PAUL, CHIEF OF SINNERS?
(I Timothy 1:12-16)
INTRODUCTION:
REVIEW OF PAST STUDIES IN I TIMOTHY 1:1-11
1:1-2 – Overview of Christian Faith based on names for God and the blessings He bestows on His people.
1:3-4a – False teaching in Ephesian Church and how humanistic philosophy effects us today.
1:4b-6 – The goal of the command is love. (Loving God, fellow Christians, the non-Christian world)
1:7-8 – The law is good if used properly. (The law’s deterrent, punitive and educative purposes)
1:8-11 – “Whatever else …” The Gospel Ethic. (Law-PhiliaUniversity)
1:11 – “The Blessed God” and our Relationship with Him. (We can fill God’s heart with pain or joy and happiness)
1:12-17 Paul’s personal testimony.
PAUL, THE CHIEF OF SINNERS, PUBLIC SINNER NUMBER ONE?
(I Timothy 1:13,16)
1. Translations of 1: Tim. 1:16
Sinners—of whom I am the worst” (NIV).
“… of whom I am chief (KJV).
“… among whom I am foremost” (Weymouth).
“… and among whom I stand first” (NEB).
“I am the worst of them” (Beck)
“Sinners—and there is no greater than I” (TCNT)
“Sinners—I was the worst of them all” (NLT).
“I’m proof—Public Sinner Number One” (The Message)
Is Paul writing using hyperbole? (extravagant exaggeration, like a ‘mile high ice-cream cone, literary overstatement to emphasize a point.)
2. Working through list of Paul’s sins
Read the list carefully. Underline all the sins referred to. Discuss what sins might have made him consider himself as the “chief of sinners.”
13Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man … (I Tim. 1:13).
At this they (the Jews) covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, dragged him (Stephen) out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul (Paul) … And Saul was there giving approval to his (Stephen’s) death (Acts 7:57-58, 8:1).
But Paul began to destroy the church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison (Acts 8:3).
1Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem (Acts 9:1-2).
4He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” 5″Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
6″I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied (Acts 9:4-6).
4I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison, 5as also the high priest and all the Council can testify. I even obtained letters from them to their brothers in Damascus, and went there to bring these people as prisoners to Jerusalem to be punished (Acts 22:4-5).
19″ ‘Lord,’ I replied, ‘these men know that I went from one synagogue to another to imprison and beat those who believe in you’ (Acts 22:19).
9″I too was convinced that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth (Acts 26:9).
11Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. In my obsession against them, I even went to foreign cities to persecute them (Acts 26:11).
7What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! Indeed I would not have known what sin was except through the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “Do not covet.”[1] 8But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire. For apart from law, sin is dead (Romans 7:7-8).
9For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God (I Cor. 15:9).
13For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it (Galatians 1:13).
6 . . . “as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless” (Phil. 3:6).
3. Blasphemy
a. “The word blasphemy is practically confined to speech defamatory of ‘divine majesty’” (Vine). Speech that maligns, causes disgrace, speaks evil of another person.
5The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for forty-two months. 6He opened his mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven.
b. Read Mark 3:22-30. What did the Jewish leaders do to be guilty of blasphemy? What might Paul have been saying to be guilty of blasphemy?
i. Did he call Christ a criminal? An insane person? A demon-possessed person? Is saying that Christ is not God blasphemy? Is saying that He was only a Jewish teacher blasphemy? Is claiming that He is a brother of the devil blasphemy? Is saying that He is the greatest created angel blasphemy?
ii. Paul tried to make the Christians blaspheme Christ.
11Many a time I went from one synagogue to another to have them punished, and I tried to force them to blaspheme. In my obsession against them, I even went to foreign cities to persecute them (Acts 26:11).
4. Persecutor, Violent Man
a. Why is persecution considered such a great sin in Paul’s mind?
4He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” 5″Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. 6″I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied (Acts 9:4-6).
b. When a Christian is persecuted, why can Christ feel the pain? Why does Christ consider himself being persecuted?
After all, no one ever hated His own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church—for we are members of His body [some translations – of His flesh and of His bones] (Eph. 5:30).
“The church, which is his body … ” (Eph. 1:22-23).
“Know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ?” (I Cor. 6:15).
“He is head of the body, the church” (Co. 1:18).
“In all their affliction He was afflicted” (Isa. 63:9).
41″Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ 44″They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ 45″He will reply,
‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
i. Pain is felt in the brain / head, not in the body. For example in leprosy something has happened to the nerve endings in the hands so that pain is not felt and thus the body just wears away.
5. “Chief of Sinners?”
a. As a blasphemer, Paul violated the first half of the Ten Commandments, which speak of man’s relationship to God. As a persecutor and violent aggressor, he violated the second half, which speak of man’s relationship to man” (J. MacArthur, pg. 29).
b. If only hyperbole, it is good to be so aware of our own sins that we consider ou rself the “chief of sinners.” We must remember what we would be without Christ. John Newton, slave trader off the African coast, after his conversion wrote a text in great letters and placed it above his mantelpiece that all could see: Thou shall remember that thou was a bondman in the land of Egypt and the thy God redeemed thee.”
c. I feel he considered himself “Chief of Sinners” because he tried to force Christians to blaspheme their head, Christ and he injured them physically, thus filling God’s heart with pain.
d. David would not kill Saul, the Lord’s anointed.
3 He came to the sheep pens along the way; a cave was there, and Saul went in to relieve himself. David and his men were far back in the cave. 4 The men said, “This is the day the LORD spoke of when he said [1] to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.’ ” Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. 5 Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. 6 He said to his men, “The LORD forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the LORD’s anointed, or lift my hand against him; for he is the anointed of the LORD” (I Samuel 24: 3-6). … “Do not touch my anointed ones; do my prophets no harm” (Psalm 105:15).
SO WHAT?
1. If we mistreat, injure a fellow believer, we are mistreating and injuring Christ! There is a mystical union between Christ and every believer. In what ways might we mistreat a fellow believer?
2. We should make a real effort to help the persecuted church around the world.
10Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers (Galatians 6:10).
a. Barnabas Fund – www.barnabasfund.org
b. Voice of the Martyrs – www.persecution.com