Galatians 1 and 2 NLT

Outline

• Introduction (1:1-10)
  • Greetings (1:1-5)
  • Denunciation (1:6-10)
• Personal: Authentication of the Apostle of Liberty and Faith (1:11;2:21)
  • Paul's Gospel Was Received by Special Revelation (1:11-12)
  • Paul's Gospel Was Independent of the Jerusalem Apostles and the Judean Churches (1:13;2:21)
    1. Evidenced by his early activities as a Christian (1:13-17)
    2. Evidenced by his first post-Christian visit to Jerusalem (1:18-24)
    3. Evidenced by his second post-Christian visit to Jerusalem (2:1-10)
    4. Evidenced by his rebuke of Peter at Antioch (2:11-21)
• Doctrinal: Justification of the Doctrine of Liberty and Faith (chs. 3-4)
  • The Galatians' Experience of the Gospel (3:1-5)
  • The Experience of Abraham (3:6-9)
  • The Curse of the Law (3:10-14)
  • The Priority of the Promise (3:15-18)
  • The Purpose of the Law (3:19-25)
  • Sons, Not Slaves (3:26;4:7)
  • The Danger of Turning Back (4:8-11)
  • Appeal to Embrace the Freedom of God's Children (4:12-20)
  • God's Children Are Children of the Free Woman (4:21-31)
• Practical: Practice of the Life of Liberty and Faith (5:1;6:10)
  • Exhortation to Freedom (5:1-12)
  • Life by the Spirit, Not by the Flesh (5:13-26)
  • Call for Mutual Help (6:1-10)
• Conclusion and Benediction (6:11-18)

Galatians 1 NLT

1 This letter is from Paul, an apostle. I was not appointed by any group of people or any human authority, but by Jesus Christ himself and by God the Father, who raised Jesus from the dead. 

2 All the brothers and sisters here join me in sending this letter to the churches of Galatia. 

3 May God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

4 Jesus gave his life for our sins, just as God our Father planned, in order to rescue us from this evil world in which we live. 

5 All glory to God forever and ever! Amen. 

6 I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who called you to himself through the loving mercy of Christ. You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News 

7 but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist the truth concerning Christ. 

8 Let God’s curse fall on anyone, including us or even an angel from heaven, who preaches a different kind of Good News than the one we preached to you. 

9 I say again what we have said before: If anyone preaches any other Good News than the one you welcomed, let that person be cursed. 

10 Obviously, I’m not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ’s servant. 

11 Dear brothers and sisters, I want you to understand that the gospel message I preach is not based on mere human reasoning. 

12 I received my message from no human source, and no one taught me. Instead, I received it by direct revelation from Jesus Christ.

13 You know what I was like when I followed the Jewish religion—how I violently persecuted God’s church. I did my best to destroy it. 

14 I was far ahead of my fellow Jews in my zeal for the traditions of my ancestors. 

15 But even before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous grace. Then it pleased him 

16 to reveal his Son to me so that I would proclaim the Good News about Jesus to the Gentiles. When this happened, I did not rush out to consult with any human being. 

17 Nor did I go up to Jerusalem to consult with those who were apostles before I was. Instead, I went away into Arabia, and later I returned to the city of Damascus. 

18 Then three years later I went to Jerusalem to get to know Peter, and I stayed with him for fifteen days. 

19 The only other apostle I met at that time was James, the Lord’s brother. 

20 I declare before God that what I am writing to you is not a lie. 

21 After that visit I went north into the provinces of Syria and Cilicia. 

22 And still the churches in Christ that are in Judea didn’t know me personally. 

23 All they knew was that people were saying, “The one who used to persecute us is now preaching the very faith he tried to destroy!” 

24 And they praised God because of me.

Galatians 2 NLT

1 Then fourteen years later I went back to Jerusalem again, this time with Barnabas; and Titus came along, too. 

2 I went there because God revealed to me that I should go. While I was there I met privately with those considered to be leaders of the church and shared with them the message I had been preaching to the Gentiles. I wanted to make sure that we were in agreement, for fear that all my efforts had been wasted and I was running the race for nothing. 

3 And they supported me and did not even demand that my companion Titus be circumcised, though he was a Gentile. 

4 Even that question came up only because of some so-called believers there—false ones, really —who were secretly brought in. They sneaked in to spy on us and take away the freedom we have in Christ Jesus. They wanted to enslave us and force us to follow their Jewish regulations. 

5 But we refused to give in to them for a single moment. We wanted to preserve the truth of the gospel message for you. 

6 And the leaders of the church had nothing to add to what I was preaching. (By the way, their reputation as great leaders made no difference to me, for God has no favorites.) 

7 Instead, they saw that God had given me the responsibility of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as he had given Peter the responsibility of preaching to the Jews. 

