I Know Whom I Have Believed
11 For this I was appointed as a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. 12 For this cause I also suffer these things. Yet I am not ashamed, for I know him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I have committed to him against that day.
Paul's confidence rests on a person rather than an outcome, and the verse is careful about which.
For this I was appointed as a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. Three terms for one commission — the herald who announces, the sent man who carries authority, the teacher who explains — and the last of them names the audience that had cost him everything.
For this cause I also suffer these things. The suffering is not incidental to the calling; it is the direct result of the third term.
Yet I am not ashamed. The word picks up verse 8, where Timothy was told not to be, and Paul answers his own instruction with his own case.
Then the reason, and its grammar matters: I know him whom I have believed. Not what I have believed — the object of the knowing is a person. Paul does not claim confidence in his theology, his endurance, or his prospects.
And he is persuaded that this person is able to guard what he has committed to him against that day. The word is parathēkē G3866, a deposit left with a trustee, and it will govern the next two verses as well. Paul has handed something over and expects it back on a named day.
settled What this mark means