Galatians 1
1 Paul, an apostle (not sent from men nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead),
2 and all the brethren who are with me, to the churches of Galatia:
The author of this letter is Paul. Near the end of this letter he mentions that he wrote it in his own hand. Some other letters of his were dictated by him and written by a fellow worker.
Paul asserts his apostleship here because he was writing to correct a serious error in the churches of Galatia. He also mentions that he was not sent by men or by some human organization, but directly by God.
Most people I know who sign up for missionary stints are sent by some human or human organization. How do I know? Because they ask me to support them financially. In other words, they want me to send them. If they were sent by God they would ask God to finance them, wouldn’t they?
Paul was not like that. He never asked any human being at any time to finance his ministry. If someone voluntarily gave him a financial gift he accepted it graciously and thankfully, but he never asked for it, or even hinted that he needed money. The only time he asked for money was for other poor believers, never for himself or his ministry.
There are very few people I know who are like that today.
Those who are sent by God will go to God for their financial needs, not to any human being. In the entire New Testament, I do not see Jesus or any of the apostles asking people to finance their ministry. So anyone who does ask for money is not following the New Testament pattern, and in my opinion, is not ready to represent God, because they do not know how to serve the Almighty God.
Paul was able to speak with authority because he knew that he was sent by God.
Note also, that Paul mentions that God the Father raised Jesus from the dead. It is mentioned almost in passing and can easily be overlooked. Paul often will put phrases in his statements – phrases with deep meaning, but easily overlooked if one does not have the habit of studying Scripture carefully.
The fact that God raised Jesus (as opposed to Jesus raising Himself) is mentioned, not just here, but in several places in the New Testament (Ac 2:24; Ac 2:32; Ac 3:15; Ac 3:26; Ac 4:10; Ac 5:30; Ac 10:40; Ac 13:22; Ac 13:30-34; Rom 4:24; Rom 6:4; Rom 6:9; Rom 7:4; Rom 8:11; Rom 8:34; Rom 10:9; 2 Cor 4:14; Eph 1:20; Eph 2:6; Col 2:12; 1 Thess 1:10; 1 Pet 1:21).
Jesus didn’t raise Himself. I know that He said that He would (Jn 2:19) but He didn’t do it Himself. Instead, He did it through the Father. When He said, "Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit," (Lk 23:46) He was telling the Father that He depended on Him to raise Him up.
Why do you think He didn’t do it Himself?
Why do you think it is important to understand why He didn’t do it Himself?
3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,
As usual, Paul wishes grace (help) from God and peace from God to the readers of his letter. He does this consistently because he realized that without God’s grace you can’t accomplish anything of eternal value, and if you don’t have peace from God you cannot think properly and will end up making bad decisions, to your own great detriment.
For this reason, we should always position ourselves to receive God’s grace and peace. And we should wish the same for the people of God too.
A father, among other things, is someone who protects, provides, guides, helps.
A Lord is a master or boss – He tells us what to do and we do it.
Some people only understand God as Father, but not Jesus as Lord. Others consider God as a Master but not as a Father. But the proper balance is to see God as your Father, and Jesus as your Master.
4 who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father,
5 to whom be the glory forevermore. Amen.
Paul always sought to glorify God. That should be our goal too. These little snippets of his, such as "to whom be the glory forevermore" should not be ignored, because if we ignore them we will miss catching the infectious desire of his heart.
Paul reminds the Galatians that Jesus gave Himself for our sins because he is soon going to tell the Galatians how it is important to rely on Jesus for salvation, and nothing else. Salvation through His Son was the Father’s plan, and therefore no one can come to the Father except through the Son.
This present age is an evil age. The spiritual man will realize that and will walk with caution during his time in this age. Such a man will take care that Satan does not lead him to waste his time and money and talent while he passes through this present evil age.
If you don’t walk carefully in this present evil age then Satan will succeed in getting you to waste most of what God has given to you to amass your eternal reward.
6 I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel;
7 which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.
8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!
9 As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!
10 For am I now seeking the favor 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 bond-servant of Christ.
In this passage, Paul mentions an important criterion for being the bond-servant of Christ: you have to stop trying to please men.
