Have you ever had a passage from Scripture pop out at you in an unexpected way? This week, I was reading a very familiar verse in my daily time with God, when a detail about that verse “clicked.” It’s not new or inventive, just a detail I hadn’t noticed before.
2 Timothy 1:12 has been an especially precious verse to me over the years, and it has become so familiar, I had even started to skim over it as I read through the chapter. But I went back through and read it slowly, and I was challenged by the new perspective I gained.
“For the which cause 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 that which I have committed unto Him against that day.”
The “for which cause” at the beginning of the verse refers to Paul’s imprisonment for the sake of the gospel, which he exhorts Timothy not to be ashamed of in v.8.
We might think from our perspective that Timothy would of course had no temptation to be ashamed of Paul—after all, he was in prison because he shared the gospel. But imagine your pastor or spiritual mentor was put in jail over a misunderstanding that was fed by prejudice against him due to his beliefs. (That is essentially what happened in Acts 21.)
Would people have opinions? Would they make assumptions? People in Paul’s day were no different, and it seems from little comments Paul makes that there were believers genuinely struggling to know how they ought to respond to Paul’s imprisonment.
But here in 2 Timothy, we see that Paul himself knew exactly how to respond. Though all the world be ashamed of him, he would stand strong and unashamed.
Notice, though, why he was not ashamed. It wasn’t because of what he had done, or where he was, or even, in a sense, what he believed—it was Who he knew.
“For I know whom I have believed”
He knew God, personally, experientially, and though his ministry had taken a somewhat unexpected turn, he knew exactly what to expect from God.
Life can sometimes fall embarrassingly short of our expectations, God has a way of leading us along paths we never would have chosen or even thought to go down. But He knows what He is doing. When we look to Him with the eyes of faith, we see in those uncertain or unexpected twists and turns of the path, not an embarrassing shortcoming or unfulfilled expectation, but rather a reminder that we can trust God, even with this.
Dear Reader, in those seasons of life where the will of God just doesn’t seem to make sense to you, remember that it’s not about where God has led you, or what you have done, or what people think of you—it’s all about Who you know. Look to God in faith, get closer to Him, and watch Him do amazing and unexpected things even with the most broken pieces of your life!
“Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.”Jeremiah 9:23-24