In this lesson we look at some background to Paul’s letter. In our next lesson, we will look at its structure and its salutation, doxology, and benediction. The following lesson will consider five special appeals at intervals throughout the letter. These appeals mark out the main sections of the letter. Next we will think about the main issue in Galatians, namely that Christians are not under law but under grace. Our last four lessons will look at the four main sections of the letter.

So the study plan for this series on Galatians is...

• Prologue, (seven familiar key verses).
• Background, (this introductory lesson)
• Outline/structure, (plus salutation, doxology, and benediction)
• The five appeals
• The main issue ("Not under law")
• Setting the record straight
• A Challenge to the churches
• An allegory explained
• God requires good works

An old but profitable letter

Paul’s letter to Galatians is an ancient letter, written around AD56 which makes it over 1940 years old. The original letter no longer exists, but many copies of it over 1500 years old still survive in museums.

Although the letter is very old, we still need its teaching today in this 21st century. Paul claims that his teaching --including this letter-- came from God. "I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came to me by revelation of Jesus Christ" (Gal 1:12). Because Galatians is God-breathed scripture, it is profitable for our souls (2Tm 3:16) even though it is so very old.

Where is Galatia?

Nobody knows exactly where the churches of Galatia were located, but the general area (called Turkey today) is above Cyprus north of the Great Sea (the Mediterranean).

The Jews in Galatia

Peter also wrote to the Galatians. He mentions "exiles of the dispersion" who were there (1Pe 1:1). This refers to Jews whose homeland was Judea, its capital Jerusalem. Social, political, economic, and religious pressures caused many Jews to migrate to places like Galatia, where they were still able to keep in touch with "home".

The Jews establishes synagogues around the world. Ruins of some of these can still be found today in what was once Galatia. Inside these synagogues Paul would teach the Jews, and make converts of some to Jesus Christ.

False doctrine in Galatia

You would think Paul would have an easier time with Jewish Christians than with Gentile converts of pagan background. It turned out, however, that Jewish converts were spreading a false doctrine that Christians must keep Jewish laws and customs to be saved (Acts 15:1). This doctrine arose in Judea, spread up to Syrian Antioch, and then on to Galatia. Paul actively disputed and debated with the false teachers.

So much of what Paul says in the letter is an argument stating Paul’s position on the issue of whether Christians have to keep the Jewish law of Moses. It was no academic question. It was a matter of salvation.

• The false teachers made it so. "Certain ones who came down from Judea (to Syrian Antioch) were teaching the brothers, saying, 'If you are not circumcised according to Moses’s custom, you cannot be saved'". (Acts 15:1).
• Paul made it so. "You have been severed from Christ, you who seek to be justified by the law --you have fallen from grace" (Gal 5:4).

Paul was referring to this doctrine --although the general application, to any and all false teaching, is not lost on us-- when he said, "If anybody preaches to you a doctrine other than that which we have preached, let him be accursed" (Gal 1:8-9).

With this background in mind, we will attempt, in our next lesson, to outline Paul’s letter to the Galatians, as a preparation for studying the text of the letter.

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