Tyler and Hannah in Thailand: A Bible Study through 1 Timothy, Part 2: 1 Timothy 1:12-20

I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen.

This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.

Verse 11 has Paul telling us that he has been entrusted with teaching the Gospel to all men. He goes on in verse 12 to give thanks to God and in so doing also gives us the message of the Gospel: Jesus came to save sinners. In the previous verse Paul had just listed the type of person for whom the Law of Moses was laid out, and now he uses some of those same words to describe himself before Jesus knocked him off his horse. Paul says that Christ has judged him (Paul) faithful (that is reliable to complete the task) and appointed Paul to the service His (Jesus') service (that is teaching the Gospel). Paul, the man formerly known as Saul. The man who went through out Jerusalem to track down Christians and upon finding them would through them in prison or find ways to put them to death. The man who was travelling to Damascus to continue his persecution of the Christians. This man God judge faithful to preach the exact message that Paul was trying to destroy. What a testament to God's mercy, grace, and power to transform lives. Paul states that he received mercy because he acted in ignorance: that is he did not know he was working against the very God he was trying to serve, and still God extended love and mercy to him. Paul then adds that He was saved because Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners such as Paul (going so far to state that Paul, when Saul was the chief of sinners). That in saving sinners, even those who are working to wipe out the Church, that God is demonstrating his divine patience, and that Paul may serve an example: If even Jesus will save the churches biggest enemy, how much more will his saving grace be for you who would believe? In other words, there is nothing that we have done that the blood of Jesus cannot remove, there is no sin that we can commit that is too great for the saving power of God's grace operating through Jesus' sacrifice. No matter who you are or what you have done in this life, God will forgive when we accept His offer of covenant through His son Jesus Christ. What an amazing God, now we can understand why Paul immediately praises and glorifies God upon reflecting on God's great love and mercy.

After this impacting opening to his letter, Paul once again charges Timothy to remember the prophecies spoken over Timothy and wage good warfare holding true to faith and good conscience. The prophecies that were spoken over Timothy have not been recorded so we will not speculate on what might have been said in them. What I would like to speak is the intent of prophecy. In 1 Corinthians 14:3 states:

"The one who prophesies speaks to the people for their up-building and encouragement and consolation."

And again in verse 31:

"For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and all be encouraged"

In these verse Paul teaches that prophecy has a specific purpose of building up, encouraging, and consoling the believers. Paul taught the Corinthian church that any of the believers could operate in the gift of prophecy, but that all things said should be "weighed by the others" (that is checked to ensure that it was scriptural, of sound doctrine, and meant to build up the person or persons receiving the prophecy). Prophecy, I believe, is still for today. However, we must be careful of what receive as prophecy and how much we let prophecy lead our lives. I do not want to spend too much time on this discussion, but I did want to point out that prophecy serves a bit of a different purpose since God sent us the Holy Spirit to the Church. Before, in the times of the Law and the Prophets, prophecy is one of the primary ways that God would speak to people and give them direction and correction. But now, because every believe has the Spirit God living inside-which provides God correction and direction, if we listen-prophecy has taken more of a encouraging role. We still do get direction and correction from prophecy, but now it is more likely for edification and encouragement. Regardless of what the intent of the prophecy, it should always be in line with the word of God.

That being said, here in 1 Timothy 1:18, Paul is encouraging Timothy to remember the prophecies spoken to him, and to work in accordance with them. It would seem that at some point Timothy had received some prophecies about God's plan for Timothy, and Paul is reminding him to remember these words. Often times we get encouraging words of prophecy that may be for a later date; for example at 12 years old I was being told that I would be a preacher, but that did not come to pass for almost 20 years. During my youth it seemed that every time I went up for prayer I would get a prophecy about being used of God, or working in full-time ministry. However, around the time I entered bible college these words seemed to stop being spoken over me, and after a while I started to forget God's call. I needed to remind myself of what I had been told, I had to stir up that gifting inside and not lose my focus. I believe this is what Paul is telling Timothy: "You have been called, you know the words that were spoken over you, do not forget them, bring them to your memory and remember your calling." There will be times, especially for those in ministry (or following their God-given dreams) that we get discouraged and start to think about giving up. Those are the times we need to remember that God has put this dream in our hearts, that he has called us. When it seems we are never going to see our dreams come to pass, that is when we need to stir up our gifting and remember "I have been Called"

Verse 19, Paul once again reminds Timothy that the basis of our calling is faith and a good conscience, and if you give up those two things you will shipwreck your faith. The basis of faith is the covenant: We can believe that what says is true because he came through on His promise to send his son. A good conscience comes from this: Because I can have faith in God's WORD, I can have believe him when he calls me righteous, my sin has been taken away, I now have a clear conscience, I am one with out sin. Loosing these key areas of our faith will cause us to fall, to be led astray. The image of being shipwrecked is that of a sailing vessel that lost the ability to maintain its course. A ship becomes shipwrecked when, either through captain error, malfunction, or weather, the ship was no longer able to maintain course and runs into something that causes the destruction of the vessel. It reminds me that the "winds" of this world (circumstances, struggles, cares of this world) will come up and try to push me to and fro, but I need to hold onto my heading, that is maintain my faith. I need to trust God and not allow the things of this world cause me to be blown off course.

In verse 20 Paul tells of two church members who had lost their direction and shipwrecked their faith. He stats that he handed them over to Satan so that they would "learn not to blaspheme." This has caused many a reader of the bible to stop and wonder: "Paul, what do you mean by this." As a bible teacher I would say...I am not totally sure, I cannot and will not present any form of doctrine on this matter. I will make a few speculations: I believe that all Paul is saying is that he has stopped praying for or has given up on trying to correct these two men, and he is informing Timothy of this decision. I do not believe that Paul is trying to teach us to give up on those who are struggling in the faith, but that these two had gone so far astray that they have begun teaching contrary to the faith and Paul has tried to correct them and they refused to listen. There are times as leaders when we will come across people who refuse to accept godly correction when it comes. It requires a lot of wisdom to know the best way to deal with such a situation, but it is safe to say: if after repeated attempts to bring the needed correction and there is still no change of heart or attitude there comes a time to leave a person to their own devices and stop praying for them. I do not have a formula for when this should happen, instead I believe it takes a firm direction from the Lord as to when we need to let a disciple go, for only God knows the heart of a man.

That is all for this week, next week I hope to get into Chapter 2, where we get into practical instructions for Church leaders, point one: PRAY FOR ALL PEOPLE. (which is another reason why Paul saying he "handed *so and so* over to Satan" means he has stopped praying for them.)

Thank you for your time,

Tyler
A Boy Wonder