1 Timothy 1:12 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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1 Timothy 1:12

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Says the one-time injurious person and persecutor of the church, ‘And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful.’ What does the apostle mean by he counted me faithful? It does, on the surface, seem to suggest that the apostle Paul was put into the ministry because he could be trusted. It does almost seem as though the apostle Paul is boasting. I was put into the ministry because I could be reckoned as faithful. So because he was a faithful man, he was given apostleship and stewardship of the gospel. No, that is not what it means. Here the thanks are directed in a personal way to Christ not to the Father or the Holy Spirit, because it was the Lord Jesus Christ who spoke to him on the road to Damascus. It was the Lord Jesus Christ who commissioned him as an apostle. The next words, ‘who hath enabled me’, and then after that, ‘for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.’ The order of those clauses is very important. First of all the salvation and the commissioning to apostleship came from Christ. He gave me the power. And then being trustworthy came out of that, and then entrance into the ministry. Three steps almost, and no question about that and the vast majority of commentators in the Reformed tradition are very careful to demonstrate that this is the way the verse must be taken. First of all, the Lord Jesus Christ strengthens, and then you can be trustworthy, you can be faithful, and then you can take up the work of the ministry. It's Christ enabling, which makes him trustworthy. The tenacity that Paul had came from the Lord. In other words, when Christ commissions, he strengthens. If he calls us to himself, and he calls us to witness for him, he will give us the strength, the enabling to do that. He will make us trustworthy. But then the question is, why is every Christian not trustworthy? Why is every Christian not faithful? Why is every Christian not loyal? If the trustworthiness, the faithfulness comes from Christ, why is it there are weak Christians, faithless Christians? Why do we stumble? Why do we fall? The answer to that is this: that we are not seeking or appreciating the strength and the help of the Lord. Paul says, ‘I thank Christ Jesus our Lord.’ It's all down to him. He has enabled me, and the consequence of his enabling is that I could be counted faithful; I could be trusted, and I could be put into his service. Everything hinges on the word counted. ‘For that he counted me faithful.’ I wasn't faithful, says Paul. He deemed me a faithful one and he worked in me to make me faithful. He counted me as one of his own. He imputed the righteousness of Christ to me and his forgiving love, before which I was totally unworthily. ‘Faithful’, it is a term of grace. It's used elsewhere in the Bible. Abraham was counted faithful. The sinner who comes to Christ is counted, deemed faithful. It's the gift of God putting me into the ministry. ‘So I have got to be faithful,’ Paul means, ‘because God has counted me faithful, as if I were faithful.’ We too should have that attitude.‘Putting me into the ministry.’ This is interesting because the apostle Paul was not given his apostolic function immediately. He was given his apostolic commission very early on, even at his conversion. It was indicated to him that he would be an apostle, that he would be a special messenger, that he would be particularly sent to the Gentiles. So that from the time of his conversion Paul was an apostle. But he wasn't given the function all at once. He was proved first. Referring to those who are being brought into office in the church, he later on says, ‘Let them first be proved.’ Paul was proved himself, and it took some time.

Application

It is the same with us. There is not a single born again believer who could not be faithful, because it is not by your strength that you are faithful or trustworthy; the Lord enables you. Therefore if you pray for the help of the Lord, and you commit yourself to him, and you want his help and his strength, he will strengthen you for the task that he has given you. If we are faithless, inconsistent, disloyal to the Lord, there must be a reason for it. There must be a reason why we are missing out on the strength and the help that he gives. We have to ask ourselves, am I a worldly Christian? Do I have divided loyalties? Do I not commit myself to the Lord and ask for his strength? Is it because I am a half and half believer? Because if we pray to him and ask him for strength and tenacity, we would have tenacity like the apostle. Or is it perhaps that we are self-confident? I think, ‘Oh, I can cope. I can bound out of the house at eight o'clock in the morning and manage pretty well. I can feel the pressures that come my way and I can handle myself and I don't particularly feel the need to be always cast upon the Lord, looking to him, mistrusting myself, praying for his help and his strength. I only pray when I have a great need. Not surprisingly you will become a faithless and an untrustworthy believer. Christ enables, and then we can be counted faithful, and then we can be put into service

Is there somebody who is impatient to have a very important and significant responsibility in the church of Jesus Christ? Even the apostle, though appointed from the hour of his conversion, had to wait some considerable time before the function of full apostleship fell to him. He was converted near Damascus, and then he seems to have stayed in Damascus for some three years. And he ministered there, and he preached there, so much so that he had to escape from Damascus. Then he went to Jerusalem, where he seems to have taken up the kind of preaching of Stephen, and with this clear-cut preaching the apostle Paul seems to have lasted in that preaching ministry in Jerusalem no longer than two weeks. Because his life was in peril and there was great danger coming, the believers in Jerusalem escorted him safely off to Tarsus. He was there in Tarsus for at least nine years. It's difficult to know whether it was between nine and almost twelve years, or possibly even fourteen years, some would say that he was in Tarsus. We know nothing whatever about his ministry in Tarsus. We don't pick up the history of Paul again until he is sent for by Barnabas, who was sent to Antioch from Jerusalem to teach the growing congregation. He couldn't cope, and so he sent to Tarsus for Saul, Paul, and he brought him. Then the Holy Spirit spoke through the leaders of the church at Antioch and set aside Barnabas and Saul for the work: ‘Separate me, Barnabas and Saul’, and Barnabas is named first. And the two missionaries are sent out from the church at Antioch, Barnabas seemingly the senior figure, and Saul, who we call Paul, as his assistant or his deputy. Out they go, and they haven't gone far before the signs and the wonders through Paul, and his more significant ministry changed the order, and Luke soon begins talking about Paul and Barnabas. For fourteen years he was a servant, serving with the word of God, and then the apostolic functions begin to shine through and begin to reveal themselves. That is why in theological training we are very keen that those being trained should come across as humble men, not as people who see themselves as special, not as people who only want to preach and to speak and will not dirty their hands. We want to see the traits of Paul in all the workers of the Lord, those who are humble and dedicated and willing to do whatever the Lord calls them to do and strengthen themselves and train themselves to that end.

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1 Timothy 1:12 Commentary and Bible Study