Examine yourself, and ask whether you do things to please people, or whether you do things to please God. If you do things to please people, then you can’t be a bond servant of God. This does not mean that you should be inconsiderate and obnoxious; it only means that you should never compromise the truth because someone might get offended.
When you come across people who portray themselves as servants of God you must discern whether they are trying to please men or God. If they are trying to please you then they cannot be servants of God; instead, they are most probably trying to get you to give them money, and you should beware of them.
Next, note the importance of not preaching a false gospel or an incomplete gospel. The Holy Spirit, through Paul, says this twice so that we are very clear on this. Therefore, before you teach the Bible to others you need to make sure that you are teaching the truth of God and not some stuff that you’ve compiled looking through some other man’s notes, or even Bible commentaries.
Those who teach what is false, knowingly or unknowingly, are under a curse. And this curse is no ordinary curse; it is a curse from none other than God. So be careful about what you teach. If God has not called you to teach His word, don’t teach His word. This is especially important when it comes to teaching the gospel.
As the Galatians were reading so far, they were probably saying to themselves, "Whoa, who does Paul think he is? He’s making some rather strong statements here. By what authority is he saying this?" That is what Paul attempts to answer next. He explains to the Galatians why he can speak with great authority about the gospel. They need to understand where he is coming from; otherwise, they won’t listen to his correction.
11 For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.
12 For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
Paul was not taught the gospel by man, but by Jesus. We should also learn to depend on God to teach us the true meaning of His word. If we depend on man, the chances of getting deceived are high.
13 For you have heard of my former manner of life in Judaism, how I used to persecute the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it;
14 and I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries among my countrymen, being more extremely zealous for my ancestral traditions.
Paul didn’t start out on the right track. In fact, he was on the most wrong track, greatly persecuting the church and trying to destroy it. To him, Judaism was truth, and Christianity was heresy.
15 But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother's womb and called me through His grace, was pleased
16 to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood,
17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went away to Arabia, and returned once more to Damascus.
But, after he was conceived, but before he was born, God decided to use him to preach the gospel to the Gentiles.
Before God actually sent Paul to do that He first began to change him to be more like Jesus. If you want God to send you to do His job, let Him change you first.
When Paul got converted, he didn’t seek fellowship and confirmation with the apostles. Instead he went to Arabia. Most likely, there were no believers there because none of the disciples had yet begun to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. So Paul was probably quite alone.
Why do you think God sent Paul to Arabia where there were no believers? Wouldn’t it be better if God put Paul under Peter or James or John and had them mentor him?
It was because God had a special plan for Paul, and to accomplish that plan Paul needed special training that Peter or James or John would not be able to provide.
God does this more often than you might think. When He has a special ministry for us, He pulls us away from the rest of the church and teaches us Himself. He pulled Abraham away. He pulled Jacob away. He pulled Joseph away. He pulled Moses away. He pulled David away. He pulled Paul away. Even Jesus had to spend some time in the wilderness.
So when you see a child of God walking to a different drum beat, don’t criticize him or her and incur judgment upon yourself. Leave that person alone, and be kind to him or her if you can.
18 Then three years later I went up to Jerusalem to become acquainted with Cephas, and stayed with him fifteen days.
19 But I did not see any other of the apostles except James, the Lord's brother.
20 (Now in what I am writing to you, I assure you before God that I am not lying.)
21 Then I went into the regions of Syria and Cilicia.
22 I was still unknown by sight to the churches of Judea which were in Christ;
23 but only, they kept hearing, " ‘He who once persecuted us is now preaching the faith which he once tried to destroy.’ "
24 And they were glorifying God because of me.
Only after three years was Paul ready to meet with the other apostles. And at that time, it seems like only Peter actually met with Paul. The others were still afraid of Paul (Ac 9:26).
A few years later Paul actually goes again to Jerusalem with Barnabas with a gift for the poor Christians in Jerusalem (Ac 11:30), but he doesn’t mention that here.
Paul’s point is that his understanding of theology came directly from God and was not contaminated by any man, and so it had to be correct.
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