Galatians 1 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

From Paul — an ambassador not appointed by any human committee or commissioned through any person, but through Jesus, The One, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead —

along with all the brothers and sisters here with me — to the gathered communities across Galatia:

May undeserved kindness and peace be yours from God our Father and the Lord Jesus, The One.

He gave himself for our failures to pull us out of this present corrupt age — exactly as God our Father wanted.

To God be the honor forever and ever. Absolutely.

I'm shocked that you're so quickly walking away from the one who called you by the undeserved kindness of The One, and chasing after a completely different "good news" —

which isn't really good news at all. Some people are just messing with your heads and trying to twist the good news of The One into something it's not.

But even if we — or an angel from heaven — were to announce a different version of the good news than what we originally brought you, let that person be cut off.

I'll say it again: if anyone is announcing a version of good news that contradicts what you already received, let that person be cut off.

Am I trying to win people's approval right now, or God's? Am I trying to make people happy? If I were still a people-pleaser, I wouldn't be a servant of The One.

Here's what I want you to know, brothers and sisters: the good news I announced isn't something humans made up.

I didn't receive it from any person, and nobody taught it to me. It came through a direct revelation from Jesus, The One.

You've heard about how I used to live when I followed the Jewish religion — how I violently attacked the gathered community of God and tried to wipe it out.

I was advancing in the Jewish religion beyond many of my own generation, way more obsessively devoted to my ancestral traditions than they were.

But God — who set me apart before I was even born and called me through his undeserved kindness —

chose to reveal his Son in me so I could announce him among the non-Jewish people. When that happened, I didn't immediately consult with anyone.

I didn't even go up to Jerusalem to see the ambassadors who came before me. Instead, I went away into Arabia and then came back to Damascus.

It wasn't until three years later that I went up to Jerusalem to get to know Kefa, and I stayed with him for fifteen days.

I didn't see any of the other ambassadors — only James, the Lord's brother.

I swear before God that what I'm writing to you is not a lie.

After that, I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia.

The gathered communities of The One in Judea had never even met me in person.

They only kept hearing, "The man who used to attack us is now announcing the very faith he once tried to destroy."

And they praised God because of me.