Encouragement
This small, easily overlooked, passage deserves closer examination. How many times have we thought, or even believed that, "I am too bad, God can't love me.?" What Paul is saying here to Timothy is, "look at me an my wretched past. God had mercy on me and is using me in a huge way!" Look at how God used Paul, God can use you and I too, if we will let him. We can never be too far from God. There is nothing in our past that He can't forgive!
