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ToBeLikeHim.com Return to Timothy Series Timothy Series - Lesson Five John
Baugh (1 Timothy 1: 12-17) Confessions,
Trustworthy Statements and Doxologies 12 I
thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered
me faithful, putting me into service, 13even
though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor
Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; 14and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant,
with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. 15It
is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. 16Yet 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 who would believe in Him for eternal life. 17Now
to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory
forever and ever. Amen. In
the verses leading up to verse 12, Paul has given Timothy instructions,
laying out the work to be done in Paul's Confession: 12 I
thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered
me faithful, putting me into service, 13even
though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor
Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; 14and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant,
with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. All
of us live with the past and our actions. Paul's history was well known in
the churches he helped established and worked with as they grew. The past was
a weight Paul carried with him at all times. Once again Paul returns to the
beginning of his relationship with Christ Jesus and how the Lord chose to use
him. Paul knew that: 1 - Christ strengthened him: To turn away from his old life and take on the
new life in Christ. 2 - Christ considered him faithful: To the calling of an Apostle. 3 - Christ put him into service: He showed Paul the work that was yet to be
done. Christ did this even
though: 1 - Paul was formerly a blasphemer, who spoke
out against all of those who followed Christ. In
spite of these things Paul was shown mercy because he acted ignorantly in
unbelief. The grace of the Lord
was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ
Jesus. Paul
wrote that the Lord's grace (a gift that Paul never deserved) was more than
abundant. In Paul's mind, there would have been an amount of grace that would
have been sufficient, perhaps knowing that he was forgiven of his actions
against the early believers. A gift of abundant grace might have been a
constant reminder of this forgiveness, expressed in the support of fellow
believers. However, Paul saw "more than abundant" treatment from
the Lord. He saw the Lord's grace when he experienced the brotherly love of
Ananias and healing at the house of Judas, on the street called Straight in Paul
attributed this grace to the faith and love that are found in Christ Jesus.
Paul knew that the Holy Spirit was with him daily as he faithfully served to
accomplish all that needed to be done. Christ never allowed any
misunderstanding of the importance of faith as the basis for salvation, for
obtaining God's support, power and strength. There
are many places in scripture where either Jesus or his disciples spoke of: Those
with little faith - Matthew 6:30, 8:26, 13:58, 14:31, 16:8, 17:20, Mark 4:4,
6:6, 16:14, Luke 8:25, and 12:28. Those
with much faith - Matthew 8:10, 9:2, 9:22, 9:29, 15:28, 21:21, Mark 2:5,
5:34, 10:52, Luke 5:20, 7:9, 7:50, 8:48, and 17:19. Those
who put their faith in him - John 2:11, 7:21, 8:30, 11:45, 12:11. Faith
is addressed 48 times in the Gospel accounts and 286 times throughout the New
Testament. Paul certainly knew about faith, since he wrote about faith 150
times in his Epistles. The faith he wrote about was faith in the Father and
in his son, Christ Jesus. Paul knew the love of
Christ Jesus. - It was the love that reached out to spare him
after his encounter on the road to This
is what Paul wrote about the love of Christ Jesus in his letter to the Romans Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall
trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
As it is written, "For your sake we face death all day long; we are
considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that
neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor
the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in
all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in
Christ Jesus our Lord. Continuing with verse
15-16: 15It
is a trustworthy statement, Jesus
used the statement "Verily I say unto you" 25 times to indicate
statements of absolute importance. Paul opens the thoughts expressed to
Timothy in verses 15 & 16 with a similar statement of importance. These
verses contain thoughts that Paul wanted Timothy to take into his heart and
keep them for that day and for the future. The statement Paul uses is,
"It is a trustworthy statement". In
a similar situation, I might have written, "You can trust this to be the
truth". When I was a kid, I would have said, "Honest Injun".
As a Boy Scout, I would have said, "On my honor, this is the
truth". In
Greek, Paul wrote "Pistos Logos", or "It is a trustworthy
statement". Paul uses this statement on five different occasions in his
letters (1 Timothy 1:15, 3:1, 4:9, 2 Timothy 2:11 and Titus 3:8) Paul
then tells Timothy that the statement deserves full acceptance. In other
words, nothing that follows should be doubted. In court we swear an oath to
"Tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth".
