I have two small children, and I want them to grow up loving God’s Word. I have found that most Bibles available for children are mostly narrative. There are a few outliers, but none of them cover the epistles. This project, beginning with Galatians, is my endeavour to simplify and summarize the epistles for the benefit of early readers or new believers. This is a work in progress. It may not be easily readable to a 5 year old, but it is meant to cover some of that “untread” territory in children’s Bible resources.
Please note: this is NOT a new translation. It is not the inspired Word of God. It is a paraphrase and an attempt at simplifying Biblical concepts for those who are new to them.

GALATIANS
CHAPTER 1
A letter from Paul to the churches in Galatia.
I greet you with the grace and peace of God the Father and our Lord Jesus.
God sent Jesus. He willingly gave himself to take away our sins, to rescue us from evil.
He gave you grace. He called you.
This is God’s will. This is the one TRUE gospel.
But I am surprised that you are leaving this message. This is serious. If anyone…even if I, Paul, preach something different than the true gospel – I hope they are cursed!
The true gospel – it isn’t made up by people. I was not given this message by men, but directly from Jesus Himself when He appeared to me.
You know my story. I was committed to Judaism and I persecuted God’s church. I even tried to destroy it! But God had a plan for me even before I was born. He had favor* on me and He allowed me to see Jesus. My mission changed. I tried to erase the message. Now I wanted to spread it all over the world.*

CHAPTER 2
I went away for three years and the Church heard rumors about my conversion. They said, “He tried to destroy the gospel. Now he is preaching it!” When I went to the Church in Jerusalem, I met with the leaders there. They listened to my testimony and recognized my mission to preach to the Gentiles. God gave me power just as He gave Peter power to preach. The Church leaders gave me Barnabas as a helper. They commissioned us and instructed us to remember the poor.
While I was in Jerusalem, I noticed a group of powerful and influential people in the Church. They said that you must follow Jewish traditions to be a true Christian. So even Peter became afraid to eat with the Gentile believers (because the Gentiles did not follow these traditions). Peter was wrong so I confronted him about this. “How can you force Gentiles to do Jewish traditions? They are not saved by these things!”
Galatians, when we believe in Jesus, God calls us righteous (justified). We cannot be justified by the things we do. Only Jesus’s work takes away our sin. He loved us and He died for us. Our old life of sin is dead; it was crucified with Jesus on the cross. We have new life because Christ lives in us! Now every day we live this life by faith* in Him.
We cannot add anything to what Jesus has done! It is enough. Stop trying to achieve righteousness by the Law!

CHAPTER 3
When you believe in Jesus, you receive the Holy Spirit from God. He works in your life every day to make you more like Jesus. Why are you trying to perfect yourself by doing all the rules in the Law? Is the Holy Spirit not enough?
Galatians, you have a choice. You can live by the Law. Or you can live by faith. If you live by the Law, you have to be perfect! And you have to keep doing it. It is a curse! But Jesus took away that curse by dying on the cross. (vv 9-14)
The Christian life is a life of faith. The prophet Habbakuk said that “the righteous shall live by faith.” Even Abraham long ago had faith in God and Abraham was called righteous because of it. God gives this same blessing to all nations: anyone who believes in Jesus will be called righteous by God.
And when God gives a promise, nothing can stop it. It cannot be canceled or changed. The Law came 430 years later but it did not change this promise to Abraham: believe God and you will be blessed with His righteousness.
So, why does the Law exist? Because of sin. It shows us that we are guilty, that we have broken God’s standard. It is a tutor showing us that we need Jesus. It is meant to push us towards God’s promise of righteousness by faith.
We are sinners under the Law. We are righteous under Christ. We are now children of God because of Jesus. We are clothed in Him. And this is available to everyone! It doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or Gentile, slave or free, man or woman. We are all one in Christ! If you are people of faith, then you are called children of Abraham. (v 29)

