June 9, 2023: 2 Timothy 1:12 - I Am Not Ashamed, For I Know Whom I Have Believed

“For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.” - 2 Timothy 1:12

As I read these beautiful words of Paul the apostle, they are like a healing balm to my soul and my spirit. They calm the anxiousness inside me, in my mind. They remind me in whom I have put my trust. Is it myself? Oh no, quite the contrary, for I am here for a moment and gone the next, I am just an imperfect, sinful vessel designed and created by the Creator. Is it in my fellow man? No, for they also are created beings, just like me, and they too are imperfect and sinful, here in this life for just a brief moment in the span of eternity. Yes, I used to put my trust in myself, then other people, including governments, and then I too had a moment like Paul did when his life was completely transformed by the light of Jesus Christ. While I wasn’t persecuting Christians as Paul was, I had been putting my trust in everyone and everything else except Jesus Christ, even though I believed that I was saved in Him. I really think that it was at that moment in time when I truly turned to Jesus Christ, giving Him my heart, that I was saved by Him, that moment in my closet, on my knees crying out to Him to save me. It brings to remembrance what I would later read in the Bible as David wrote about the day God delivered him from his enemies:

“When the waves of death surrounded me, the floods of ungodliness made me afraid. The sorrows of Sheol surrounded me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, and my cry entered His ears.” (2 Samuel 22:5-7)

Just as God had heard David’s voice when he cried out to Him, so did God hear my voice when I cried out to Him. From that moment on, I truly knew the saving power of a loving and merciful God, who called me, “child of Mine.” It also reminds me of another of my favorite Scriptures, also written by David that says:

“The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite [repentant] spirit.” (Psalm 34:18)

The apostle Paul wrote in today’s Scripture verse, “For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.” David, who would later go on to become King David, wrote these words:

“I sought the LORD, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. They looked to Him and were radiant, and their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried out, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him! Oh, fear the LORD, you His saints! There is no want [lack] to those who fear Him. The young lions lack and suffer hunger; but those who seek the LORD shall not lack any good thing.” (Psalm 34:6-10)

David and Paul had tasted of the goodness of the Lord our God and saw that He is good. They put their trust in Him, and so do I. They were not ashamed for putting their trust in Him, and Almighty God got them through extremely difficult circumstances. After being saved by Jesus Christ, Paul suffered many things for his faith but he never turned away from Jesus. David committed the sin of adultery with Bathsheba, a married woman, who became pregnant with his child, and had her husband Uriah the Hittite killed in war by putting him at the front line of the fiercest battle. David went on to marry Bathsheba. When confronted by the prophet Nathan about this sin, David admitted to him, “I have sinned against the LORD.” The Bible tells us, “And Nathan said to David, ‘The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die.” Nathan also told him that the child would die because of David’s sin because “…you have given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme.” (2 Samuel 12:13-14). David pleaded for his son’s life, but God did enact His judgment, and David remained faithful to God.

In this account of David, we learn that when we confess our sins to God, acknowledging that we have sinned against Him, He does forgive us. We also learn from Psalm 51 that David repented of his sins and turned back to God. He truly was sorry that he had sinned against God, not just sorry that he had gotten caught in his sin. David wrote:

“Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight - that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge.” (Psalm 51:1-4)

“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You.” (Psalm 51:10-13)

God did create a clean heart in David, a heart that trusted in God through many more trials David would later have in his family and as king of Israel. As evidenced by David’s words in the beautiful book of Psalms that he wrote, he called out to the Lord, and the Lord heard him. David trusted in the Lord no matter what happened, praising God for who He is and for His love and mercy:

“But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, and His righteousness to children’s children, to such as keep His covenant, and to those who remember His commandments to do them. The LORD has established His throne in heaven, and His kingdom rules over all.” (Psalm 103:17-19)

David and Bathsheba would go on to have a son, Solomon, who would succeed his father David as king and the last king of united Israel before it split into two kingdoms. Solomon would build the first Jewish temple, known as Solomon’s temple. King David had wanted to build the temple for the Lord but God forbid David because he had shed blood and told him that his son would build it instead. Most importantly, Solomon continued the ancestral line of David from which Jesus the Messiah would come, as prophesied in the Bible. The apostle Paul would later write in the book of Acts:

“And afterward they [Israel] asked for a king; so God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. And when He had removed him, He raised up for them David as king, to whom also He gave testimony and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.’ From this man’s seed, according to the promise, God raised up for Israel a Savior - Jesus - after John had first preached, before His coming, the baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel.” (Acts 13:21-24)

David and Paul are just two examples in the Bible of people who did horrible, sinful things but because they confessed their sins and repented and turned to God in belief, they were saved. They were not ashamed of their faith in God, for they knew He holds the key to their salvation. They are relatable examples of two people who were just like us - sinful and in need of a Savior - who, when they turned to Him to be saved, they were. God doesn’t expect us to be perfect; rather, He expects us to be faithful to Him. When we draw near to Him, He draws near to us.

We are at a point in human history when many who profess with their mouths to be saved by Jesus Christ are now ashamed of their faith and are turning from Him, turning instead to the world in all of its shameful lusts, to their own peril. May not this be true of you, may this not be true of me. May we instead remember the One in whom we have believed and, as Paul lovingly wrote, be persuaded that no matter what happens to us on this earth, He is able to keep what we have committed to Him until that Day. Brothers and sisters, let us stand strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, remembering what our brother Paul wrote of our hope in Jesus Christ:

“But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep [died], lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will be no means precede those who are asleep [dead]. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)

“But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, ‘Peace and safety!’ then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober [self-controlled]. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:1-11) ✝️