1 Timothy Chapter 1

vs 12

Paul often uses himself as an object lesson. Here he talks about how thankful that he has been given the message that he has just been talking about. He is thankful for his ability to render service to God. And he is thankful for Jesus giving him strength.

vs 13

Perhaps he is talking about these things because he was once like the people he is reprimanding - and indeed much worse than them. It's interesting that he notes that he was shown mercy because of ignorance and unbelief. It could be possible that Paul is separating his attitude from his actions - even though his actions were completely sinful, Paul may have wanted to serve and obey God. What does that mean for pre-conversion Paul? Not much really - he was still a flagrant sinner, and still needed God's mercy and grace.

vs 14

Mercy, grace, faith and love... I'm waiting for him to finish off his typical cycle with hope. But it doesn't come yet.

vs 15

For all the things Jesus accomplished while he was here, his purpose was the salvation of sinners. And Paul's glad for that, because he was plenty sinful.

vs 16

But Paul' very salvation is an object lesson to us all. No matter how crappy our lives are, not many of us can see we actively sought to kill Christians and destroy the church. That's something special. It probably weighed on Paul constantly, and Jewish people he met would no doubt constantly remind him.

vs 17

Obviously the immensity of this fact isn't lost on Paul, and so he feels the need to add a little doxology here.

vs 18

There were some prophecies made about Timothy. They were obviously something to do with him being in leadership and doing the stuff that Paul is talking about in this letter. How did they work? We just don't know.

vs 19-20

He compares Timothy, who is standing firm to fight the good fight and holding to his faith and a good conscience, to others who have not done so. He describes their faith as literally shipwrecked. Paul describes two people who are in this position, which is great for Timothy, because it means he knows exactly what Paul's talking about. For us, we have to wonder a bit. Then we also have this wonderful term "handed over to Satan". Some people think it means "booted out of the church". It could also mean Paul's given up on them for the time being, or stopped meeting with them. But even Paul knows that anything Satan has God can take away from him.