C, Post-Pentecost 14 Proper 19 - 1 Timothy 1:15-16 "Jesus' Perfect Patience"
Saint Paul’s ministry was one of
patience! Jesus had to be perfectly
patient with Paul as an example to those who were to believe Jesus for eternal
life.
We might think the patience needed,
is what was required of Paul to perform his ministry. He definitely was taught to be patient, but
this was only secondary to Jesus’ perfect patience with him.
After his conversion on the road
to Damascus, you might expect, there was preaching to do, and people to seek,
now that Saul the persecutor of Christ and his church had become Paul the
proselyte of this fledgeling movement centred on Jesus’ life and death, resurrection
and ascension.
However, if Saint Paul’s ministry,
or any ministry is to be effective in the Lord, God’s patience needs to be
demonstrated with us who share the gospel, whether we are pastors, lay leaders
in congregations, youth leaders, parents and grandparents praying for
their prodigals to return, or young kids telling their friends about Jesus in
the playground.
When God was handing out
patience, I reckon I must have been away that day! I, like so many in our society today, desire
immediate results, or I get impatient.
As I get older the need to –go,
go, go– is slowing, physically! But mentally
and emotionally my patience is slowing too.
Or my impatience is growing proportionally to the years I live or the
hairs that are getting greyer. The
slower I go, the slower I am at being patient.
Or the quicker I run out of puff, the quicker I expect others to pick up
their act and get going.
The old Adam in us, our human
spirit, turns its expectation into a god.
Unfortunately, sin has rewired our brains and hearts this way. But the Holy Spirit leads us back to Christ’s overflowing
love.
When the god of our expectations
is not met, we get frustrated and impassioned with each other. In our minds we become
impatient and secretly judge, “I expected so much more from you! Or, I didn’t expect you to do something like
that!” Our expectations can be idols in
our lives that cause us to sin against others and God.
After Saint Paul’s conversion on
the road to Damascus, at the least, he spent fourteen years away from Jerusalem
in Arabia, Syria, and Cilicia. God was
patiently preparing Paul for his ministry, and no doubt Paul too was learning
patience having been shown patience. It’s believed during these fourteen years; God was patiently
preparing him as an apostle. Saul
the Pharisee who knew the Law was being patiently revealed by the Holy Spirit
that Jesus Christ is the only fulfiller of the Law.
Sometime later Paul confesses to
young pastor Timothy, “Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.”
What a way to start off! Confession that he is not just a sinner but
the prototype of sinners! Only through
Jesus’ perfect patience does someone learn this, and, have the willingness to
confess it.
Paul prefaces his confession as
the prototype sinner stating, “The saying
is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” (1 Timothy 1:15 ESV)
He confesses to Timothy that Jesus
Christ, this Saviour of sinners, and his sinfulness, is proclaimed in
faith and this deserves Timothy’s full reception. Paul wants Timothy to perfectly understand
what he is saying here!
In naming himself a sinner, Paul
does a number of things. He’s no longer
ignorant in his unbelief. He now has
faith that he’s a sinner. His sinful being
is now covered by Jesus’ death and resurrection. His former sinful deeds are also covered by
Jesus’ forgiveness. He’s no longer a
servant of his sinfulness, but rather a servant of sinners needing the same
forgiveness as him.
Paul places himself under the
authority of God’s word. One might think
that he was already doing this since he was a Pharisee. However, Paul was using the Law of God to
justify himself and his position. This
made him guilty of blasphemy and idolatry.
As a ruthless Pharisee he was worshipping a graven image, not made with
his hands, but with his mind. And in
breathing murderous threats against the followers of Christ, he was blaspheming
God the Son.
From Pauls legal background as
an Old Testament Lawyer, he knew very well that God is impartial. And so, with sound teaching in the Law and
knowledge of Jesus’ overflowing grace he knew God had to continue being patient
with him because his human nature would still strive to be partial to wrongly
justify or condemn those with whom God is perfectly patient.
It was no longer about his Law
or justification, but about Jesus’ fulfilment of the Law through his
righteousness and our justification through his sacrificial death on the cross. And this wasn’t done to Paul’s timeframe but
in the fullness of God’s time it was finished by Jesus Christ. This
perfection continues to be finished by the power of the Holy Spirit, who seeks
to bring the human spirit to the fullness of Jesus’ perfect patience.
Paul goes out of his way to embellish
just who he is to Timothy, so Timothy does not place an expectation on Paul
that makes Paul a god in Timothy’s eyes.
And so, Timothy does not make himself an impatient presumptuous super
apostle to those to whom God calls him.
Patience goes hand in hand with
forgiveness! So too, impatience and
frustration go hand in hand with unforgiveness.
Patience grows out of our judgement!
Judge one way and we forgive, judge the other way we don’t forgive. However, Jesus’ perfect patience with Paul
is an enduring lesson in love.
In his letter to the Romans Paul
speaks of Jesus’ all-encompassing love. But before he does, he speaks about the
all-encompassing debased love of each human for themselves. (Romans 1:21-32)
He says, “For there is no distinction: for
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift,
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 3:22–24 ESV)
Impatience goes hand in hand
with presumption. Paul knew this too
well when he acted with zealous fervour in ignorance under the Law. He says, “Do
you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them
yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness
and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead
you to repentance?” (Romans 2:3–4
ESV)
Paul was acutely aware of Jesus’
perfect patience of him in his ministry.
There was no presumption he was any better than those he taught
regardless of them being Jew or Greek, young or old, pastor or
parishioner. They all needed Jesus’
perfect patience, as did he!
Jesus’ perfect patience not only
manifested itself in love at the cross.
But also, in his sending of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the helper of sinners who
trust in Jesus Christ.
The writer of the letter to the
Hebrews says, “we desire each one of you
to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the
end, so that you may not be sluggish, but
imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”
(Hebrews 6:11–12 ESV)
The writer goes on to cite
Abraham as one who inherits through patience.
Abraham was patient but the greater weight of patience was from God who
not only witnessed Abraham and Sarah’s disastrous affairs with Hagar and
Ishmael, but also the nation that grew out of him all the way down to Paul.
Peter says in his second Epistle, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9 ESV)
Jesus’ perfect patience is also
a perfect faithfulness too. Not only
does he send the Holy Spirit to give us faith, but he also remains faithful to
us as well. Rather than expectation, he
serves with example and is patient with us.
He gives us the fullness of time
as he peels back the layers of our sinfulness while bringing this sinfulness into
the light of his revelation and his forgiveness of our sin.
We’re all on different parts of God’s road to salvation. Some are more mature in the faith. Like Saint Paul, we are called to recognise with ever increasing clarity the weakness in which we walk. But at the same time learn with increasing knowledge the overflowing grace that shows its perfection in Jesus’ patience.
The fullness of time will come for us all. Only then will we know who has believed they’re sinners and who trusted Jesus’ perfect patience. Till then let us, in the complete knowledge and acceptance of our weakness, walk together sharing with each other the perfect patience of Jesus Christ, who walks in our midst as our forgiving Saviour God, and gathers us together in him with the Holy Spirit.
To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour
and glory forever and ever. Amen. (1 Timothy 1:17 ESV)
