For I Know Whom I Have Believed

For I Know Whom I Have Believed

In all of Paul’s writings, few words carry the same strength and certainty as these: “For I know.”

Those words appear most prominently in a small, personal letter Paul wrote to Timothy — a young pastor who was struggling to lead his church amid growing persecution. Paul himself was imprisoned, near the end of his life, and yet he still wrote words filled with courage, conviction, and faith:

2 Timothy 1:12

“…I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.”

Centuries later, those same words would encourage another man facing his own kind of battle.

In 1861, a young lieutenant named Daniel Webster Whittle kissed his bride goodbye and left for the Civil War. His mother slipped a Bible into his haversack before he departed — a quiet act of faith and love.

During the war, Daniel lost an arm and was taken prisoner. While recovering in a Confederate hospital, a nurse noticed him reading his Bible and asked him to pray for a dying soldier. Though hesitant, Daniel went to the boy’s bedside. What happened next changed his life forever.

He later wrote:

“In a few broken words I confessed my sins and asked Christ to forgive me… I believed right there that He did forgive me… When I arose from my knees, the boy was dead. A look of peace had come over his troubled face… I cannot but believe that God, who used him to bring me to the Savior, used me to lead him to trust Christ’s precious blood.”

That moment of grace in the midst of war marked Daniel Whittle’s true conversion. He would go on to serve as an evangelist alongside D.L. Moody, writing hymns that proclaimed the power of faith — including one based directly on Paul’s words in 2 Timothy 1:12: “For I Know Whom I Have Believed.”

That hymn still echoes through generations of believers who have found strength in the same truth: Faith is not in what we know, but in whom we know.

When life is uncertain, when suffering comes, and when the answers seem hidden — what we know may falter, but whom we have believed never fails. https://youtu.be/_bRV3J4n8cc?si=hiOtWXQK0Vb6YRwL

FOR I KNOW WHOM I HAVE BELIEVED

1 I know not why God's wondrous grace to me He has made known,

Nor why, unworthy, Christ in love redeemed me for His own.

Refrain:

For 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.

2 I know not how this saving faith to me He did impart,

Nor how believing in His Word wrought peace within my heart. [Refrain]

3 I know not how the Spirit moves,

convincing men of sin,

revealing Jesus through the Word, creating faith in Him. [Refrain]

4 I know not what of good or ill may be reserved for me,

Of weary ways or golden days, before His face I see. [Refrain]

5 I know not when my Lord may come, at night or noonday fair,

Nor if I'll walk the vale with Him, or meet him in the air. [Refrain]