Galatians 1 - Easy To Read Version

¹ Greetings from Paul, an apostle. {\cf2\super [1]} I was chosen to be an apostle, but not by any group of people. My authority did not come from other people. No! It was Jesus Christ and God the Father who made me an apostle. God is the One who raised Jesus from death.

² Greetings also from all those in God’s family who are with me.

³ I pray that God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ will be good to you and give you peace.

⁴ Jesus gave himself for our sins. Jesus did this to free us from this evil world we live in. This is what God the Father wanted.

⁵ The glory belongs to God forever and ever. Amen.

⁶ A short time ago God called you to follow him. He called you through his grace (kindness) that came through Christ. But now I am amazed at you people! You are already turning away and believing something different from the Good News {\cf2\super [3]} \{we told you\}.

⁷ There is no other message that is good news. But some people are confusing you. They want to change the Good News about Christ.

⁸ We told you the true Good News message. So if anyone tells you a different message, they should be condemned—even if it’s one of us or even an angel from heaven!

⁹ I said this before. Now I say it again: You have already accepted the Good News. If any person tells you another way to be saved, they should be condemned!

¹⁰ Now do you think I am trying to make people accept me? No! God is the One I am trying to please. Am I trying to please people? If I wanted to please people, I would not be a servant of Jesus Christ.

¹¹ Brothers and sisters, I want you to know that the Good News {\cf2\super [4]} message I told you was not made up by any person.

¹² I did not get my message from any other human. The Good News is not something I learned from other people. Jesus Christ himself gave it to me. He showed me the Good News that I should tell people.

¹³ You have heard about my past life. I was in the Jewish religion. I persecuted the church of God very much. I tried to destroy the church (believers).

¹⁴ I was becoming a leader in the Jewish religion. I did better than most other Jews my own age. I tried harder than anyone else to follow the old rules. These rules were the customs we got from our ancestors. {\cf2\super [5]}

¹⁵ But God had special plans for me even before I was born. So God called me with his grace (kindness). God wanted me

¹⁶ to tell the Good News {\cf2\super [6]} about his Son (Jesus) to the non-Jewish people. So God let me see and learn about his Son. When God called me, I did not get advice or help from any person.

¹⁷ I did not go to see the apostles {\cf2\super [7]} in Jerusalem. These men were apostles before I was. But, without waiting, I went away to Arabia. Later I went back to the city of Damascus.

¹⁸ Three years later I went to Jerusalem; I wanted to meet Peter. {\cf2\super [8]} I stayed with Peter 15 days.

¹⁹ I met no other apostles {\cf2\super [9]} —only James, the brother of the Lord (Jesus).

²⁰ God knows that these things I write are not lies.

²¹ Later I went to the areas of Syria and Cilicia.

²² In Judea the churches (groups of believers) in Christ had never met me before.

²³ They had only heard this about me: “This man was persecuting us. But now he is telling people about the same faith that he once tried to destroy.”

²⁴ These believers praised God because of me.