Isaiah 62-64 1 Timothy 1

“But the grace of our Lord was fully given to me, and with that grace came the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 1:14 NCV)

Timothy was Pal’s “go-to” guy. If a church was having issues and Paul couldn’t make it, he sent Timothy. Paul had spent a lot of time in Ephesus, and Ephesus still had problems, so he sent Timothy there to deal with the question that plagues Christians even today: how does the law fit into the Christian equation? Paul made it clear that it doesn’t. While the law has good uses, it wasn’t made for “good” people; it was made for people whose sinful lifestyles showed that they were opposed to God. Paul described his situation that should apply to all Christians: the grace of the Lord was given to him and with that grace he also got faith and love for Jesus Christ and fellow human beings.

Some people seem to think that if you don’t believe in Law because you believe in grace that you’ll live in an “anything goes” lifestyle. Nothing could be further from the truth. If someone claims that because they’re following grace, they can live however they want, they’ve misunderstood the idea of grace. Living in grace means that we’re walking with God on a daily basis. We understand that God loves some behaviors and detests other behaviors. Because we’re walking with Him, we extend His love and grace toward other people as well. God’s grace isn’t a “do what you want and get out of sin’s punishment free” card. God’s grace brings a powerful transforming work in our lives so that we’ll live like God wants us to. That power alone can cause us to live in fellowship with God.

Lord, thank You for Your grace. Help me to walk in grace and show others Your love and forgiveness. Let my life be an example of how Your grace can transform a person.

Scripture taken from the New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.