Everything that follows that oath needs to be true, if what we testify
"is a trustworthy statement". This is what Paul wanted Timothy to
understand. Continuing With Verse
16 16Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, Paul
understood many things about Christ Jesus, but he knew two things very well: 1 - He knew the reason Christ Jesus came.
Christ was one on a mission with work to complete that held absolute eternal
significance and importance. It would impact all of the people of all nations
of the world from the point of completion until the end of the world and from
that point would continue on, spanning eternity. The work Christ Jesus had
been given was to save those who were dead in sin, so that they might live,
serve and glorify God the Father. 2 - Paul knew his place among sinners. He gave
himself the rank of "foremost of all". Some might argue that others
have sinned to a greater degree and that Paul did not belong in such a group.
However, Paul would give the reasoning of their argument little
consideration. In his mind and in all of his statements regarding his past,
he takes the position that his "lost-ness" was complete. His sins
against God were unforgivable. He was a man without hope. And then Christ
Jesus came to set him right with God. It could be said that God's grace was
greater than all of Paul's sins against God. That is the case with all of us. Another
Look, From William Barclay In his book The New Daily Study Bible
-The Letters to Timothy, Titus and Philemon, (third edition pages 45 - 53), William Barclay titles this
passage "Saved to Serve". In covering verses 12-17 of Chapter 1 of
1st Timothy, Barclay writes that: 1 - Paul
never forgot that "Christ had chosen him". And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying,
"All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore
and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I
commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the
age." When
Paul was working to fulfill the great commission, Christ Jesus was with him.
He knew that Christ Jesus was with him in this work to be both truth and fact
("A trustworthy statement") because he and experienced it time
after time, day after day, in a thousand ways. Barclay goes on (p-51) to speculate that "The memory of his sin was the surest
way to keep (Paul) from pride", saying that "there could be no such thing as spiritual pride for one who
had done the things he had done". Barclay goes on to compare Paul
with John Newton, the slave trader and eventual minister and writer of the
Hymn "Amazing Grace". "John
Newton was one of the great preachers and the supreme hymn writers of the
eighteenth century, but he had sunk to the lowest depths to which anyone can
sink in the days when he sailed the seas in a slave trader's ship. So, when
he became a converted man and a preacher of the gospel, he wrote a text in
great letters and fastened it above the mantelpiece of his study where he
could not fail to see it: 'Thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in
the land of Egypt and the Lord thy God redeemed Thee.' He also composed his
own epitaph: 'John Newton, Clerk, once an Infidel and Libertine, a Servant of
Slaves in Africa, was by the mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
Preserved, Restored, Pardoned, and Appointed to Preach the Faith he had so
long labored to destroy.' John Newton never forgot that he was a forgiven
sinner; neither did Paul. Neither must we. It does us good to remember our
sins; it saves us from spiritual pride." Continuing with verse
16: 16Yet
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 who would
believe in Him for eternal life. Paul
understood why Christ Jesus chose him and appointed him, trusted him and
empowered him for the work. He knew that these actions demonstrated the
perfection of Christ; what Paul called "his perfect patience" that
Christ Jesus could take one such as Paul and accomplish the task of the great
commission. In accomplishing this through Paul, Christ Jesus provided a
perfect example for all of us who have followed throughout the years. We see
Paul, "as the foremost", and understand that we too, can have
eternal life through belief in the power of Christ Jesus to restore,
reconcile and cleanse us from the power of sin. Paul served as an example to
the churches he started in his days and continues (almost 2000 years later)
to illustrate what Christ Jesus can do to a yielded heart and life; for those
who call on him as Lord. Ending This Passage With a Doxology
(Verse 17) 17Now
to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever
and ever. Amen. In
Greek, "Doxo" = "Glory" and "Logy" = "the
study of". These words represent one of Paul's Doxologies, or studies of
the Glory of God. The
doxology is Paul's. The elaboration is mine. - God is King of everything. All of time and space belong to
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