God's only perfect servant on earth was Jesus Christ. All the rest were, and are, rough diamonds at best. From the dishonesty of Abraham, the grumbling of Moses and the adultery of David to corrupt tax-collector Matthew, arrogant Peter and nervous Timothy - their flaws show through the Bible text. But few had such a 'colourful' background as Paul. He was a religious bigot, a self-righteous academic, and cruel to the point of inhumanity (Acts 22:3-5). For God to save him, was grace indeed; and to appoint him as the last founding apostle, was generous in the extreme (1 Corinthians 15:9-10).

Indeed, Paul felt he had experienced more grace than any believer, because his antagonism to Christ and the church had been expressed so violently, so many Christians had been hurt by him, and families had been bereaved because Paul authorised the death of their loved ones. But he received mercy, grace and forgiveness (just part of the 'boundless riches of Christ') when he submitted to the authority of Jesus (1 Timothy 1:13). Paul had nothing to boast about except that God's grace was given to him (1 Corinthians 1:28-3; Revelation 5:9).

The apostle never forgot what he had been saved from, and so he understood that even the most hardened and violent official was not beyond God's reach; nor was the most opinionated religious cleric (1 Timothy 1:16). He knew that God's love crossed national, ethnic and religious boundaries. The gospel is for everybody, everywhere. Christ's church is built with people from every nationality, ethnic group, language and past religious tradition (Colossians 3:11). Paul did not spare any effort in doing whatever he could to explain the gospel to different people in ways they could understand (1 Corinthians 9:20-23).

Far from disqualifying us from serving the Lord, our past experiences will be used by Him - after we repent and allow our hearts to be reshaped by His grace. The memory of our past sins will stop us from boasting about ourselves, keeping us humble and grateful, full of praise and devoted to prayer. Such attitudes distinguish fleshly religious performance from spiritual ministry. At the same time, we will look at spiritually-lost people with new eyes and realise that even the nastiest people are as saveable as the nicest ignorant person, through God's grace (Romans 3:22-24). But do we believe that? Do we subconsciously categorise our friends and colleagues into those who might get saved and those who might not – witnessing to the nice ones and not speaking about Jesus to those we think will resist the message? If so, we are not thinking Biblically. It is not our goodness, or the virtues of the people we witness to, that point people towards Jesus, but the presentation of the gospel by God's power by a humble servant of Jesus.