Digging Deeper Days
Finding the original intent of Scripture and making good application to our everyday lives as we become equipped to correctly handle the Word of Truth!
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The Questions
1) What is mercy in this context?
2) What is grace in this context?
3) How are we alike or different from Paul?
1 Timothy 1:12-20
I give thanks to Christ Jesus our Lord who has strengthened me, because he considered me faithful, appointing me to the ministry— 13 even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an arrogant man. But I received mercy because I acted out of ignorance in unbelief, 14 and the grace of our Lord overflowed, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 15 This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them. 16 But I received mercy for this reason, so that in me, the worst of them, Christ Jesus might demonstrate his extraordinary patience as an example to those who would believe in him for eternal life. 17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
18 Timothy, my son, I am giving you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies previously made about you, so that by recalling them you may fight the good fight, 19 having faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and have shipwrecked their faith. 20 Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered to Satan, so that they may be taught not to blaspheme.
Original Intent
1) What is mercy in this context?
Our English word for mercy comes from the Greek word eleeo, meaning compassionate and tender kindness. Throughout the New Testament, eleeo is used to convey the idea of God not punishing as we justly deserve; this is an act of mercy. Because of our sinful rebellion against God, we deserve instant exile into eternal separation from God, but because of His mercy, He gives each of us time to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9) In this letter to Timothy we see Paul recounting how merciful God was to him. Paul was rebelling against God, imprisoning and murdering Christians, but God showed Paul mercy by continuing to give him life, patiently waiting for Paul to come to repentance, and by mercifully giving him the opportunity to repent multiple times over. Mercy, God’s tender-hearted compassion toward His people by not giving them what they justly deserve, is abundant throughout the Bible. We see Moses writing about mercy in Numbers 14:18, describing God’s slowness to anger even though He will also dispense consequences because He is loving and just. David writes about God’s mercy and compassion throughout the Psalms. Some examples are Psalm 86:5, Psalm 103:8 and Psalm 145:8-9. We see God Himself speaking through the prophet Isaiah about His tireless compassion towards His people in Isaiah 65:2 in spite of their rebellious actions and attitudes.
2) What is grace in this context?
In the original Greek, grace is charis. Its definition is broader than mercy, but includes the attributes of mercy as kindness and compassion. Grace is like an umbrella that mercy fits beneath, but it also carries the idea of undeserved favor represented by a gift. It also comes from the Hebrew word hsd, or hesed, meaning loving-kindness. All of this comes together beautifully presented as a lavish, entirely unmerited, impossible-to-earn gift, which is given out of God’s core character of love. Grace is given unconditionally, knowing the favorable gift could never be repaid. God states that He is the God of grace, love, forgiveness, and favor in Exodus 34:6-7. Grace sees the impoverished orphan and lovingly provides lavishly for that orphan, treating her as precious and priceless, knowing she could never do anything to earn the gift or ever do anything valuable enough to repay her benefactor. (Ephesians 1:5-9) Paul says in verse 14 that the “grace of our Lord overflowed” to him, meaning a new life, fully undeserved, was given to Paul as a gift. This is grace!
3) How are we alike or different from Paul?
Before Saul’s encounter with God, and his subsequent surrender to Christ as well as his name change to Paul, we see him as a Pharisee, a very learned man of the Law. Meaning he knew the Torah, the first 5 books of our Bible, and was well practiced in working hard to keep every bit of the Law, while also making sure others were keeping it as well. The Torah is full of lengthy passages of rules, rituals, and laws for Israel to follow as a nation. (Don’t let this deter you from reading it, however, there are some incredible stories and accounts of interesting people!) As a Pharisee, Saul believed every Jew was to uphold those laws, or else they were deemed not ‘good enough’ for God. Saul (before he became Paul) wrongly believed anyone could attain their own righteousness by following these Old Testament laws. Flying in the face of these laws, Saul saw the followers of Jesus as wrong and blasphemous against God because Jesus taught that He was the fulfillment of those laws because only in Him could anyone be declared righteous. Jesus taught it was through faith one became righteous to God, not through works of the Law. This inflamed Saul, and his fellow Pharisees! So, he set out to destroy all who followed Christ. In Acts 8:1 he has a follower of Christ, Stephen, put to death. (Acts 6:8-8:3) In Acts 8:3, Saul goes house to house physically removing anyone who has professed that Jesus is Lord. Finally, by God’s grace, God stops Saul in his literal tracks in Acts 9:1-7 and opens Saul’s heart to realize how everything he had been doing was in opposition to God.
Everyday Application
1) What is mercy in this context?
In today’s world we tend to use the word compassion more often than mercy as it seems to be an outdated term for most. In our society, we most often associate compassion with rooting for the underdog or a feeling of kindness to someone less fortunate. But oh, do we need to be reminded of true, biblical mercy! While we are urged to show mercy and compassion to one another as a reflection of God’s heart in Scripture (Luke 10:37), eleeo goes deeper than compassion. Compassion sees a hurting friend and lovingly walks beside them in grief. Mercy looks at the teenager who snuck out against the known rule and says, I will not punish you as you rightly deserve. Eleeo is most often used in the New Testament to demonstrate a kind, tender mercy that comes from God. Mercy is an act of God, too magnificent for us to fully comprehend because our injustices against Him are too great. Take time to look up these passages using eleeo and consider how unfathomably great is God’s mercy towards us. (Luke 1:50, Jude 1:21, Titus 3:5, Ephesians 2:4) Then allow this overwhelming richness of mercy to motivate you to extend mercy towards others as a reflection of God’s magnificent eleeo mercy! (1 Peter 1:3)
2) What is grace in this context?
