1 Timothy 1:12-17, Thanking God for Who I Am!

Prayer is, among other things, communion and conversation with God.  This passage begins with thanksgiving and ends with a committal to God.  These are forms of prayer, of conversing with God.  In between is Paul’s testimony, a testimony of God’s work in his coming to faith in Christ and of God’s putting him into the ministry.  That is what catches my attention about these “prayers.” 

Be careful when you read our description, that this is about thanking God for who I am.  This is not a reference to the worldly wisdom that says you should love yourself, think well of yourself, and believe that God loves you just like you are.  What the Bible says is, first, that we should not think too high of ourselves but to think soberly as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith (Rom. 12:3); and second, that God loves us enough to want to change us. 

Nothing Paul says about himself in today’s passage disagrees with either of those statements.  For what is Paul thankful?  He is thankful that the Head of the Church counted me thankful, putting me into the ministry.  That is not Paul saying Christ found something in him that qualified him as a minister.  Paul was a “faithful” sort of man; he was faithfully putting Christians to death and in prison.  He makes it clear that his faithfulness in serving Christ was due to Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me.  Again, Paul’s ignorant unbelief was not an excuse to justify his pre-Christian life.  It tells us why he needed mercy and glorifies God, not Paul, for the exceedingly abundant grace of our Lord.  What Paul became was due to his being in Christ Jesus.

By the way, Paul had to deal with this “pride” issue all through his ministry.  He struggled with speaking of his qualifications as an Apostle of Christ, something he had to do because he needed people to listen to him.  (Read Eph. 2-3; 1 Cor. 1-4; 2 Cor. 10-13 on this matter.)  So when he calls himself the “chief” of sinners, he means it.  His point in v16 is that Christ chose him as a pattern of how Christ treats those who come to Him, and Christ chose Paul because he was such a rotten sinner.

All this brings us to the “committal” in v17.  What a statement!  He gives ALL the glory to God.  He is the King eternal (endless in terms of time), immortal (cannot be corrupted), invisible (unseen); He is God who alone is wise.  In the context Paul is saying that what Christ did in putting him in ministry cannot be challenged; He has the total authority and perfect wisdom no one else has.  No one but God in Christ would have thought of this plan, to take a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man and save him and put him into ministry.

Now, is this a prayer for us to pray?  Absolutely!  Because we are no different.  I am that man.  Insolent, unbelieving, the chief of sinners.  What I will be when I stand before Christ is fully His mercy and abundant grace.  AMEN!