Read the Bible

¹ This letter is from Paul, a cowboy for Jesus. I was chosen to be a cowboy, but not by anyone here on earth. The authority I've been given came from Jesus himself and his Dad, who raised his boy up from the dead. ² All the other cowboys in my outfit send howdies as well.

To the cowboys in God's outfits in Galatia:

³ I hope y'all are filled with grace and peace that comes from riding for the brand. This doesn't come from what we do, it comes from God through our ride with Jesus. ⁴ Jesus set us free from sin when he died on that cross. As hard as it is to believe, this was God's plan all along. ⁵ And we thank him for that precious act. Thank you, God!

The Only Good News

⁶ Not too long ago, God called you to ride for his outfit through his son, Jesus. I'm appalled you are now riding for another brand. There is only one good news message, but y'all have jumped the fence and are chasing something else. ⁷ Let me be clear, there is only one good news message, but some people have convinced y'all otherwise. They're doing everything they can to change the message. ⁸ Don't let anyone tell y'all something different than what we passed along to you. Anyone who says differently than we did should be shunned—even if it was an angel or one of us. ⁹ I've said this before and I'll say it again. You've already believed the good news and are riding for the brand. Anyone who tries to tell you differently is a counterfeit and should be cursed.

¹⁰ If you think I ride for the brand so people will like me, you've got things all twisted up. God is the only one I aim to please. If I wanted people to like me, I wouldn't be riding for the Lord.

Jesus Gave Paul the Message

¹¹ Cowboys and cowgirls, I want you to understand I didn't come up with the good news on my own. It didn't come from human reasoning. ¹² Men didn't teach me what to say, Jesus himself did.

¹³ The way I used to be isn't a secret. When I rode for the Jews, I carried a running iron and tried to wipe out Jesus's brand. I wanted to wipe it off the face of the earth. ¹⁴ I was one of the top Jews in the country. Very few could best me in anything religious. I was bought in, entered up, and tied hard and fast to the religion of my ancestors.

¹⁵ Little did I know though, before I was even born, God had chosen me to ride for his brand. I didn't deserve this kind of grace, but God was pleased ¹⁶ to show me his son and recruit me to ride for his brand. Now my life is all about gathering strays and telling outsiders the good news.

When God showed me his son, I didn't run out to find a human teacher to answer my questions. ¹⁷ I didn't even run up to Jerusalem to talk with the cowboys who rode with Jesus. Instead, I rode off to Arabia and later rode back to Damascus.

¹⁸ Three years later, I rode to Jerusalem to meet Pete. I stayed at his place for about two weeks. ¹⁹ The only other cowboy I met while there was Jesus's brother, James. ²⁰ This here is the truth and you can set it stone.

²¹ After that, I rode north into Syria and Cilicia, ²² but none of the outfits in Judea knew me. ²³ The only thing they knew about me was I was the one who would go to any length to wipe out the name of Jesus, but now I ride for Jesus's brand. ²⁴ Because of this, cowboys from all over Judea praised God that the great enemy of the brand was now its greatest ally.