Not Ashamed
One thing I am seeking to grow in this year is Scripture memory. I know pieces of lots of verses, and where generally to look to find them, but it’s been a while since I purposefully memorized new verses or faithfully reviewed the ones I already have memorized.
With the dawning of a new year, it seemed like a good time to make a renewed effort. A couple years ago, I started writing down verses on index cards (pretty ones, of course) that particularly stood out to me during my daily time in the Bible. As I got out that little book of cards at the start of the new year, I flipped through them, and all those special times of closeness to God came flooding back. The cards now sit next to my bed, to be reviewed each night before I go to sleep.
The verse on the very top of the stack has been on my heart much lately. It’s been an “old friend” for years, but as I read through it this year, a different part of the verse stood out to me. The verse is 2 Timothy 1:12.
“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.”
It has always been the latter part of the verse that was particularly precious to me, but each time I have read this verse recently, what touched my heart was the phrase, “nevertheless I am not ashamed.”
It had been a while since I last read 2 Timothy (since October, in fact,) and although I could make an educated guess at the context, I decided to study out exactly what Paul was “not ashamed” of.
To do that, I had to walk back through the previous 11 verses. Of course, you can (and should) read the passage for yourself, but for the sake of time, here’s my summary:
Paul is writing to Timothy, who, it seems, is saddened, concerned, and perhaps fearful. (“tears” in verse 4, fear in verse 7) Based on the fact that Paul felt it needful to tell Timothy not to be ashamed “of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner,” it seems likely that Timothy was struggling with the fact that Paul had been put in jail for preaching the gospel. Paul reminds Timothy that it is the power of God that saved us, and it was that very gospel of salvation for which Paul was now suffering.
In context, Paul is telling Timothy that he is not ashamed to be imprisoned for the gospel, because he had committed his all to God, Who is well able to keep it. When I read it with the context in mind, I was reminded of 1 Peter 4:19
“Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to Him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.”
That is exactly what Paul had done. He had committed his soul to God in well doing. That is why he could sit in a prison cell unashamed, and why he could urge Timothy to be unashamed as well.
You might be wondering what this business between Paul and Timothy has to do with us? There are a couple of ways we could apply this.
First, we should begin with the obvious application: we can and should be bold with the gospel, unashamed to share it regardless of whether or not society approves of us or our message.
Second, I think it is fair to base upon this passage a belief that we can and should live our lives with confidence in Christ, unashamed of the place, ministry, calling, or season of life into which God has placed us, however different it might be from what God calls our friends to, or from what the rest of society is doing.
This is a truth that I feel like I’ve “grown into” over this past year. My belief that God’s way works is based upon the truths of Scripture, and I can be just as bold to apply those truths to my own life as a single Christian, as I would to apply them to my friends who are married and raising children.
Wherever God calls us to stand upon the truths of His Word and, in the process, stand out from the rest of the world, we can both stand up and stand out boldly, as Paul did, unashamed of the gospel and of what our powerful and loving Savior has called us to.