Galatians

About Paul's letter to the Galatians

Paul wrote this letter to the Christians who lived in Galatia. Galatia was a region in the country that we now call Turkey. Paul had visited many towns in that region. As a result of his visits, many people there had become Christians. Most of these Christians were not Jewish. They were Gentiles. But after Paul had left Galatia, certain Jewish believers visited them. They told the Gentile Christians, ‘You cannot really be God's people unless you let someone circumcise you, like we Jews do.’
Paul was angry that those Jewish believers had tried to teach wrong ideas to the Christians. He was sad that the Christians in Galatia had accepted those wrong ideas. He wrote this letter to explain more clearly why they did not need to obey the Jewish rules, like circumcision. When Christ died on the cross, his sacrifice was enough to save us from our sins.