Galatians 1
Paul’s Greeting, Initial Expression of Concern, and Defense of His Apostolic Authority
In this section, Paul briefly introduced himself and greeted the Galatian believers before quickly launching into the concerns that motivated him to write. His apostolic authority was under attack, and he feared for the faith of these Christians, that they were “turning away” from good news they had previously received (1:6).
Paul’s Greeting
Not from Men Or by Men
Vs. 1 - Paul, an apostle—not from men or by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead
Commentators note that Paul’s authorship of this letter is mostly undisputed. As in most of his letters, he began with his name and credentials, which were of special significance in this opening section.
Paul immediately makes the point there is nothing human about his calling or the message he received. His calling and his message was directly from Jesus Christ and God the Father. Paul possesses divine authority, not human authority. This is not his personal message. - Brent Kercheville
In view of what Paul said in this chapter and the next, it seems clear that his enemies in Galatia were claiming that he had received his apostolic commission from other men. Specifically, they suggested that it came from the other apostles or the leaders of the church at Antioch (cf. Acts 13:1) rather than directly from Jesus Christ. This would have made it an inferior apostleship. - Thomas Constable
To Rescue Us
Vs. 3-4 - Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age
Christ's giving of himself for our sins is an idea based on the Old Testament practice of animal sacrifice for sins. In talking about Christ's self-giving for our sins, Paul is presenting Christ's death as an act of what theologians might call substitutionary atonement. This is not the only way in which Paul presents Christ's death, but it is one of the most prominent ways in which he does so.
The description of salvation then turns in an unexpected direction. Where we might be expecting Paul to write that Christ's self-giving for our sins was to reconcile us to God, he writes that it is to rescue us from the present evil age. Instead of salvation in terms of dealing with individual guilt, or dealing with a person's relationship with God, this verse presents a group salvation related to a particular view of the world. With the state of the world being viewed as evil, Paul sees Christ as having acted to take a group out of the bad situation. - Peter Oakes
Most scholars conclude, based on the whole of Pauline teaching, that the deliverance from “this present evil,” here described by the apostle, is a progressive one, having already begun but not yet completed.
A Different Gospel
Quickly Turning Away
Vs. 6 - I am amazed that you are so quickly turning away from him who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel
Amazed
In every other one of his canonical epistles, Paul commended his readers before launching into the main subject of his letter, regardless of his general purpose in writing. Here he recorded no such praise. Its absence stressed the seriousness of his readers’ error and the urgency of his appeal. - Thomas Constable
Something has made Paul desperately concerned and angry. He wants to shock his hearers into a radical reevaluation of their situation and actions. - Peter Oakes
Turning
There are, apparently, those who are challenging the gospel message that Paul proclaimed, declaring what Paul taught to be incomplete or insufficient. So Paul must write to these churches and defend the gospel they received from him so that they will continue to walk faithfully to the Lord. - Brent Kercheville
Gospel
The word for “gospel” here means “good news. And from the rest of the epistle, we understand this news to have been that God, in His grace, offered salvation and restoration to humanity through faith in Jesus the Messiah.
A Curse Be On Him
Vs. 9 - As we have said before, I now say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, a curse be on him!
Paul was obviously frustrated that someone had been undermining his authority and urging these Christians to follow some teaching he considered outside the realm of the true gospel.
Paul is so adamant about this that he says that if anyone preaches a message that is contrary to what the apostles preached, they are accursed by God. Please notice how emphatic Paul is because he includes himself in this curse. “But even if we…” Paul does not care if it is an apostle that comes to town. If he or any of his fellow apostles offer something different than what has been preached as the gospel, they are cursed by God. - Brent Kercheville
In Galatians 1:1-10, Paul does not tell us enough to show at what points he thinks boundaries to the gospel lie. As we go through the letter, he will make it progressively clearer. - Peter Oakes
The Gospel Preached By Me
Paul clarified the source of his gospel message in this periscope to convince his readers that the gospel he had preached to them was the true gospel. What the false teachers were presenting was heresy. He began an autobiographical section here (Galatians 1:11 to Galatians 2:14). It fills one-fifth of the entire epistle. In it he went to great pains to prove that both his gospel and his commission to preach it came directly from Jesus Christ on the Damascus road.
This section helps us appreciate how convincing God’s revelation on the Damascus Road was to Paul. He not only repented concerning the person of Christ, but he also received an absolutely clear revelation both of his calling in life from then on and his message. He began to preach the gospel immediately without any authorization to do so from any other leaders of the church. - Thomas Constable
Not of Human Origin
Vs. 11-12 - For I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel preached by me is not of human origin. For I did not receive it from a human source and I was not taught it, but it came by a revelation of Jesus Christ.
Again Paul emphasizes that the gospel he preaches was not of human invention and came from no human source. To demonstrate this, he gives a brief account of his movements during his first few years as a Christian. He begins by pointing out that after his conversion he did not go to see the church leaders in Jerusalem, but went away to the loneliness of Arabia, and then returned to Damascus (15-17; see Acts 9:1-25).
The first visit Paul made to Jerusalem as a Christian was fully three years after his conversion. Even then he stayed only fifteen days. During that time he met only one of the original apostles (Peter), along with James the brother of Jesus (18-20). Some at Jerusalem got to know him a little (see Acts 9:26-29), but elsewhere in Judea no one knew him personally. But they all knew of his conversion, because without his fiery leadership the persecution had died down. After this short time in Jerusalem he went to the provinces of Syria and Cilicia. - Don Fleming
Commentators note that this brief biographical account can be difficult to map out, but that the apostle’s primary purpose for including it seems simply to convince the Galatians that his authority and message came directly from God rather than from any human source, even trustworthy ones from Jerusalem.
My Former Way in Judaism
Vs. 13 - For you have heard about my former way of life in Judaism: I intensely persecuted God’s church and tried to destroy it.
It was Paul's contention that the gospel he preached was no second-hand tale; it had come to him direct from God. That was a big claim to make and it demanded some kind of proof. For that proof Paul had the courage to point to himself and to the radical change in his own life. - William Barclay
“Judaism” is not a really good translation of “Ioudaiamas.” This rare word needs a paraphrase rather than a one-word translation, probably something like, “a way of life characterized by practices that Jews generally saw as being proper.” - Peter Oakes
Paul reminded these Christians that the radical life change he experienced after his Damascus Road encounter (Acts 9) was evidence that his understanding of the “gospel” of Jesus was of divine origin. He had previously persecuted Jewish followers of Jesus, but after God chose to “reveal his Son” in Paul, the persecutor became a proselyte (1:15-16).
