I have been thinking about Galatians 1 11-24.The verse is considered seminal because Paul clearly defends and justifies his ministry and teaching authority. He states that the Gospel he proclaims came directly from Jesus Christ and not from any man.


Consider how different the revelation to Paul was than it was for the rest of us. We hear the word proclaimed from other humans from texts written down by other humans, all of which has been handed down to us over time. While the other apostles witnessed the ministry of Christ, it was revealed to Paul directly by the Lord. We would have expected that Paul would have learned about the faith like everyone else did – from eye witness accounts passed along person to person in story form. God, once again, confounds our expectations by reaching out directly to Paul.

What does that mean to us? It means that what Paul taught us about how be Christians was revealed directly to him by God. There is no other way he could have learned as much he needed to know to nurture the early church. The Gospels define what our faith is but Paul taught us how to live it. The early Christian Church needed Paul to guide the way.