[1:11] Let me tell you, my friends, that the gospel I preach is not of human origin.
[1:12] I did not receive it from any human being, nor did anyone teach it to me. It was Jesus Christ himself who revealed it to me.
[1:13] You have been told how I used to live when I was devoted to the Jewish religion, how I persecuted without mercy the church of God and did my best to destroy it.
[1:14] I was ahead of most other Jews of my age in my practice of the Jewish religion, and was much more devoted to the traditions of our ancestors.
[1:15] But God in his grace chose me even before I was born, and called me to serve him. And when he decided
[1:16] to reveal his Son to me, so that I might preach the Good News about him to the Gentiles, I did not go to anyone for advice,
[1:17] nor did I go to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before me. Instead, I went at once to Arabia, and then I returned to Damascus.
[1:18] It was three years later that I went to Jerusalem to obtain information from Peter, and I stayed with him for two weeks.
[1:19] I did not see any other apostle except James, the Lord's brother.
[1:20] What I write is true. God knows that I am not lying!
[1:21] Afterward I went to places in Syria and Cilicia.
[1:22] At that time the members of the churches in Judea did not know me personally.
[1:23] They knew only what others were saying: “The man who used to persecute us is now preaching the faith that he once tried to destroy!”
[1:24] And so they praised God because of me.