1 Timothy 1:15 Was Paul Still A Sinner After His Conversion?

Did Paul Live in Sin After His Conversion - How  Does He Tell Christians To Live

I have heard so many pastors and Christians claim that Paul lived a sinful life after his conversion, let's examine just a few scriptures, stay away from the Greek and employ a tad bit of logic. After Reading this article, if you still believe that Paul lived in sin after his conversion; and reading Ephesians 5 and Romans 6 all you could conclude is that Paul was Chief among Hippocrates and the bible contradicts itself. 

1 Timothy 1:15 reads: This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.THIS IS THE SCRIPTURE THAT THE CHRISTIANS WHO ARE ENSLAVED TO SIN LOVE TO QUOTE. Paul also wrote Ephesians 5:1 and Romans 6. These people who teach this don't understand the concept of the Historical Present tense (Which Paul employed in this passage). For everywhere else Paul commands us to be holy for God is holy.

Ephesians 5 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; 2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. 3 But immorality or any impurity or greed must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints; 4 and there must be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks. 5 For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not be partakers with them; 8 for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light 9 (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), 10 trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; 12 for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. 

Romans 6 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Even so consider your selves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, 13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. 

But but what about Romans 7:14 where Paul discusses his struggle with sin? I would take you back to 1 Tim 1:15 to your chief sinner scripture and contrast that to the "contradictory propositions or scriptures of Ephesians 5 and Romans 6 and then ask how do you reconcile Romans 7:14 with these two scriptures (which are just a few of the many proof texts for a life of holiness free from sin)? Taken at face value Romans 7:14 too is a contradiction in the bible with Ephesians 5 and Romans 6. So are they now arguing for contradictions in the bible too?

Do you see the dilemma of Paul preaching holiness and how unholy living is not acceptable - but Christians today still claim that Paul was chief among sinners after his conversion? Never mind that this means Paul contradicted himself and the Holy Spirit is now speaking with a forked tongue.

In 1 Timothy 1:15 was Paul saying he was presently the "Chief among sinners" or was he using a literary device or speaking in another sense? If we take 1 Tim 1:15 literally, then we would also have to assume that Paul was still worse than Nero and all the other tyrants of his time if he was "Chief among sinners"! Paul was using the Historical Present Tense to drive home his point. Often literary devices are used to emphasize a point in the bible. Jesus often used a Double Negation to drive home a point (which is often used in Greek for emphasis). Google this tense to confirm that is legitimate.

Again we don't even have to go this far all we have to demonstrate that Ephesians 5 and Romans 6, are logical contradictions to the interpretations that Paul was implying that he was still a chief sinner after his conversion in 1 Tim 1:15. After Paul's long exhortation to live without sin in our lives as Christians Romans 7:14 completely contradicts the preceding chapter; so was Paul so mixed up that he was to tell us that we are dead to sin if we are Christians and not to sin and then with a "Almost double personality" in Chapter 7 share with us that he still lived in sin as a Christian? Once we look at the context and logic of this theology of sinful living after conversion it should be obvious how erroneous this teaching is and how it displays several contradictions that ought to be posted on Infidels.com