1 Timothy 1:12-17

Rachel Workman: ¹² I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength to do his work. He considered me trustworthy and appointed me to serve him, ¹³ even though I used to blaspheme the name of Christ. In my insolence, I persecuted his people. But God had mercy on me because I did it in ignorance and unbelief. ¹⁴ Oh, how generous and gracious our Lord was! He filled me with the faith and love that come from Christ Jesus.

I like how Paul states in verse 12 that the Lord has given him strength to do his work. There isn't much we can accomplish on our own. God's mercy surpasses anything we can imagine. I'm not sure we can really truly understand it.

¹⁵ This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all. ¹⁶ But God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive eternal life. ¹⁷ All honor and glory to God forever and ever! He is the eternal King, the unseen one who never dies; he alone is God. Amen. The worst of sinners if you can imagine can still have eternal life. Repent and believe and you shall be saved. Repent means to turn away from your sin, not continue to live in it day after day. If you don’t believe that every sin stated in the Bible is a sin then you have the wrong Jesus. I love verse 17. I do not give God enough honor and glory and for that I am ashamed.

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John Burnett:  ¹² I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, ¹³ even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; ¹⁴ and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵ It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.  Not a more trustworthy statement has been made about me.  Corporately, Christ died for all of the sins of the world, but to understand the salvation of repentance and faith, we have to undertand that individually, our sin alone caused Christ to have to die so that we could be reconciled to God.  ¹⁶ Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those ^[l]who would believe in Him for eternal life. ¹⁷ Now to the King ^[m]eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory ^[n]forever and ever. Amen.  What a beautiful praise of the one and only who is worthy.

¹⁸ This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my ^[o]son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you fight the good fight, ¹⁹ keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to ^[p]their faith. ^20 [q]Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, so that they will be taught not to blaspheme.  Here Paul names names and shows the authority that God has given him.  We are also called to fight the good fight.  We are in a spiritual battle and the arrows Satan throws are effective.  If we seek his face and focus on Jesus and his work on the cross, we can overcome.  If we give an inch, Satan and our sinful nature will take a mile before we realize what we have done.

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Krista Cook:  Such a great picture of God's grace and mercy!

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Mike Grimm:  ¹² I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength to do his work. He considered me trustworthy and appointed me to serve him, ¹³ even though I used to blaspheme the name of Christ. In my insolence, I persecuted his people. But God had mercy on me because I did it in ignorance and unbelief. ¹⁴ Oh, how generous and gracious our Lord was! He filled me with the faith and love that come from Christ Jesus. Even though our faith in God and love for Christ and for others falls short of God’s expectations, we can be confident that Christ will help our faith and love grow. However, this growth will not occur UNTIL our relationship with Him strengthens. I know this for a fact; if you don’t attempt to strengthen your relationship with Christ you will never change. You cannot do it by yourself. You need Christ to lift you and strengthen you. He will give you everything you need to change, but you need to have a relationship with Him first. Otherwise, you’ll just pray a bit, read some scripture, take time out to question God as to why you are still just a POS, and continue living the way you have been. Trust me, very few of us are Paul’s or Jonah’s. We may never go face-to-face with God and being that Christ will never make His presence known again until the Second Coming; we will never see Him again until then. Therefore, we must depend on faith and the Bible.

¹⁵ This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all. It’s funny how Paul considered himself “the worst of sinners”, and we consider him a Godly man, sort of a hero. Paul was too focused on his past to even consider himself in the way that we see him. The more Paul understood God’s grace, the more he was aware of his own sinfulness and could therefore act on it and continue to change. We must never forget that we too are sinners saved by God’s grace. ¹⁶ But God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive eternal life. ¹⁷ All honor and glory to God forever and ever! He is the eternal King, the unseen one who never dies; he alone is God. Amen.

We are often filled with guilt by our past and wonder how God could ever forgive it. I do. I have done things in my life that I find it hard to believe that God will forgive me. But then I look at Paul’s past. I’m not saying that he was worse than me, but Paul was a blasphemer, by his own admission, who scoffed at the teachings of Jesus. Paul was also a persecutor and violent man who hunted down and murdered Christians before coming to know Christ. God forgave Paul and used him to get the word out about Christ. It’s important to remember that no matter how bad, sinful, shameful, embarrassing or disgusting our life has been, God also can forgive us and use us. Paul was struck down, blinded, and heard Christ speak to him (Acts 9:1-9). Paul had proof that Christ was real and existed. He had that “a-ha” moment; the moment I have been waiting for but may never come. We can do one better than Paul by accepting Christ without Christ having to prove to us that He’s real. We need to simply accept it, believe it, and live our lives the way that God intended. We do that by fellowship, group Bible study, reading the Bible, and attending church. It could even by something as simple as reading scripture and commenting on it.