1 Timothy 1:13Plain English VersionI used to be really cheeky to Jesus Christ before I ever believed in him. I used to say bad things about Jesus, and I used to make trouble for anybody that believed in Jesus. I didn’t know the true story about Jesus at that time, so I didn’t believe in him. But God felt sorry for me, and he was really good to me. He let me turn around and join up with Jesus Christ, and now Jesus helps me to trust God, and he helps me to love everybody. See the chapter |
At that time, Saul was still making trouble for Jesus’s followers. He was telling them, “I’m going to hurt you and kill you.” He went to the big boss of the Jewish ceremonies and said, “I want to go to the city called Damascus and grab the followers of Jesus there. Will you write letters for me to take to the people in the Jewish meeting houses there? Tell them that you want me to grab anyone that belongs to that mob called the Jesus Way mob. I will grab those men and women, and tie them up, and I will bring them back to Jerusalem for you to punish them.” So that big boss wrote letters like that, and he gave them to Saul to take to Damascus.
But before I ever saw Jesus, he sent out his other special workers. They were the first people to go out and tell his message, so they are all more important than me. You see, I used to make a lot of trouble for God’s own people, so I’m not really good enough for anyone to call me one of Jesus’s special workers.
It was like this. You have heard what I was like before. At that time, I didn’t believe in Jesus. I was a Jew, and I believed everything that the Jews believe. And you know about the things that I did at that time. I made a lot of trouble for the Christian people. I tried hard to stop them from following Jesus.
But Jesus wanted to show everybody that he will wait for people, and he will save anyone that believes in him, even really bad people. So he picked me to be an example. I was really bad, but he felt sorry for me, and he waited for me to believe in him. So now everybody can know that Jesus is waiting, and he wants everybody to believe in him, no matter if they are really bad. If they believe in him, he will save them, and they will live with him for ever.