(Paul says who he is and that this letter is to the Galatians. In a few words, he says some very important ideas about Christ.)
Bible verses: Galatians 1:1-5
A word list at the end of each Bible study explains words that have a *star by them. These are more difficult words.
Introduction
Paul writes his name at the start of this letter. This was what *people did at that time. And Paul does not only write his name. Also he says that he can write the truth about Christ. This is because Paul is a special worker for God.
Galatia was a part of the country that we now call Turkey. Paul writes to a group of churches there. We cannot be sure where these churches were.
Paul writes several letters to groups of new Christians. Many of these letters have the same idea at the beginning. Paul thanks God for the Christians in that place. But here Paul does not start like this. He is not happy with the Christians in Galatia. He wants to write about something that is important. And he wants to do this as soon as possible.
In the next few Bible *studies, Paul explains why he is a special worker for God. He explains why the truth about Christ is very important. He tells them why the new Christians must understand this truth. Wrong ideas might change what they believe. And wrong ideas might cause wrong actions.
Questions to ask
V1, 2 ~ What does Paul say about himself? Why is this important for the new Christians in Galatia?
V1 ~ Paul is afraid that the new Christians will believe wrong ideas. And then they might do wrong actions. So he wants to tell them the truth again. Why must he do this?
V3 ~ What does Paul pray for these young Christians?
V4 ~ What has Christ done?
V4 ~ What two reasons does Paul give for what Christ has done?
V5 ~ Paul says what God has done. And Christ has worked with God. So what should we do?
Something to do
Talk about what our leaders say. Perhaps some of this might pull us away from God. (We still write letters. And Christians talk about God. But we need to be careful about what we read. And we need to be careful about what we hear.)
Talk about why we should teach new Christians.
Write down what we should teach new Christians about Christ.
Words to explain
Abraham ~ the first leader of the Jews.
Church ~ (here) all the Christians in one place.
Israel ~ the country where the Jews lived.
Jew ~ a person who is born from *Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children (*Israel’s *people).
people ~ men and women.
study/studies ~ words that help us to learn more about something.
See the other studies in this series: Explore Paul’s letter to the Galatians.