Catholic Commentary on Galatians 1

"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." (Galatians 1:6)

The Letter of Freedom

Galatians is the most urgent of Paul's letters, written in anger and grief to communities in the Roman province of Galatia that he had founded and that are now being seduced by teachers who insist that Gentile converts must be circumcised and observe the Mosaic Law to be fully saved. Paul does not begin with his usual thanksgiving. He goes straight to the crisis: 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. The desertion is not from Paul but from God. The different gospel is not really a gospel at all. And if anyone, even an angel from heaven, preaches a gospel other than the one Paul preached, let them be under God's curse. He says it twice, for emphasis.

Paul then defends the divine origin of his Gospel: he did not receive it from any human source, nor was he taught it. He received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. He recounts his pre-Christian past as a persecutor of the Church and his conversion, after which he did not consult with any human being, did not go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles, but went into Arabia and returned to Damascus. It was three years before he went to Jerusalem to meet Peter, staying fifteen days. His Gospel was not derived from the apostles in Jerusalem; it came independently from the same risen Christ who appeared to them.

Living the Word

Brothers and sisters, Paul's astonishment at the Galatians' desertion is a measure of how quickly the Gospel can be distorted when additional requirements are attached to grace. Every generation of Christians faces its own version of the Galatian error: the subtle addition of conditions to the free gift, the suggestion that grace alone is not quite enough. Test every teaching you receive against the original Gospel: salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone. If anything is added as a requirement for full standing before God, the curse of Galatians 1 applies.

Prayer

Lord God, guard us from every distortion of the Gospel that adds human conditions to your free grace. Let the revelation you gave Paul be the revelation that governs our faith: not another gospel, not an improved gospel, but the one Gospel of Jesus Christ crucified and risen. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Galatians
1
Paul’s Greeting to the Galatians
1 Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead— 2 and all the brothers with me,
 
To the churches of Galatia:
 
3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,* 1:3 SBL, BYZ, and TR God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ 4 who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.
No Other Gospel
 
6 I am amazed how quickly you are deserting the One who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 which is not even a gospel. Evidently some people are troubling you and trying to distort the gospel of Christ.
 
8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be under a curse! 9 As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be under a curse!
Paul Preaches the Gospel
 
10 Am I now seeking the approval 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 servant of Christ. 11 For I certify to you, brothers, that the gospel I preached was not devised by man.† 1:11 Literally not according to man 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 former way of life in Judaism, how severely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. 14 I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries 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, I did not rush to consult with flesh and blood, 17 nor did I go up to Jerusalem to the apostles who came before me, but I went into Arabia and later returned to Damascus.
 
18 Only after three years did I go up to Jerusalem to confer with Cephas,‡ 1:18 That is, Peter and I stayed with him fifteen days. 19 But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. 20 I assure you before God that what I am writing to you is no lie.
 
21 Later I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22 I was personally unknown, however, to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23 They only heard the account: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” 24 And they glorified God because of me.

*1:3 1:3 SBL, BYZ, and TR God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ

†1:11 1:11 Literally not according to man

‡1:18 1:18 That is, Peter

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