1 Timothy 1:13

1 Timothy 1:13. A blasphemer... Probably in both senses of the word, as implying (1) violent and railing speech against men, (2) actual blasphemy against the Name which be now recognised as above every name. His own words in Acts 26:11 give prominence to the latter meaning. Comp. James 2:7.

Injurious. Adding wanton outrage to the inevitable severity of persecution, the ‘haling' men and women (Acts 9:2), punishing them, probably by scourging, in the synagogues (Acts 26:10).

Because I did it ignorantly. From one point of view St. Paul looked upon his past state as one in which he had been as ‘the chief of sinners.' He had been ‘kicking against the pricks,' resisting warnings, misgivings, the teaching of events, which might have opened his eyes to see the light. Yet, on the other band, his eyes had not been opened, he had not sinned wilfully against a light clearly seen, and so the sin was one of ignorance leading to unbelief; and thus mercy, though he could not claim it as deserved, was still possible. He came within the range of the prayer, of which (recorded, as it is, by St. Luke) he may well have heard, ‘Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do' (Luke 23:54). And the view which he thus took of God's dealings with himself enlarged his sympathies and made him more hopeful for others. We cannot fail to hear the echoes of his own experience when he speaks of ‘the times of ignorance which God winked at' (Acts 17:30). There had been a time when he, too, had been, in some sense, the worshipper of an Unknown God.