Paul’s Personal Testimony

Galatians 1:11–17
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Gospel

It seems that the Judaizers had called into question Paul’s authority to teach spiritual truths. Paul begins with a testimony of his past conduct as an unconverted Jewish rabbi (vv. 13-17). He told how he loved religion but hated Christians and persecuted them. In fact, it was religion that kept him from Christ for so long. Then something happened to him on the way to Damascus that turned his life completely around. This change did not come gradually, but it all happened suddenly and without warning (Acts 9:1-9). He had been on his way to Damascus to persecute the Christians and a few days later he was in Damascus telling the Jews that the Christians were right.

In Paul’s day many Jews had difficulty understanding that God’s message is for Jews and Gentiles alike. They thought of all Gentiles as heathen. Some Jews even thought that Gentiles had to become Jews before they could become Christians. They avoided Gentiles, believing that contact with them would make them spiritually corrupt. He explains to them that he did not invent the gospel, nor did he receive it from men, but he received it from Jesus Christ. The gospel Paul preached came directly from God, without the help of human instruction (vv. 11-12). Paul received his instruction from Christ personally, whereas today God’s message to man is complete and comes to us through the Bible. We need to be on guard to any who may claim to have received direct revelation from God as many cult leaders do today. The guiding principles for our life are found in the Word of God. To know His will for our life we must get to know His Word.

Application

It is always great to see someone who once was very hostile to Christianity become a follower of Jesus Christ? No matter how opposed someone may be to the things of Christ, I should not shy away from them but be ready to witness to them and see how “God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (II Peter 3:9).