Galatians
Paul's angriest letter, about why you cannot earn what was given to you.
Who wrote it: Paul, undisputed. Dated anywhere from about 48 to 55 AD, depending on which region he means by Galatia. Possibly his earliest surviving letter.
What it is
Most of Paul's letters open with thanks. Galatians skips it. 'I marvel that you are so quickly deserting', it begins. Paul had planted churches among non-Jews in the region of Galatia (central Turkey) and told them that trusting Jesus was enough. After he left, other teachers arrived saying that was incomplete: to really belong to God's people, the men needed to be circumcised and everyone needed to keep the Jewish law. The Galatians were going along with it. Paul saw this as the gospel being lost, and he wrote like it.
The first two chapters are autobiography. Paul insists his message came from Jesus directly, not from the Jerusalem apostles, and that when he did meet them they added nothing. He even describes confronting Peter in public for backing away from eating with non-Jews when conservative visitors turned up. The point: this is not Paul's opinion against Jerusalem's. It is the gospel, and even Peter had to be called out on it.
Chapters 3 and 4 are the argument. Abraham was counted righteous by trust, 430 years before the law existed. The law was a guardian for a child, and the child has now come of age. Anyone who relies on keeping the law is under a curse because nobody keeps it, and Christ took that curse on the cross. The result is chapter 3:28: no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female. All one in Christ. It was a radical sentence then and it is a radical sentence now.
Chapters 5 and 6 answer the obvious objection: if there are no rules, won't people just do whatever? Paul's answer is the Spirit. Freedom is not for indulging yourself; it is for serving each other in love. The 'works of the flesh' list and the 'fruit of the Spirit' list sit side by side, and the difference is not effort but what you are being grown by. It ends in Paul's own large handwriting: I carry the marks of Jesus on my body. He means the scars.
Verses worth keeping
I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. That life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.
Gen Zsame meaning, your wordsI've been crucified with Christ. It's not me living any more; Christ lives in me. And the life I'm living now in this body, I live by trusting the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me.
'Loved me' is singular. Paul is not talking in the abstract.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Gen Zsame meaning, your wordsThere's no Jew or Greek here, no slave or free, no male and female. You are all one in Christ Jesus.
In a world built on those three divisions, this was the most leveling sentence anyone had written.
Stand firm therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and don’t be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
Gen Zsame meaning, your wordsChrist set us free so that we'd be free. So stand your ground, and don't let anyone strap the old harness back on you.
The hinge of the letter. Everything before it explains the freedom; everything after it explains what to do with it.
Let’s not be weary in doing good, for we will reap in due season if we don’t give up.
Gen Zsame meaning, your wordsLet's not get worn out doing good, because at the right time we'll see the harvest, if we don't give up.
It admits that doing good is tiring. The promise is not that it stops being tiring.
Read Galatians
The full text, every chapter, from the World English Bible, a modern public-domain translation. Pick a chapter below. The highlighted verses are the place to start if you have never read it.
Galatians 5
1Stand firm therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and don’t be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
2Behold, I, Paul, tell you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing. 3Yes, I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is a debtor to do the whole law. 4You are alienated from Christ, you who desire to be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace. 5For we through the Spirit, by faith wait for the hope of righteousness. 6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision amounts to anything, but faith working through love.
7You were running well! Who interfered with you that you should not obey the truth? 8This persuasion is not from him who calls you. 9A little yeast grows through the whole lump. 10I have confidence toward you in the Lord that you will think no other way. But he who troubles you will bear his judgment, whoever he is.
11But I, brothers, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? Then the stumbling block of the cross has been removed. 12I wish that those who disturb you would cut themselves off.
13For you, brothers, were called for freedom. Only don’t use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants to one another. 14For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15But if you bite and devour one another, be careful that you don’t consume one another.
16But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you won’t fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, that you may not do the things that you desire. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19Now the deeds of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness, 20idolatry, sorcery, hatred, strife, jealousies, outbursts of anger, rivalries, divisions, heresies, 21envy, murders, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these; of which I forewarn you, even as I also forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit God’s Kingdom.
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith, 23gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.
25If we live by the Spirit, let’s also walk by the Spirit. 26Let’s not become conceited, provoking one another, and envying one another.
Questions about Galatians
Is Paul saying the Old Testament law was bad?
No. He calls it a guardian and says it was given by God for a season, to show sin for what it is and lead people to Christ. What he attacks is using law-keeping as the way to be accepted by God. Christians disagree about how much of the law still applies and how, but Galatians is not anti-Old-Testament; it quotes it constantly.
Does Galatians 3:28 mean men and women have identical roles?
Christians disagree. Some read it as the charter for full equality in every role, including leadership. Others say it is about equal standing before God, not about roles. Everyone agrees it says that in Christ the old hierarchies of status do not determine who belongs. What that implies in practice is a live conversation.
Who were the Galatians?
Either ethnic Galatians in the north of what is now Turkey, or people in the Roman province of Galatia to the south, which includes the cities Paul visited in Acts 13 and 14. Scholars are split. The southern view gives an earlier date, around 48 AD, which would make this Paul's first surviving letter.