen days.
19But I saw none of the other apostles except James the Lord's brother.
20(In what I am writing to you, before God, I do not lie!)
21Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cili'cia.
22And I was still not known by sight to the churches of Christ in Judea;
23they only heard it said, "He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy."
24And they glorified God because of me.

Galatians 2


1Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me.
2I went up by revelation; and I laid before them (but privately before those who were of repute) the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, lest somehow I should be running or had run in vain.
3But even Titus, who was with me, was not compelled to be circumcised, though he was a Greek.
4But because of false brethren secretly brought in, who slipped in to spy out our freedom which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage --
5to them we did not yield submission even for a moment, that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you.
6And from those who were reputed to be something (what they were makes no difference to me; God shows no partiality) -- those, I say, who were of repute added nothing to me;
7but on the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised
8(for he who worked through Peter for the mission to the circumcised worked through me also for the Gentiles),
9and when they perceived the grace that was given to me, James and Cephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised;
10only they would have us remember the poor, which very thing I was eager to do.
11But when Cephas came to Antioch I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.
12For before certain men came from James, he ate with the Gentiles; but when they came he drew back and separated himself, fearing the circumcision party.
13And with him the rest of the Jews acted insincerely, so that even Barnabas was carried away by their insincerity.
14But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, "If you, though a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?"
15We ourselves, who are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners,
16yet who know that a man is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of the law, because by works of the law shall no one be justified.
17But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we ourselves were found to be sinners, is Christ then an agent of sin? Certainly not!
18But if I build up again those things which I tore down, then I prove myself a transgressor.
19For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God.
20I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
21I do not nullify the grace of God; for if justification were through the law, then Christ died to no purpose.



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