Day 8 - I Timothy 1:12-13

Daily Devotional Commentary on I Timothy

Saved to the Uttermost

1 Timothy 1:12-13

¹²And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, ¹³Although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man: but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

I

n this passage Paul speaks of what he was formerly, before his life in Christ. The portrait he paints is not pretty. He describes himself as a blasphemer in that he had railed at and spoken against Jesus Christ and his followers. He also describes himself as a persecutor in that, like a bounty hunter, he had traveled to strange cities to hunt down Christians and have them imprisoned and put to death. He also describes himself as an insolent man. “Insolent” is translated from the Greek word hybristen, which means “violent.” To 1^st century Christians, Paul was their foremost enemy out to wipe them from the face of the earth. But God had plans for Paul! Let us never limit the awesome reach of God’s grace and power.

The Great Enabler

In vs. 12, Paul says that God enabled me. In our contemporary culture, the word “enabler” has taken on negative connotations of one who enables another in bad behavior. God, however, enables us to carry out His will and do what is right and good. The Greek word for "enabled" is endunamosanti, which is a form of dunamis (“power”) and the prefix en (“in”), literally reading “power in.” In other words, God empowered or “put power in” Paul, which was why he was able to transition from a violent blasphemer to a chosen minister of Jesus Christ.

Today, God will enable you to do what He has called you to do. This is the promise of Acts 1:8, But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

Faithfulness

Even as a blasphemer and persecutor, Paul was living according to what he thought was right. Jesus predicted this when He said in Jn. 16:2b, The time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service. This was the case with Paul. He says, in vs. 13, that he did those terrible acts ignorantly in unbelief. Paul was faithful to what he believed to be true and, once he saw the truth of Jesus Christ, he was immediately 100% committed to living and proclaiming that truth. In vs. 12 he says that God enabled him, because He counted me faithful. Faithfulness is a virtue that must be cultivated if we want to be used of God. My brother-in-law, Peter Stubbs, signs all of his emails, “Yours to count on.” Can God and other people count on you and me? That is faithfulness!

Saved to the Uttermost

Heb. 7:25 says that God, Is also able to save to the uttermost those that come to God through Him (Christ). The “uttermost” is as far as you can go from your point of departure. It is not God's plan to just barely to get us to heaven. He plans to save us to the uttermost. He will not stop working on us until we stand in His likeness. Like Paul, we are being saved from the guttemost to the uttermost.

Prayer &Relfection

Lord, empower every person reading this study with your grace, love, and power. Let them experience the reality of your “power in.” Enable them to be faithful in all their responsibilities to you and to others this day. Thank you for saving them to the uttermost. In Jesus’ name, amen!