Persuaded

2 Timothy 1-Part 8
For the which cause I also suffer these things: 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.  2 Timothy 1:12

LET IT GLOW

People can persuade you to do a lot of things when a child or teenager. Once when I was a younger teenager, my girlfriends persuaded me to attended a Vacation Bible School with them at a different denomination. During a lesson, the teacher explained the plan of salvation, then invited anyone to come to Christ. I was almost persuaded that day. but pride kept me away. I was surrounded by peers. Little did I know that they would have rejoiced with me if I had only made the decision for Christ as Savior that day. Then one night, a few years later,  I became aquainted with Him, and He came into my heart. So I know Jesus in the same way that Paul did, with absolute knowledge. I am now persuaded, beyond a doubt, that I have eternal life with Jesus in heaven. Do you?

In verse 12, Paul says he was not ashamed of his life, suffering for the furtherance of the gospel. He knew, which means absolute knowledge, beyond a shadow of a doubt,  Christ was faithful and would reward him. Jesus was the One in whom he believed for salvation and eternal life.
Persuaded means to believe. Experience and years with Christ taught him all that he was saying in this verse was Truth.
Jesus would keep, which means guard, Paul's salvation and service. He had unwavering confidence and boldness because of the Truth revealed to him. The day Paul is talking about is called the "Day of Christ" when believers will stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ and be rewarded for their works and service.

I have committed my soul to Him, have you? I am persuaded that He is able to keep that soul which I have committed to Him, from Hell and through the judgment. In Whom do you believe?


LET IT GROW

Verse 11 says: Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.

I looked up these words in Thayer's Lexicon:
appointed means to make; to place, usually with a strategy in mind;
a preacher is a herald, a messenger; used of the apostles as the divine messengers of salvation procurred by Christ and to be embraced through him;
 an apostle is a delegate, messenger, one sent forth with orders; with these apostles Paul claimed equality, because through a heavenly intervention he had been appointed by the ascended Christ himself to preach the gospel among Gentiles, and owed his knowledge of the way of salvation not to man's instruction but to direct revelation fromn Christ himself, and moreover had envinced his apostolic qualifications by many signal proofs (Acts 26:12-20);
teacher in this passage means a teacher of the apostles.

How shall anyone believe this gospel without a preacher (Rom. 10:14)?
"Not every Christian was an apostle of Jesus Christ, for a person had to meet certain qualifications and be chosen by the Lord personally, or through His Spirit (Acts 1:15-26, 1 Cor. 9:1). An apostle represented Jesus Christ. To reject an apostle was to reject the Lord," states Wiersbe in Be Faithful.

Paul was made an apostle of Jesus by Jesus. Paul was appointed strategically by God in the furtherance of His plan. Paul had shepherded, pastored, local churches, thus he was a teacher of the Gentiles. I don't think Paul was giving his credientials to Timothy because Timothy already knew this. I think Paul was reasurring him because of the false teachers there in  Ephesus.

Since this is the inspired Word of God, aren't we Christians appointed by God to share the gospel with Gentiles, too?


LET IT GO

Suffer for the cause of Christ, if need be.

Persuade others that He is able to keep our soul eternally.

Teach others about this loving, gracious, Savior.