Galatians 1:11-12  :

But I make known to you, brothers, concerning the Good News which was preached by me, that it is not according to man. For neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came to me through revelation of Jesus Christ.

Paul was a very special person in that he was chosen by God to receive a direct message from Jesus Christ. These are some of the verses that reveal this fact. Here we see that Paul is stressing the fact that no man gave him the message that he was teaching. He has more to say about this in the verses to come.

God chose certain prophets from among the rest with a specific duty to speak and sometimes write God’s message. Paul was obviously one of those special prophets. Peter recognized Jesus’ revelation through Paul:

2 Peter 3:15-16  :

Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you; as also in all of his letters, speaking in them of these things. In those, there are some things that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unsettled twist, as they also do to the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

Notice that Peter regards the letters of Paul as “Scripture” here? Here we read that Peter recognized the “wisdom given to him.” He recognized that it was, indeed, written down too. What is the significance of “Scripture?” Well, that is defined for us too:

2 Timothy 3:16-17  :

Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Paul’s revelation from Jesus Christ, is important for us to recognize. This is a direct source of information from Jesus and we would do well to treat it as such and not try to change it in any way. Like Peter said above, “ignorant and unsettled twist” the “hard to understand” message that Paul speaks. I want to make sure that we go through this carefully so that we can understand it to the best of our abilities.