Galatians 1

Next, I'm going to move to some short letters of Paul that are often clumped together and are found together in the Bible: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. I have read most of each of the books before but never altogether in their entireties with the exception of Philippians. So, we start with Galatians, and here's the chapter: http://www.esvbible.org/Galatians+1/

Paul begins by reminding the Church in Galatia that he receives his missions from God, not man. No person orders Paul where to go because he only goes where the Holy Spirit leads him. Like in Corinthians, he begins with a greeting talking about how great God is and how he has extended so much to us through Jesus.

Paul starts off pretty angry because the Galatians are turning away from God so quickly after Paul left when people spreading false teachings about Christianity came about. Paul traveled to Galatia during his extensive travelling and had great success with the Galatians, but they now leave for false good news. Paul tells them that anyone who teaches any good news that is different from the Good News, should be condemned to hell. These people are only out to confuse people and take them away from God. They want to gain a following for themselves instead of for Christ. Paul says he doesn't say this to please people because if he wanted to please people, he would not be a servant of Christ. Sometimes, doing things that are what Christ wants us to do are not considered the popular things to do, but we must stick to what Jesus teaches us because Christ only has our best interests in mind.

Paul tells the Galatians that the message he spreads does not come from people but from God Himself. We know Paul's story from Acts, and the Galatians had heard it from Paul. He was the most devout Jew there was in his age group, and he followed all the rules. That is why he wanted the church gone so badly: it didn't follow Jewish rules though it was made, at that point, entirely of Jewish people. Then, the Lord told Paul that it was his job to tell non-Jewish people that Jesus is the Good News. When Paul heard the Lord, he did not ask other people what they though; he went fo it because he trusted God and His plan. It wasn't even until three years later that Paul met with any of the apostles, and when he did, he only met with Peter. The only thing the churches in Judea knew about him was that he once persecuted the church, but now he spreads it. God used Paul despite his past after he became a believer.