“The Power of a Changed Life”
Galatians 1:6-24, {6} I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—{7} which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. {8} But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! {9} As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse! {10} Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. {11} I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. {12} I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. {13} For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. {14} I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. {15} But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by his grace, was pleased {16} to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, my immediate response was not to consult any human being. {17} I did not go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went into Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus. {18} Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Cephas and stayed with him fifteen days. {19} I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord’s brother. {20} I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie. {21} Then I went to Syria and Cilicia. {22} I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. {23} They only heard the report: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” {24} And they praised God because of me.