THEOSISJohn Chrysostom
Do you see how again he humbles and abases himself, bringing forward another, more humiliating reason? Having said that he received mercy because of his ignorance, he indicates that the one shown mercy was not a very great sinner and should not be strictly condemned.
But when he says that he received mercy so that none who had sinned should despair any longer, but should be confident that he too will receive the same, he presents a very great and powerful accusation.
Thus, when the apostle said, I am the first of sinners, a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent man, “and not worthy to be called an Apostle” (1 Cor 15:9), and similar things, even then he said nothing so humiliating for himself.
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Let us explain this by an example. Imagine a populous city whose inhabitants are all evil, some less and some more, yet all deserving condemnation. But among these many there is one man more deserving than all of condemnation and punishment, a man who has experienced every kind of crime.
Suppose someone were to say that the king wishes to forgive them all. They would not easily believe this report until they saw that the most criminal of them all had received forgiveness. Then no doubt would remain.
Paul says the same thing: God, wishing to assure people that He forgives them everything, had mercy on the one who sinned more than all. If I, he says, have received forgiveness, let no one doubt concerning the others.
This is the same as what everyone commonly says: if God has forgiven this man, then He will no longer punish anyone else. By this the apostle shows that he did not deserve forgiveness, but was counted worthy of it first for the salvation of others.
Therefore let no one, he says, doubt salvation when I have been saved. And note the humility of this blessed man. He did not say, “that He might show longsuffering in me,” but “all longsuffering.”
It is as if he were saying: God has shown His longsuffering on no one more than on me. He found no other sinner who needed all His mercy and all His longsuffering, not only part of it, as those who sinned only in part.
“As an example,” he says, “for those who would believe in Him unto eternal life,” that is, for their encouragement and exhortation.
Paul says that God called him for the sake of virtue: “He is My chosen vessel,” He said to Ananias, “to bear My name before nations and kings” (Acts 9:15). That is, he is fit for ministry and for the accomplishment of a great work.
God indicates this as the reason for his calling. But the apostle himself everywhere attributes everything to grace and to the ineffable love of God for mankind, speaking thus: “I received mercy, not because I was capable and worthy, but so that in me He might show all longsuffering, as an example for those who would believe in Him unto eternal life” (cf. 1 Tim 1:16).
The apostle revealed his former acts of boldness, considering it better to expose his former life to shame before all, so as to show more clearly the greatness of God’s gift. He preferred this to hiding the ineffable and indescribable love of the Lord for mankind by refusing to disclose his own error before all.
For this purpose he mentions in one place and another his persecutions, slanders, and campaigns against the Church. In one place he says, “I am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God” (1 Cor 15:9).
In another, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am first” (1 Tim 1:15). In a third, “You have heard of my former life in Judaism, how fiercely I persecuted the Church of God and ravaged it” (Gal 1:13).
Thus Paul, as though making some recompense to Christ for His longsuffering toward him, shows whom the Lord saved, and what a hostile and unfriendly man he had been.
With great boldness he proclaims the war that he at first raised against Christ with all zeal. At the same time, he instills good hopes in those who despair of themselves.