CHAPTER 4
In a Roman family, a young child has very little freedom. He is told what to do and when to do it. But when the father decides the child is ready, he adopts the child. The child becomes an heir of everything the parents have.
God is like that father and we were like that child. We had no freedom. We were slaves to sin, under the Law. But then God chose a time to send Jesus. He brought us out from the Law and He adopted us. Now we have a relationship with Him. We can call Him our Father! And He gave us His Holy Spirit.
So why do you keep trying to go back to your old life? It was full of rules and rituals!
When I came to preach the gospel to you, I was very sick. I was a burden to you. But you did not reject me. Instead, you welcomed me. You were doing well. But am I your enemy now that I am challenging (confronting) you?
These people – they pursue you, but not for your good. They are manipulating you. They are creating a “club” that you want to join. I pursue you too but for this goal: I want to see Christ living in you more and more every day. You are like my spiritual children.
You know the Law well, so i will give you this allegory. Abraham had two sons – one from Hagar and one from Sarah. One is the son of a slave (Hagar) and one is the son of freedom (Sarah). One is from human work and the other one is from God’s promise. Brothers and sisters, we are children of God’s promise. We are children in freedom. We will inherit all that God has for us.

CHAPTER 5
Jesus set us free so we could be free forever. Keep living in that freedom. Don’t go back to the things that locked you up.
The Law is one of those things – like being in prison doing hard labor. If you do the traditions of the Law, you have to obey the whole Law. You are trying to be righteous from the Law. But then why did Jesus die for you? He already calls you righteous! You are pushing Jesus away from you. And you are falling away from the teaching of grace.
But instead, we have faith and the help from the Holy Spirit. They help us to depend on the righteousness that God gives us. And faith that results in love – nothing else has weight on God’s scales.
You had this faith once. You were running well. Who put up the hurdles so that you stopped obeying the truth? Whoever this person is, they have caused enough trouble. Just a little yeast affects the whole lump of dough. There will be a consequence for all the confusion they have created.
I say it again: you were called to be free. But don’t use your freedom for selfish reasons. Instead serve others in love. “You must love your neighbor as yourself.” (Lev 19:18). if you did this one verse, you would complete everything in the Law.
And here is how we accomplish this: Live your life by the Holy Spirit. Go in the direction He leads you. Then you will not do the selfish and sinful things your flesh* wants to do. There is a battle inside you. The flesh wants the opposite of what the Spirit wants. But if you are led by the Spirit, you do not have to try on your own (in the flesh).
The flesh on its own will only result in these things: immorality, twisted motives, idol worship, witchcraft, hatred, fighting, jealousy, anger that lashes out / uncontrolled, selfish motives, rebellion, division, drunkenness, wild parties. and things like these. Be careful! If you love sin and keep doing these things, you will not receive God’s kingdom!
But instead, the Holy Spirit produces these in your life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, righteousness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. And there is no law that says these things are wrong. They are always good!
You belong to Jesus. The things your flesh wants to do – nail them to the cross. Walk by the Spirit. Be like a soldier – keep in step with Him every moment.
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You know the truth. You have the Holy Spirit. But be humble. Don’t think that you are better than others or that you know more. Don’t provoke each other and don’t be angry about other peoples’ spiritual “successes.”

CHAPTER 6
Instead, look out for one another. You who are spiritual (walking by the Spirit), help the one who keeps falling into a sin. Strengthen them so that they can walk on the right path. Watch out that you do not also fall into sin’s trap!
Instead of putting burdens on each other, carry each other’s burdens. When you do this this, you will do what Christ commanded: love one another like He loved us.
Don’t look at yourself as something and other people as nothing. Instead, look at yourself as nothing. I say it again: don’t trick yourself into thinking you are better than another.
Each person has their own walk with God. You do not need to compare your spirituality to another. Focus on your own walk. Constantly inspect it.
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You reap what you sow. If you plant seeds for your flesh, you will only harvest destruction. But if you plant seeds for the Spirit, you will harvest eternal life.
Support those who teach you God’s Word. By doing this, you will be planting seeds for God’s Kingdom.
Don’t get tired of doing good. Be patient and you will see God’s harvest of blessing. Don’t give up!
Do good to all people, especially to our brothers and sisters in Jesus. Do this at every opportunity.
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I want you to know I am writing this with my own hand. This is important. There are those in the church who follow the Law and they look good on the outside. They can brag about their accomplishments and how many followers they have. But they avoid the hard road – the cross of Jesus. But for me, may I only boast about the cross. Because of it, the world is dead to me and I am dead to the world.
You might choose to follow the Law or not follow the Law. But the thing that truly matters is the new life that God has given us. The ones who live as new creations – these are the people of God. May God’s peace and mercy be upon them.
I have many scars from following Jesus. Do not let these bad teachers be another burden.
Brothers and sisters, may God’s grace keep you going in your faith.