This week’s devotions are based on this week’s message: The Key to life and leadership is Grace! (WATCH HERE)
1 Timothy 1:2 To Timothy my true son in the faith: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
With these words, the Apostle Paul addresses Timothy, a young missionary with the Apostle Paul and a young leader in the New Testament Church. He was left in the city of Ephesus with the church that met there. Paul wanted to come to Ephesus, but until he did, he trusted Timothy to give direction and instruction to the believers.
At first glance, one could look at the book of 1 Timothy and just see a book written to the leaders of a church and dismiss it without much relevance for the average Christian.
Let’s not do that.
Like with any other book of Scripture, God’s Spirit wrote it and preserved it so we could be blessed by it.
The blessing of the first letter to Timothy is that it gives us great insights into life and leadership. Over the next six weeks we will unpack six key realities about life and leadership, all connected to the one foundational reality for every Christian: Grace.
When Paul opens his letter, he communicates grace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Just a few verses into the letter he recognizes that it is pure grace that he was even serving as an apostle and missionary of the Lord Jesus.
1 Timothy 1:12 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service. 13 Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. 14 The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
There was no way from a standard of spiritual performance that the Apostle Paul should have been used as a communicator of the Gospel. In his early years, although he was a student of Scripture and zealot for obeying God’s law, he stood opposed to everything that breathed of Christ.
He gave his approval to the stoning of Stephen, the first martyr in the Christian faith:
Acts 7:57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.
He breathed out murderous threats to all who professed faith in Jesus:
Acts 9:1-2 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2 and 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.
How in the world could you explain the fact that God would use Paul to proclaim the Gospel, the very thing he stood opposed to?
“I was shown mercy.” “The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly…”
When God uses sinners for his purpose, it is purely a testimony to the grace of God. When God changed Paul’s heart, grace began to define every aspect of his being, his purpose, his identity and his status before God. The burden of guilt and lack of perfection fell from his heart and was replaced by the overwhelming grace, mercy and peace of God.
Paul realized that the key to life truly is grace…God’s grace.
The same is true for us today.
Apply: Consider all the reasons you SHOULDN”T be a follower of Jesus or on a mission for him. Then just cross them all off and write “grace.” Grace is the key for it all.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for loving me enough to call me out of my sin to the safety of your love and forgiveness…not because I have earned it, but simply because of your grace. AMEN.