There is a popular saying describing the difference between grace and mercy by stating, “Grace is when God gives us what we don’t deserve. Mercy is when God doesn’t give us what we do deserve.” These two may sound similar, but by this description, God’s gift of wiping away our sin is a gift of grace because He is giving us what we do not deserve. Mercy could be receiving a less harsh consequence. For example, when a judge is lenient with a defendant and gives a lesser punishment, he is showing mercy. Mercy stops the executioner from delivering deserved justice to the offender. Grace then enters to give that offender the gift of walking out of his jail cell with his sentence marked “paid in full”. Mercy compassionately doesn’t give what is rightly deserved. Grace kindly gives what could never be deserved. Grace is never about legalism, checking all the boxes, and working hard to earn favor. (Galatians 5:4) Grace is undeserved no matter how hard we try to win it; it cannot be won. We are saved not by the ‘law’, or our attempts at good deeds, but by God’s gracious love and favor; this is His grace towards us. (Ephesians 2:4-5) Grace wins over sin every time for the one who puts their faith fully in the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf at the cross. This lavish gift of grace, however, doesn’t mean Christians have received a ‘free pass’ to keep on sinning. (Romans 5:20-6:2) Rather, the recipient of such grace is motivated to live for Christ, the One who set them free to live a life of love instead of sin!
3) How are we alike or different than Paul?
In our humanity, we are all like Paul when he was Saul, because we all rebel against God, seeking to be our own “god”. Perhaps, like Saul, we are ignorant of the saving message of Jesus, even if we do know God exists, which, as a Pharisee, Paul did. He knew all about God, but didn’t see anything he did as sinful, until God Himself showed him the error of his ways on the Damascus road. We can be very much like that. Whether that sin is giving in to doing something we know is completely wrong, or simply falling prey to ‘little’ sins. Backbiting, lying, slander, stealing, and many others are examples of sin, but there are no “small sins” to God; even one marks us unholy, resulting in eternal separation from a perfectly holy God. We also sin by simply not acknowledging that we are indeed broken and sinful. (1 John 1:8) We can think, like Saul did, that by being ‘good’ we are saved and are in “good enough” standing with God. We deem ourselves as righteous. We get caught up in the “laws” in our mind of how people should act and behave, without ever considering that maybe there is something in ourselves that needs to change. The beautiful thing is, God is indeed gracious and merciful, overflowing with compassion and love. We don’t need to do anything to earn His love and forgiveness, other than repent and turn away from a life of sin and acknowledge He alone is holy, and in His mercy and grace, provided a way to rescue us from sin by sacrificing Himself for us. That’s it! 2 Peter 3:9 says God desires that none should perish. Because of God’s great love for us and His blood which He shed on the cross, we can come to Him in repentance and He will pour His unfailing love and grace out on us. (Ephesians 1:5, John 1:4, Romans 5:2)
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1) Take this passage (or any other passage).
2) Read it, and the verses around it,
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3) Write down your questions
as you think of them.
4) Ask specific culture related questions and be ready to dig around for your answers. Google them, use www.studylight.org, or look them up in a study Bible and read the footnotes (click on the little letters next to a word and it will show you
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Why Dig Deeper?
Finding the original meaning is a huge deal when we study Scripture and can make all the difference in our understanding as we apply God’s truths to our everyday lives.
In our modern-day relationships, we want people to understand our original intention as we communicate; how much more so between God and humanity?!
Here’s a little bit more on why we take Digging Deeper so seriously.
Study Tools
We love getting help while we study and www.studylight.org is one of many excellent resources, providing the original Hebrew (Old Testament) or Greek (New Testament) with an English translation.
Want to know more about a specific word in a verse? Click on “Strong’s Interlinear Bible” then click the word you’d like to study. Discover “origin”, “definition” and hear the original pronunciation – That Is Awesome!
Want more background? Click “Study Tools”, then pick a few commentaries to read their scholarly approach, keeping in mind that just because a commentary says it, doesn’t mean it’s true. (just like the internet :-))
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I totally identify with Paul. I pray and pray and pray for God to direct me so I know what I do is what God wants me to do. God has to give me lots of Mercy and grace because I know I rarely get it right. Thank you for breaking out the differences of grace and mercy and offering the application for our lifestyle and choices.
We are all “Paul” in some fashion aren’t we?! So grateful for God’s constant grace and mercy; such love to lavish these gifts on us!
Great observations! Thank you for the resources for deeper study at the end. I’m studying Zechariah right now and can use all the help I can get 😂.
Awesome! Glad these were beneficial to you, Anita! May the Lord bless your pursuit of Him!