My God and My Country

2 Timothy 1:11-12 - (GNVT)

11 Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and Apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles.
12 For the which cause I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day.

Thank You for giving me another day to read and study Your word. Open my heart, eyes and ears to it, and help me preach it.

Brethren:

Paul herein uses himself as an example of two things:
First, He confirms his apostleship by stating that those in the world cannot accept the Gospel of Christ as preached to them, therefore they instead persecute him. Secondly, that he is not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ because he is certain that God will hold up his treasures and redemption when the time comes. - R.P. Woitowitz Sr.

“Moreover the calling which we enjoy as Christians is according to grace as well as purpose. In this too we see a contrast, for Israel brought out of Egypt was put under law, and being thus put on their own responsibility they very soon forfeited their inheritance. Our calling rests upon what God Himself is and does on our behalf, and therefore it can never pass away. Yet once again, both our salvation and our calling were given us in Christ Jesus,” and this could not be said of Israel in the Old Testament. The covenant established with them addressed them as natural men and all stood upon a natural basis, and hence did not stand for long. All that we have is ours not as natural men having our standing in Adam, but as those who are before God in Christ Jesus.

Our holy calling was thus purposed before the world began, and its full blessedness will abide when the world has passed away. As yet we have not entered into its full blessedness, still it has been made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour, and we have a foretaste of it inasmuch as death has been annulled by His death and resurrection and life and incorruptibility have been brought to light in the Gospel. “Annulled” and not “abolished” is the right translation. Death most evidently is not yet abolished, but its power is annulled for those who believe in Jesus. Also “incorruptibility” is the word and not “immortality.” The souls of the wicked are not subject to death, but we have the larger hope of being finally placed beyond corruption, where the last breath of it can never touch us.

Paul had been appointed a herald of this Gospel in the Gentile world and his diligent labors had brought him into all this suffering and reproach. Men were beginning to shrug their shoulders and say that his cause was a lost one. He himself began to see the glint of the executioner’s axe as the termination of the dark tunnel of his imprisonment. How did he feel about it?

“Nevertheless I am not ashamed” were his words. Of course not! How could he be? The very Gospel he carried was the glad tidings of life in the present and a glorious state of incorruptibility to come, consequent upon the breaking of the power of death. Who is there that really believing and understanding such tidings as these will be ashamed of them? Moreover his mission and authority proceeded from One whom he knew and believed, and this knowledge gave him the persuasion that all was safe in His hands.” - F.B Hole