J Philip Bible Readings

Galatians 1:10-12

10 For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

11 For I would have you know, brothers, that the gospel that was preached by me is not man’s gospel. 12 For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.

It will be remembered that in 1, Paul asserted the divine origin of his apostolic commission, now in 11 and 12 he proceeds to assert the origin of the message he preached. Neither commission nor message came from man, but from God. Here he explains how that message could have come from no one but God, and he does so by giving, from this point onwards to the end of chapter 2, a historical retrospect of his career, proving - as one of the commentators points out - by an exhaustive process the thesis with which he starts, that the doctrine he taught comes from a divine source and possessed the divine sanction. My doctrine is not human, he exclaims, but divine. It could not be otherwise, for (a) I did not learn it in my youth - very much the contrary, 13, 14; (b) I did not learn it at my conversion, for I went straight into the desert to wrestle with God, 15-17; (c) I did not learn it on my first visit to Jerusalem, for then I saw only Peter and James, and that only for a short time, 18-24; (d) I did not learn it on my later visit, for then I dealt with the apostles on equal terms and was fully and freely acknowledged by them as the apostle to the Gentiles, 2:1-10); (e) I openly rebuked Peter for seeming to withdraw the support he had accorded me, 2:11-14. Thus does Paul establish the fact that this commission was given directly by God, and it is useful for us to realise, as we study his words, that this is the context in which he gives us the account of his conversion which occupies this portion of the epistle.