8 For the same God who worked through Peter as the apostle to the Jews also worked through me as the apostle to the Gentiles. 

9 In fact, James, Peter, and John, who were known as pillars of the church, recognized the gift God had given me, and they accepted Barnabas and me as their co-workers. They encouraged us to keep preaching to the Gentiles, while they continued their work with the Jews. 

10 Their only suggestion was that we keep on helping the poor, which I have always been eager to do. 

11 But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong. 

12 When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile believers, who were not circumcised. But afterward, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision. 

13 As a result, other Jewish believers followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. 

14When I saw that they were not following the truth of the gospel message, I said to Peter in front of all the others, “Since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile, why are you now trying to make these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions? 

15 “You and I are Jews by birth, not ‘sinners’ like the Gentiles. 

16 Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law.” 

17 But suppose we seek to be made right with God through faith in Christ and then we are found guilty because we have abandoned the law. Would that mean Christ has led us into sin? Absolutely not! 

18 Rather, I am a sinner if I rebuild the old system of law I already tore down.

19 For when I tried to keep the law, it condemned me. So I died to the law—I stopped trying to meet all its requirements—so that I might live for God. 

20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 

21 I do not treat the grace of God as meaningless. For if keeping the law could make us right with God, then there was no need for Christ to die.

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Summary of the Book of Galatians

Summary

Summary of the Book of Galatians

This summary of the book of Galatians provides information about the title, author(s), date of writing, chronology, theme, theology, outline, a brief overview, and the chapters of the Book of Galatians.

Author

The opening verse identifies the author of Galatians as the apostle Paul. Apart from a few 19th-century interpreters, no one has seriously questioned his authorship.

Date and Destination

The date of Galatians depends to a great extent on the destination of the letter. There are two main views:

1. The North Galatian theory. This older view holds that the letter was addressed to churches located in north-central Asia Minor (Pessinus, Ancyra and Tavium), where the Gauls had settled when they invaded the area in the third century b.c. It is held that Paul visited this area on his second missionary journey, though Acts contains no reference to such a visit. Galatians, it is maintained, was written between a.d. 53 and 57 from Ephesus or Macedonia.
2. The South Galatian theory. According to this view, Galatians was written to churches in the southern area of the Roman province of Galatia (Antioch, Iconium, Lystra and Derbe) that Paul had founded on his first missionary journey. Some believe that Galatians was written from Syrian Antioch in 48-49 after Paul's first journey and before the Jerusalem council meeting (Ac 15). Others say that Galatians was written in Syrian Antioch or Corinth between 51 and 53.

Occasion and Purpose

Judaizers were Jewish Christians who believed, among other things, that a number of the ceremonial practices of the OT were still binding on the NT church. Following Paul's successful campaign in Galatia, they insisted that Gentile converts to Christianity abide by certain OT rites, especially circumcision. They may have been motivated by a desire to avoid the persecution of Zealot Jews who objected to their fraternizing with Gentiles (see 6:12). The Judaizers argued that Paul was not an authentic apostle and that out of a desire to make the message more appealing to Gentiles he had removed from the gospel certain legal requirements.

Paul responded by clearly establishing his apostolic authority and thereby substantiating the gospel he preached. By introducing additional requirements for justification (e.g., works of the law) his adversaries had perverted the gospel of grace and, unless prevented, would bring Paul's converts into the bondage of legalism. It is by grace through faith alone that people are justified, and it is by faith alone that they are to live out their new life in the freedom of the Spirit.

Theological Teaching

Galatians stands as an eloquent and vigorous apologetic for the essential NT truth that people are justified by faith in Jesus Christ -- by nothing less and nothing more -- and that they are sanctified not by legalistic works but by the obedience that comes from faith in God's work for them, in them and through them by the grace and power of Christ and the Holy Spirit. It was the rediscovery of the basic message of Galatians (and Romans) that brought about the Protestant Reformation. Galatians is often referred to as "Luther's book," because Martin Luther relied so strongly on this letter in all his preaching, teaching and writing against the prevailing theology of his day. It is also referred to as the "Magna Carta of Christian Liberty." A key verse is 2:16 (see note there).

