1 Timothy 1:12-17 Last Choice
1 Timothy 1:12-17 (Evangelical Heritage Version)
12I give thanks to the one who empowered me, namely, Christ Jesus our Lord, that he treated me as trustworthy, appointing me into his ministry. 13He did this even though formerly I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a violent man. But I was shown mercy, because I acted ignorantly in unbelief. 14The grace of our Lord overflowed on me along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 15This saying is trustworthy and worthy of full acceptance: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” of whom I am the worst. 16But I was shown mercy for this reason: that in me, the worst sinner, Christ Jesus might demonstrate his unlimited patience as an example for those who are going to believe in him, resulting in eternal life. 17Now to the King eternal, to the immortal, invisible, only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
Last Choice
I.
Nobody wants to be the last choice. In school, every child dreads being picked last for kickball at recess. You probably didn’t want to be picked last for some collaborative project in the classroom, either. The same thing carries on into the workforce. Being chosen last feels like a verdict: “anyone else would have been preferable.”
All of today’s readings show people that would have been the last choice—or, more likely, not chosen at all.
There was Matthew—the tax collector. Tax collectors were beyond not respected in Jewish society, they were despised. Tax collectors tended to be notorious cheats, stealing extra money from the public to enrich themselves. When Jesus picked Matthew, the Pharisees wondered: “Why does [he] eat with tax collectors and sinners?” (Matthew 9:11, EHV).
Moses wouldn’t have been a good candidate, either. Moses was a fugitive from the law because he had killed an Egyptian official years before, forcing him to have to flee for his life. Most people would have thought of him as a failure. Moses himself did, too. When God called to him from the burning bush, Moses came up with excuses. 1. “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” (Exodus 3:11, EHV). The next excuse: 2. “Who are you?” If Moses had really seen God, the people would want him to identify that God. His excuses continued after today’s reading. 3. “What if they don’t believe me?” How am I to prove that I really spoke with God? 4. “I have never been eloquent.” I don’t know what to say or how to say it. 5. “Please just send someone else.” God was emphatic. Moses was his choice to lead the people.
Then today’s Second Reading. Paul was originally known as Saul of Tarsus. He certainly wouldn’t have been picked. The early Christian Church wouldn’t choose him last, he wouldn’t have been chosen at all. Paul identifies himself in today’s Second Reading: “I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a violent man” (1 Timothy 1:13, EHV).
Saul was well-known. He originally thought he was doing something good—purging these people who followed Jesus out of Judaism. He had arrested believers in Jesus, participated in beating them and even making sure they were put to death.
When Saul had been picked, God told Ananias to go see him and restore his sight. Ananias asked if God was sure: “Lord, I have heard from many people about this man and how much harm he did to your saints in Jerusalem” (Acts 9:13, EHV). No Christian wanted Paul on the team.
There is a pattern. God keeps choosing the wrong people.
What does this say about the categories we create? Categories like: “Church people.” “Good Christians.” “People God can use.”
If God is looking for worthy servants, Matthew, Moses, and Paul are disqualified before the job interview ever begins. Why would a holy God keep choosing people like that—people like us?
II.
Paul described himself as “The worst sinner” (1 Timothy 1:16, EHV). His description of his former way of life made his case: a blasphemer, a persecutor, a violent man. He once said: “I too was convinced that it was necessary to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus” (Acts 26:9, EHV). Paul didn’t just slip up once; persecuting Christ and his followers and blaspheming against God was his way of life.
When Paul calls himself “The worst sinner” (1 Timothy 1:16, EHV), he isn’t comparing résumés. God and his holiness are the standard. Noone compares well to God. Paul wrote: “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23, EHV). By nature, every person fits in the category of “sinner,” even those who think they are “not that bad.” It isn’t just Paul or Moses or Matthew that doesn’t deserve to be chosen by God, it’s all of us. All stand condemned before God.
You and I don’t deserve anything from God—not his mercy, not his forgiveness, not his love. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23, EHV). The only thing any of us deserves is death—both the death of the body, and eternal death in hell, separated from God and his love forever.
