1 Timothy 1.12-Paul Thanks The Lord Jesus Christ Who Strengthens Him Because He Considered Paul Faithful By Appointing Him To Serve
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday February 9, 2011
1 Timothy: 1 Timothy 1:12-Paul Thanks The Lord Jesus Christ Who Strengthens Him Because He Considered Paul Faithful By Appointing Him To Serve
Lesson # 21
Please turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy 1:12.
In 1 Timothy 1:12, Paul shares with Timothy and the Ephesian church that he thanks the Lord Jesus Christ who strengthens him because He considered him faithful by appointing him to serve.
1 Timothy 1:12 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, 13 even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; 14 and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. 15 It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. 16 Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life. 17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. (NASU)
“I thank” is composed of the accusative feminine singular form of the noun charis (χάρις) (ha-reece) and the first person singular present active indicative form of the verb echo (ἒχω) (eh-ho).
The verb echo means “to possess a particular emotion or characteristic,” which is identified by the noun charis as “gratitude.”
This noun expresses Paul’s gratitude or thanksgiving to the Lord Jesus Christ who empowered him because He considered Paul faithful in putting him into the ministry.
The present tense of the verb echo is a customary present indicating that Paul’s life was characterized by gratitude to the Lord Jesus Christ for saving him and allowing him to serve Him.
“Christ Jesus our Lord” is composed of the dative masculine singular form of the proper name Christos (Χριστός) (cree-stoce), “Christ” and the dative masculine singular form of the proper noun Iesous (Ἰησοῦς) (yee-soose), “Jesus” and the articular dative masculine singular form of the noun kurios (κύριος) (ker-dee-oce), “Lord” and the genitive first person plural form of the personal pronoun ego (ἐγώ) (eh-go), “our.”
Christos emphasizes that Jesus of Nazareth, the incarnate Son of God delivered Paul from the sin nature, personal sins, the devil and his cosmic system, spiritual and physical death and eternal condemnation through His substitutionary spiritual and physical deaths and resurrection.
The proper name Iesous refers to the human nature of the incarnate Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth.
In 1 Timothy 1:12, the noun kurios is applied to Jesus Christ, which indicates the following: (1) His equality with the Father and the Spirit. (2) His joint-rulership with the Father over the entire cosmos. (3) His highest ranking position as Chief Administrator in the divine government. (4) His absolute sovereign authority as Ruler over all creation and every creature. (5) His victory over the sin nature and Satan and His kingdom.
In His deity, Jesus Christ is “Lord” (See Luke 20:42).
However in His human nature He received this title as a result of His obedience to the Father’s will, which called for Him to suffer a spiritual and physical death on the cross as a substitute for every member of the human race-past, present and future (See Philippians 2:5-11).
1 Timothy 1:12 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service. (NASU)
“Who has strengthened me” is composed of the articular dative masculine singular aorist active participle form of the verb endunamoo (ἐνδυναμόω) (en-thee-na-mo-owe), “who has strengthened” and the accusative first person singular form of the personal pronoun ego (ἐγώ) (eh-go), “me.”
The verb endunamoo means “to empower” and the personal pronoun ego, “me” is its direct object, which refers of course to Paul.
In Paul’s writings, the word is usually associated with the Christian’s post-conversion experience, i.e. experiential sanctification.
However, this is not the case here since if it were, the verb would be in the present tense rather than the aorist, which indicates that this empowerment was somewhere in his past.
The context indicates that Paul’s conversion experience is in view (Acts 9:22, 26).
The Lord empowered Paul by sending the Spirit to indwell him permanently and by giving him the spiritual gift of apostleship through the Spirit as well.
“Because He considered me faithful” is composed of the conjunction hoti (ὅτι) (owe-tee), “because” and the third person singular aorist middle indicative form of the verb hegeomai (ἡγέομαι) (ee-yeh-owe-meh), “He considered” and the accusative first person singular form of the personal pronoun ego (ἐγώ) (eh-go), “me” and the accusative masculine singular form of the adjective pistos (πιστός) (pee-stoce), “faithful.”
The conjunction hoti presents the reason for Paul possessing gratitude toward the one who empowered him, namely the Lord Jesus Christ.
The verb hegeomai means “to consider” and is used with reference to the Lord Jesus Christ’s sovereign decision in eternity past to select Paul as an apostle and which decision was based upon His omniscience.
It refers to the fact that in eternity past the Lord knew from His omniscience that Paul would be a faithful servant in communicating the gospel, thus, Paul’s faithfulness was a potential yet to be realized.
The adjective pistos means “faithful, trustworthy” and is ascribed to Paul indicating that in eternity past the Lord selected Paul to be an apostle because He knew from His omniscience that Paul would be a faithful steward of the gospel.
The fact that the Lord considered him faithful does not mean that Paul merited his salvation since he makes clear in verses 13-14 that he was a blasphemer and a persecutor of the church and an arrogant man.
Yet, he was treated with mercy by the Lord and grace.
Therefore, this appointment was based upon the Lord’s grace policy, which is an expression of His attribute of love.
So this does not mean that because the Lord knew that Paul was a trustworthy, He appointed him to ministry.
After his conversion, the Lord Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit empowered Paul to serve as an apostle and thus to be a faithful steward of the gospel.
Thus Paul possessed an attitude of gratitude to the Lord because He strengthened Paul through the power of the Holy Spirit to be faithful in exercising his spiritual gift of apostleship and communicating the gospel.
So the emphasis is not that Christ foresaw that in spite of his sin Paul would prove himself faithful but rather, the emphasis is that the Lord’s omnipotence transformed Paul’s life.
Not only His grace and mercy but also His omnipotence transformed the life of the apostle Paul in that he went from a blasphemer and persecutor of the church and an arrogant person to a faithful servant of the gospel.
This would refute those pastors in Ephesus who were emphasizing the Law.
The Law did not have the power to save or transform the life of the sinner but could only condemn the sinner.
Only the gospel had the power to save and to transform sinners (Romans 1:16-17).
So the adjective pistos speaks of Paul’s faithfulness in fulfilling His ministry.
Paul was faithful because the Lord empowered him to be so.
Through the power of the Spirit, which the Lord Jesus provided him, Paul was faithful to the ministry the Lord gave him.
The indwelling Spirit and the spiritual gift of apostleship enabled him to be faithful.
In 1 Timothy 1:12, Paul is referring to the stewardship of time, talent and truth.
1 Timothy 1:12 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service. (NASU)
“Putting me into service” is composed of the nominative masculine singular aorist middle participle form of the verb tithemi (τίθημι) (teeth-ah-me), “putting” and the preposition eis (εἰς) (eece), “into” and the accusative feminine singular form of the noun diakonia (διακονία) (thee-ah-koe-knee-ah), “service”
The verb tithemi means “to appoint” in the sense of assigning someone to a particular task, role or function.
It is used here of the Lord Jesus Christ appointing Paul to be an apostle and communicator of the gospel.
Where the hegeomai spoke of the Lord’s decision in eternity past to select Paul as an apostle from His omniscience, the verb tithemi speaks of the manifestation of this decision in time at Paul’s conversion (Acts 9).
The verb functions as a participle of means indicating that the Lord considered Paul faithful in eternity past “by” appointing him to serve as an apostle.
It defines what Paul means when he says that the Lord considered him faithful and answers the question as to “how” the Lord considered him faithful.
The noun diakonia refers to Paul’s apostolic service to the Gentiles of communicating the gospel of Jesus Christ to them and functions as the object of the preposition eis, which functions as a marker of purpose answering the question as to “why’ the Lord appointed.
He appointed Paul “in order to” serve or “for the purpose of service.”