Good morning. There is a refrain portion of an old hymn that I have always enjoyed. I am not sure why, but it always seemed to speak to me, so much so that I looked forward to hearing it when that particular hymn was chosen for a worship service.
The title to the hymn is I Know Whom I Have Believed and the first verse, followed by that refrain, is this:
I know not why God’s wonderous grace to me is daily shown, nor why, with mercy, Christ in love redeemed me for His own. But “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I’ve committed unto him against that day.”
That refrain which appears in quotes is from 2 Timothy 1:12, the entire verse being: That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.
Paul writes to Timothy from Mamertine, Rome’s most horrible dungeon which was known as “the House of Darkness”. Prisoners were kept in holes in the ground not large enough to lie down. It was a place of horrors and unimaginable suffering. But Paul endured, and his faith never wavered. That reality makes those words from 2 Timothy 1:12 all the more powerful. He wrote that through it all he had remained convinced that the One he trusted with his eternity was and is able.
Fortunately, we don’t have such horrible conditions defining our lives. But isn’t it a blessing to know that He is able. The One who was able to guard the eternity of the apostle Paul is able to protect us from anything that brings us fear, anything that brings us pain, anything that could even claim our lives. He is able.
Vern