So we stand there, out on the playground, or cued up around the table at a meeting, wondering if we will be the last choice. It’s clear that none of us should even be the last choice; we shouldn’t be chosen at all.
III.
But Paul won’t allow that conclusion. “This saying is trustworthy and worthy of full acceptance: ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners’ of whom I am the worst” (1 Timothy 1:15, EHV).
Paul had identified his former way of life: blasphemer, persecutor, violent man. Nothing about himself deserved God or his love. “All have sinned,” we heard from Paul in another place. None of us deserved God’s love. God’s mercy is not given because of anything in us. But Christ Jesus came to save sinners. Not improve them, or recruit the best among them. Save them. “The grace of our Lord overflowed on me along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 1:14, EHV). It is purely by God’s grace that Jesus came to save sinners.
It is purely by God’s grace that he chooses. When the Pharisees questioned Jesus’ decision to dine at Matthew’s house, Jesus said: “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matthew 9:13, EHV). When Moses wondered how to speak about his call, God told him to tell the people: “I AM has sent me to you” (Exodus 3:14, EHV).
God calls whom he will call. He chooses those others might think would be the last choice. Paul said: “I was shown mercy” (1 Timothy 1:16, EHV). God’s call is based on his mercy, not on any external thing we might consider worthiness.
Christ Jesus has displayed his unlimited patience for you, too; for each one of us. Jesus came to save sinners. His death paid for your blasphemy, your compromises, your reluctance.
“The grace of our Lord overflowed on me” (1 Timothy 1:14, EHV). God didn’t give Paul, or you or me, just barely enough grace, but overflowing grace. Jesus didn’t die for the sins of the world reluctantly, but willingly.
“This saying is trustworthy and worthy of full acceptance: ‘Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,’ of whom I am the worst” (1 Timothy 1:15, EHV). The worst sinner Paul knows is forgiven. If the worst one is forgiven, who is excluded? No one. Christ Jesus came into the world to save all sinners—you and me included.
IV.
“I give thanks to the one who empowered me, namely, Christ Jesus our Lord, that he treated me as trustworthy, appointing me into his ministry” (1 Timothy 1:12, EHV). What about Paul moved God to treat Paul as someone who was trustworthy when he called to him on the road to Damascus? Certainly nothing in Paul’s past up to that point. Did God look into the future and see that Paul would be trustworthy one day, and so appoint him?
No.
Paul says that Christ Jesus empowered him. It wasn’t that Paul was trustworthy, or worthy of being moved up from the last choice. It was that God empowered Paul to be the great missionary to the Gentiles he became.
“I was shown mercy for this reason: that in me, the worst sinner, Christ Jesus might demonstrate his unlimited patience as an example for those who are going to believe in him, resulting in eternal life” (1 Timothy 1:16, EHV). Paul became an example of God’s mercy and patience. While he preached powerful sermons to others, Paul’s existence was a living sermon. When people saw Paul, they could see what God’s mercy and patience could accomplish.
The same is true for you and me. We are forgiven sinners. People can look at us and see our flaws. Each of us can point to our own life and say: “If Christ could save me, he can save you.”
Jesus said to the Pharisees and all who heard him: “The healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do” (Matthew 9:12, EHV). Our world is not a museum of saints, but a waiting room filled with sin-sick people needing the mercy and patience of our Lord Jesus.
Perhaps at times you have felt like the last choice. Moses became the deliverer God wanted him to be. Matthew became a disciple and an evangelist, sharing the Good News about Jesus. Paul became an Apostle, sharing that same Good News with people who had never heard of him.
God doesn’t use human logic to pick what we might think of as the best candidates. God deliberately chooses people who have no claim on his mercy or his favor. He treats you and me as trustworthy and appoints us to live as Children of God. In a world where everyone wants to be first choice, Christ came to save sinners who know they deserve to be last.
Paul closes: “Now to the King eternal, to the immortal, invisible, only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen” (1 Timothy 1:17, EHV). Amen.
