Thoughts on 1 Timothy 1:12-14

"I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, 13 though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, 14 and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. "


Paul is thanking Jesus who is the source of Paul’s, and yours any my strength because Jesus judged Paul to be reliable and trustworthy with the Gospel message and set him aside in order to use him for his ministry even though Paul had been slanderous, a persecutor, and one who was constantly insulting and assaulting Christians. Despite all this, Paul received mercy because he didn’t understand what he was doing or who he was doing it against. God’s grace overflowed in Paul with the faith and love that is in Jesus.

None of us like to think of ourselves in the way Paul describes himself here. He is weak, needy, subject to a higher authority, a blasphemer, persecutor, opponent of God, and ignorant. The truth is that we are all those things and more. It is important that we understand this about ourselves. Until we understand and accept that we are sick we will not go looking for help. I love the way John Stott puts it in his book Basic Christianity: “Only when we have had the malady accurately diagnosed, shall we be willing to take the medicine” (Stott). Only when we realize we have a sickness (sin) will we be willing to take the appropriate medicine (Jesus).

So how is Jesus the cure to our condition? In contrast to what we know about ourselves we know that from this verse alone Jesus is the source of strength for us, Lord, a just judge, merciful, faithful, and love. Jesus is everything we are not. It is only in our complete reliance on him that we can ever be made well. We must see ourselves as weak and Jesus as strong. In 2 Corinthians chapter 12, Paul models this for us: “But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” This is so contrary to our nature isn’t it? We love to boast about the areas we excel in and hide the areas in which we are weak. But notice that when we do that we receive the glory for how strong and capable we are. If instead we choose to boast about our weaknesses and how Jesus is helping us overcome them, he receives the glory, which is the point of our entire lives.

I want to add something here. I write a lot about how we are "scumbags", sinners, and all around bad people. The point of this is not to make you feel bad about yourself or throw you into a depression. There are two reasons I constantly point this out. This first reason is that it's true. The second and most important is that only when we come to realize just how bad and undeserving we are of God's love, grace, and mercy can we begin to understand just how loving, gracious, and merciful he truly is. If you read these blogs and and go away only thinking about how bad of a person you are then I would say two things. First, I'm sorry that I have not stressed enough how amazing and loving God is. Second, it's not about you, it's about Jesus. Stop being selfish by focusing on yourself and what a bad person you are and start focusing on just how wonderful a God we have that he would die for scumbags like you and me.