Outline

• Introduction (1:1-10)
  • Greetings (1:1-5)
  • Denunciation (1:6-10)
• Personal: Authentication of the Apostle of Liberty and Faith (1:11;2:21)
  • Paul's Gospel Was Received by Special Revelation (1:11-12)
  • Paul's Gospel Was Independent of the Jerusalem Apostles and the Judean Churches (1:13;2:21)
    1. Evidenced by his early activities as a Christian (1:13-17)
    2. Evidenced by his first post-Christian visit to Jerusalem (1:18-24)
    3. Evidenced by his second post-Christian visit to Jerusalem (2:1-10)
    4. Evidenced by his rebuke of Peter at Antioch (2:11-21)
• Doctrinal: Justification of the Doctrine of Liberty and Faith (chs. 3-4)
  • The Galatians' Experience of the Gospel (3:1-5)
  • The Experience of Abraham (3:6-9)
  • The Curse of the Law (3:10-14)
  • The Priority of the Promise (3:15-18)
  • The Purpose of the Law (3:19-25)
  • Sons, Not Slaves (3:26;4:7)
  • The Danger of Turning Back (4:8-11)
  • Appeal to Embrace the Freedom of God's Children (4:12-20)
  • God's Children Are Children of the Free Woman (4:21-31)
• Practical: Practice of the Life of Liberty and Faith (5:1;6:10)
  • Exhortation to Freedom (5:1-12)
  • Life by the Spirit, Not by the Flesh (5:13-26)
  • Call for Mutual Help (6:1-10)
• Conclusion and Benediction (6:11-18)

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From the NIV Study Bible, Introductions to the Books of the Bible, Galatians
Copyright 2002 © Zondervan. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

Galatians 5 and 6 NLT

Outline

• Introduction (1:1-10)
  • Greetings (1:1-5)
  • Denunciation (1:6-10)
• Personal: Authentication of the Apostle of Liberty and Faith (1:11;2:21)
  • Paul's Gospel Was Received by Special Revelation (1:11-12)
  • Paul's Gospel Was Independent of the Jerusalem Apostles and the Judean Churches (1:13;2:21)
    1. Evidenced by his early activities as a Christian (1:13-17)
    2. Evidenced by his first post-Christian visit to Jerusalem (1:18-24)
    3. Evidenced by his second post-Christian visit to Jerusalem (2:1-10)
    4. Evidenced by his rebuke of Peter at Antioch (2:11-21)
• Doctrinal: Justification of the Doctrine of Liberty and Faith (chs. 3-4)
  • The Galatians' Experience of the Gospel (3:1-5)
  • The Experience of Abraham (3:6-9)
  • The Curse of the Law (3:10-14)
  • The Priority of the Promise (3:15-18)
  • The Purpose of the Law (3:19-25)
  • Sons, Not Slaves (3:26;4:7)
  • The Danger of Turning Back (4:8-11)
  • Appeal to Embrace the Freedom of God's Children (4:12-20)
  • God's Children Are Children of the Free Woman (4:21-31)
• Practical: Practice of the Life of Liberty and Faith (5:1;6:10)
  • Exhortation to Freedom (5:1-12)
  • Life by the Spirit, Not by the Flesh (5:13-26)
  • Call for Mutual Help (6:1-10)
• Conclusion and Benediction (6:11-18)

Galatians 5 NLT

1 So Christ has truly set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied up again in slavery to the law. 

2Listen! I, Paul, tell you this: If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you. 

3 I’ll say it again. If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses. 

4 For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace. 

5 But we who live by the Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has promised to us.

6 For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is important is faith expressing itself in love. 

7 You were running the race so well. Who has held you back from following the truth? 

8 It certainly isn’t God, for he is the one who called you to freedom. 

9 This false teaching is like a little yeast that spreads through the whole batch of dough!

10 I am trusting the Lord to keep you from believing false teachings. God will judge that person, whoever he is, who has been confusing you. 

11 Dear brothers and sisters, if I were still preaching that you must be circumcised—as some say I do—why am I still being persecuted? If I were no longer preaching salvation through the cross of Christ, no one would be offended. 

12 I just wish that those troublemakers who want to mutilate you by circumcision would mutilate themselves. 

13 For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love. 

14 For the whole law can be summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

15 But if you are always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of destroying one another. 

16 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. 

17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions. 

18 But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses. 

19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, 

20idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, 

21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. 

22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 

23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! 

24Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. 

25 Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. 

26 Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.

Galatians 6 NLT

1 Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. 

2 Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. 

3 If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important. 

4 Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else. 

5 For we are each responsible for our own conduct. 

6 Those who are taught the word of God should provide for their teachers, sharing all good things with them. 

7 Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. 

8Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. 

9 So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. 

10 Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith. 

11 NOTICE WHAT LARGE LETTERS I USE AS I WRITE THESE CLOSING WORDS IN MY OWN HANDWRITING. 

12 Those who are trying to force you to be circumcised want to look good to others. They don’t want to be persecuted for teaching that the cross of Christ alone can save. 

13 And even those who advocate circumcision don’t keep the whole law themselves. They only want you to be circumcised so they can boast about it and claim you as their disciples. 

14 As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world’s interest in me has also died. 

15 It doesn’t matter whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation. 

16 May God’s peace and mercy be upon all who live by this principle; they are the new people of God.

17 From now on, don’t let anyone trouble me with these things. For I bear on my body the scars that show I belong to Jesus. 

18 Dear brothers and sisters, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.