You have heard of my former conduct when I was attached to the Jewish religion??ow furiously I used to persecute the church of God and ravage it,

But when God who had set me apart from my very birth,

[And when I was called], God revealed His Son to me so that I could preach [about] Him to the Gentiles. [When this happened] I immediately avoided discussing the matter with anyone.

I did not go up to Jerusalem to [discuss it with] those who had become apostles before me either; instead I went away into Arabia. [Note: This is probably when Paul received supernatural power from the Holy Spirit]. Then afterward, I returned to Damascus. [Note: This was in Syria where Paul was converted].

On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel for the uncircumcised, just as Peter has with the gospel for the circumcised

(for he that had wrought powerfully in Peter with respect to his apostleship among the Jews, had also wrought powerfully in me upon account of the Gentiles:) and when James,

and when they recognized the grace which had been given to me, James and Cephas and John, then thought to be pillars, gave to Barnabas and to me the right hand of fellowship. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the Jews.

But when Cephas came to Antioch I resisted him to his face, because he stood self-condemned.

For until certain men came from James he used to eat with the Gentile Christians, but when they came, he began to draw back and to separate himself, because he was afraid of the circumcision party.

But when I saw that they were not walking a straight path, in the presence of the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all. "If you, although you are a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, why do you try to compel the Gentiles to become Jews?

I really convict myself of wrongdoing when I start to rebuild what I tore down.

You senseless Galatians! Who has bewitched you, when you had Jesus Christ shown crucified right before your eyes?

Answer me this one question. "When you received the Spirit, was it from doing what the Law commands or from believing the message heard?"

Now when He supplies you with the Spirit and performs His wonder-works among you, does He do it because you do what the law commands, or because you believe the message that you heard --

Because the Scripture saw ahead of time that God would justify the gentiles by faith, it announced the gospel to Abraham beforehand when it said, "Through you all nations will be blessed."

Let me illustrate, brothers, from every-day life. When once a human testament is made, and formally ratified, no one sets it aside or adds to it.

Here is what I am saying: The Agreement originally made by God [with Abraham], with its attending promises, was not canceled when the law of Moses was given some four hundred and thirty years later.

But when faith was come, we were no longer under a paedagogue.

So we Jews also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the empty externalities of the world.

But when the fulness of time was come God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under law,

But once, when you Gentiles had no knowledge of God, you were slaves to gods which have no real being.

Now, however, when you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you are beginning to turn back to those weak and beggarly externalities, eager to be in bondage to them again?

Believers, I beg of you, become as I am [free from the bondage of Jewish ritualism and ordinances], for I have become as you are [a Gentile]. You did me no wrong [when I first came to you; do not do it now].

But you are aware [I am sure] that when I first came preaching the Gospel [message] to you, I had a physical handicap.

And when you could have been tempted to look down on me [because of the nature of my affliction], instead you welcomed me as [if I were] an angel, or even Christ Jesus Himself!

It is always an honorable thing to have your favor sought in an honorable cause, always, and not only when I am with you.

For the entire Law has been obeyed when you have kept the single precept, which says, "You are to love your fellow man equally with yourself."

If a man fancies himself to be somebody when he is really nobody he is deceiving himself.

Let us not be weary of well doing. For when the time is come we shall reap without weariness.

See what large letters I make, when I write to you with my own hand!