NOTES for Ti1 1:12-20
Paul's mention of certain people whom, by his own words, he "handed over to Satan" in order to teach them not to blaspheme raises quite natural questions. How can one person hand another over to Satan at all? And how is this possible for a Christian? And can Satan really teach someone not to blaspheme? One would rather expect the opposite from him.
Meanwhile, this is clearly not about punishment proper, but about the consequences of a sin committed by a person, and a very serious sin if "shipwreck in faith" is mentioned. Perhaps the issue is people who, having become disappointed in God, in Christ, and in their own spiritual path, simply abandoned all this and began to live as they had lived before conversion.
And since such apostasy never passes without a trace, it very often turns out that a person quickly slides down into a life worse than the one he lived before. The same applies to so-called "punishments from God": God has no need to punish the sinner specially; it is quite enough for Him to leave a person alone with the consequences of the sins he has committed. But the church situation in this sense is special. The special feature of a Christian's path consists to a large degree in the fact that he is never left one on one with the consequences of his sin. Jesus came into the world not only to bring the Kingdom here, but also so that everyone who wishes might enter it. And for this it was necessary to free a person from the consequences of sins committed in his former life.
Yet such deliverance is possible only if the person himself repents of what he has done, and therefore fully and unconditionally renounces it. If a person begins to sin again, consciously, knowing what he is doing, and continues to sin, then in the end a moment can come when help is withheld until the moment when he comes to his senses and repents. The point here is not punishment, but that it is useless to help someone climb out of a pit if, as soon as he has done so, he jumps back in.
God usually allows a person to play such games by himself, without His participation, and begins to help when the player becomes tired of his game. Still, considering that without God's help it is impossible to get out of the pit, the game usually ends rather quickly after another fall into the pit, during which the player understands that he has played too far and will not be pulled out again until he begins to treat serious things seriously, not as a child's game. This "played too far" is what the apostle calls "handing over to Satan." And then, having understood that everything is extremely serious, a person can truly reconsider his former behavior.
If the issue is blasphemy, then one may think that the people Paul mentions were indeed carried very far away. And a face-to-face encounter with the reality in which they found themselves as a result, without any support, could well have had a sobering effect like a cold shower. Of course, this is shock therapy, but sometimes there is no other way to bring a person to his senses and return him to reality, and the apostle understands this perfectly.