Galatians

About Galatians

Galatians is Paul's most fiery letter, written to churches being told they had to keep the Jewish law to be fully God's people. Paul insists that people are made right with God through faith in Christ alone, and that the freedom Christ gives leads not to selfishness but to love shaped by the Spirit. In the Bible's big story, Galatians shows how God's ancient promise to Abraham finally reaches all nations through Jesus.

Written by

Paul wrote Galatians, and his authorship is accepted on all sides.

When

Scholars genuinely differ on the date: some place it around AD 48-49, which would make it Paul's earliest letter, while others date it to the mid-50s.

Themes

• Faith, not works of the law
• Freedom in Christ
• The fruit of the Spirit
• One family in Christ

Key verses

• Galatians 2:20I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
• Galatians 5:1It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not be encumbered once more by a yoke of slavery.
• Galatians 5:22-23But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.