Galatians 1:10-24

content/bible_journal/galatians_1:10-24.md

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+title = "Galatians 1:10–24"
+date = "2023-08-02"
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+
+### [Read the passage.](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Galatians1.10-24)
+
+In order to back up his claims that the gospel he preached to the Galatians,
+Paul relates to them how he received the gospel, his conversion, and his early
+history with the Church. His opponents had been accusing him of changing his
+message to suit his audience and that he was a renegade preaching something
+different from the "true apostles" in Jerusalem.
+
+Paul begins his argument by saying he wouldn't be a servant of Christ. Most of
+the time when you see "servant" in the New Testament, the Greek word is more
+literally "bondservant" which would be better translated as "slave", with all
+the connotations that implies. Slavery was very common in the Roman Empire, but
+it was usually entered into voluntarily and there was more opportunity to buy
+one's freedom back than there was in the Atlantic slave trade system. Paul
+considers his service to Christ as bought and paid for. What he preaches, then,
+comes directly from his Master and not from some chain of apostolic authority.
+(Which is how the Jewish rabbis taught: "As was said by my teacher Gamaliel,
+who was taught by…"; a practice Paul was very familiar with.)
+
+After his conversion, Paul takes great pains to say where he went and whom he
+spoke with during that time. Shortly after meeting Jesus on the road to
+Damascus, he escaped to Arabia to avoid those who wanted to kill him. (See
+[Acts 9:23–25](https://biblia.com/bible/esv/Acts9.23-25).) He returned to
+Damascus at some point, but only after three years did he go to Jerusalem to
+meet the other apostles. Yet, when he went, he only saw Peter and James
+(Jesus's brother, not John's) and only for fifteen days. He had already been
+preaching in the synogogues before this visit that Jesus was the Messiah, and
+he didn't need any training or approval from the apostles to do so.
+
+Note how Paul says in verse 15 that his conversion was planned out by God
+before he was even born, and that it was the grace of God that brought it
+about. Throughout his letters he brings up both of these concepts. God's will
+and His purposes bring about salvation to all who believe, and there's nothing
+anyone can do or not do to deter it.
+
+* * *
+
+You are mighty to save and only You can bring it about.