1 Paul, an Apostle (not from men, and not through man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who made him come back from the dead),
Because I say to you, my brothers, that the good news of which I was the preacher is not man's. For I did not get it from man, and I was not given teaching in it, but it came to me through revelation of Jesus Christ.
And I said, What have I to do, Lord? And the Lord said to me, Get up, and go into Damascus; and it will be made clear to you what you have to do.
But the Lord said, Go without fear: for he is a special vessel for me, to give to the Gentiles and kings and to the children of Israel the knowledge of my name: For I will make clear to him what troubles he will have to undergo for me.
And he said, You have been marked out by the God of our fathers to have knowledge of his purpose, and to see the Upright One and to give ear to the words of his mouth. For you will be a witness for him to all men of what you have seen and of what has come to your ears. And now, why are you waiting? get up, and have baptism, for the washing away of your sins, giving worship to his name. And it came about that when I had come back to Jerusalem, while I was at prayer in the Temple, my senses became more than naturally clear, And I saw him saying to me, Go out of Jerusalem straight away because they will not give hearing to your witness about me. And I said, Lord, they themselves have knowledge that I went through the Synagogues putting in prison and whipping all those who had faith in you: And when Stephen your witness was put to death, I was there, giving approval, and looking after the clothing of those who put him to death. And he said to me, Go, for I will send you far away to the Gentiles.
Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the purpose of God, and Sosthenes the brother,
Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the purpose of God, and Timothy the brother, to the church of God which is in Corinth, with all the saints who are in all Achaia:
Now may the God of peace, who made that great keeper of his flock, even our Lord Jesus, come back from the dead through the blood of the eternal agreement,
To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, was this grace given, so that I might make clear to the Gentiles the good news of the unending wealth of Christ:
And I was dead, and see, I am living for ever, and I have the keys of death and of Hell.
And from Jesus Christ, the true witness, the first to come back from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who had love for us and has made us clean from our sins by his blood;
Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the purpose of God, in the hope of the life which is in Christ Jesus,
Which may be seen in the good news of the glory of the great God, which was given into my care. I give praise to him who gave me power, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he took me to be true, making me his servant, Though I had said violent words against God, and done cruel acts, causing great trouble: but I was given mercy, because I did it without knowledge, not having faith; And the grace of our Lord was very great, with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
And I went not up to Jerusalem to those who were Apostles before me; but I went away into Arabia, and again I came back to Damascus.
Do we seem to be again attempting to put ourselves in the right? or have we need, as some have, of letters of approval to you or from you? You yourselves are our letter, whose writing is in our heart, open for every man's reading and knowledge; For you are clearly a letter of Christ, the fruit of our work, recorded not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in stone, but in hearts of flesh.
But for us in addition, to whose account it will be put, if we have faith in him who made Jesus our Lord come back again from the dead, Who was put to death for our evil-doing, and came to life again so that we might have righteousness.
But was marked out as Son of God in power by the Holy Spirit through the coming to life again of the dead; Jesus Christ our Lord, Through whom grace has been given to us, sending us out to make disciples to the faith among all nations, for his name:
But get up on your feet: for I have come to you for this purpose, to make you a servant and a witness of the things in which you have seen me, and of those in which you will see me; And I will keep you safe from the people, and from the Gentiles, to whom I send you, To make their eyes open, turning them from the dark to the light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may have forgiveness of sins and a heritage among those who are made holy by faith in me.
And Jesus came to them and said, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go then, and make disciples of all the nations, giving them baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: Teaching them to keep all the rules which I have given you: and see, I am ever with you, even to the end of the world.
And while they were doing the Lord's work, and going without food, the Holy Spirit said, Let Barnabas and Saul be given to me for the special work for which they have been marked out by me. Then, after prayer and going without food they put their hands on them, and sent them away. So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia; and from there they went by ship to Cyprus.
And put to death the Lord of life; whom God gave back from the dead; of which fact we are witnesses.
But God gave him back to life, having made him free from the pains of death because it was not possible for him to be overcome by it. For David said of him, I saw the Lord before my face at all times, for he is at my right hand, so that I may not be moved: And for this cause my heart was glad and my tongue full of joy, and my flesh will be resting in hope: For you will not let my soul be in hell and you will not give up your Holy One to destruction. You have made me see the ways of life; I will be full of joy when I see your face. My brothers, I may say to you openly that David came to his death, and was put in the earth, and his resting-place is with us today. But being a prophet, and having in mind the oath which God had given to him, that of the fruit of his body one would take his place as a king, He, having knowledge of the future, was talking of the coming again of Christ from the dead, that he was not kept in hell and his body did not see destruction. This Jesus God has given back to life, of which we all are witnesses.
My brothers, the word of God had to be put into effect, which the Holy Spirit had said before, by the mouth of David, about Judas, who was guide to those who took Jesus, For he was numbered among us, and had his part in our work. (Now this man, with the reward of his evil-doing, got for himself a field, and falling head first, came to a sudden and violent end there. And this came to the knowledge of all those who were living in Jerusalem, so that the field was named in their language, Akel-dama, or, The field of blood.) For in the book of Psalms it says, Let his house be waste, and let no man be living in it: and, Let his position be taken by another. For this reason, of the men who have been with us all the time, while the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, Starting from the baptism of John till he went up from us, one will have to be a witness with us of his coming back from death. And they made selection of two, Joseph, named Barsabbas, whose other name was Justus, and Matthias. And they made prayers and said, Lord, having knowledge of the hearts of all men, make clear which of these two has been marked out by you, To take that position as a servant and Apostle, from which Judas by his sin was shut out, so that he might go to his place. And they put it to the decision of chance, and the decision was given for Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven Apostles.
And Jesus said to them again, May peace be with you! As the Father sent me, even so I now send you.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Galatians 1
Commentary on Galatians 1 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 1
In this chapter, after the preface or introduction (v. 1-5), the apostle severely reproves these churches for their defection from the faith (v. 6-9), and then proves his own apostleship, which his enemies had brought them to question,
Gal 1:1-5
In these verses we have the preface or introduction to the epistle, where observe,
The apostle, having thus taken notice of the great love wherewith Christ hath loved us, concludes this preface with a solemn ascription of praise and glory to him (v. 5): To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Intimating that on this account he is justly entitled to our highest esteem and regard. Or this doxology may be considered as referring both to God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom he had just before been wishing grace and peace. They are both the proper objects of our worship and adoration, and all honour and glory are perpetually due to them, both on account of their own infinite excellences, and also on account of the blessings we receive from them.
Gal 1:6-9
Here the apostle comes to the body of the epistle; and he begins it with a more general reproof of these churches for their unsteadiness in the faith, which he afterwards, in some following parts of it, enlarges more upon. Here we may observe,
Gal 1:10-24
What Paul had said more generally, in the preface of this epistle, he now proceeds more particularly to enlarge upon. There he had declared himself to be an apostle of Christ; and here he comes more directly to support his claim to that character and office. There were some in the churches of Galatia who were prevailed with to call this in question; for those who preached up the ceremonial law did all they could to lessen Paul's reputation, who preached the pure gospel of Christ to the Gentiles: and therefore he here sets himself to prove the divinity both of his mission and doctrine, that thereby he might wipe off the aspersions which his enemies had cast upon him, and recover these Christians into a better opinion of the gospel he had preached to them. This he gives sufficient evidence of,