1 Timothy 2:1–7

 

1First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 

 

2for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 

 

3This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 

 

4who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 

 

5For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 

 

6who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. 

 

7For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

 

Now first of all, I want to manage expectations. Verses 4-6 are not the primary idea. They are supporting ideas. So I’m not going to handle those extensively.

 

I. Priority of prayer

 

“First of all…”

 

Right away we see is the priority of prayer.

 

All previous charges were given directly to Timothy. Chapter 2 marks a turn towards the church. He is going to give many commands. But the first command is to pray.

 

And if you look at the fourth word, we see there is at least partial explanation as to why prayer is the priority.

 

First of all — then

 

This word then serves the same function of as one of Paul’s favorite words — therefore. 

 

Something he has said before has led him to say, because of this or that — you must first of all pray. 

 

Now Paul has really only talked about two things so far. 

 

He has talked about the encroachment of darkness into the church and he has talked about the goodness of God as revealed in the gospel.

 

He has talked about our war on earth

And he has talked about our welcome in heaven

 

Those are two possible reasons he is calling them to prioritize prayer. 

 

Is “first of all then” a reference to the great battle for truth going on in the church? If so, then we can say that prayer should be a priority because to quote him in Ephesians 6,

 

“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Eph 6:10)

 

And we can see in vs. 18 that he sees an explicit connection between this battle and prayer for he says…

 

“praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints,”

 

So one reason Paul might prioritize prayer is because of the spiritual battle raging all around the Ephesian church.

 

The only other possible explanation for Paul prioritizing prayer is that he has just finished telling us about the goodness of God in the gospel. 

 

“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” (1 Tim 1:15-17)

 

God is with us…

 

If Paul is calling the church to pray for the first reason, it would be something like — “pray because you have to…” You’ve got no shot of fighting the good fight without prayer.

 

But if Paul is calling the church to pray for the second reason, then it would be something like — “pray because you get to.”

 

Pray because you have to — the battle is raging, the weapons of are warfare are spiritual

Pray because you get to — The king of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God — has made you his child. Pray because you get to. 

 

Let me ask you a question. Do those two conditions in Ephesian church describe the conditions in this church?

 

Is there a battle raging which we have no shot at winning without prayer? Yes.

Is the immortal king of the ages our heavenly father? Yes.

 

So we put prayer first because you have to.

And we put prayer first prayer because you get to. 

 

II. Impartiality in Prayer

 

From here we see that Paul prescribes multiple forms of prayer along with the injunction to pray for all people. 

 

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 

 

It is possible that these words had extremely obvious distinctiveness to the original audience. If that is so, we have no evidence of it. 

 

If Paul saw significant differences between supplications, prayers, and intercessions, I must admit that I cannot. 

 

Except for thanksgiving, the forms of prayer mentioned here are too similar to tell apart. 

 

So why the synonyms?

 

More than likely, the intent is to convey liberality or impartiality with prayer.

 

An example of something similar in our speech would be: 

 

Wife: “Would you like pancakes or waffles?” 

Husband: “Yes.”

 

That’s what I think Paul is doing here. He isn’t telling us to make sure our prayers contain all of these elements all the time or anything like that. The only rule happening here is the rule of liberality. Hold nothing back. 

 

Ron Swanson wants all the bacon. Paul wants all the prayers.

 

And, as we see in the verse, he wants them for all people. 

 

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 

 

Here is an even better clue that Paul is engaging in some kind in something like hyperbole throughout the passage. 

 

You can imagine some kind of wooden, hyper-literalist, who does not take genre, metaphor, figures of speech into account — might think — I must now pray for all the people in the world one by one.

 

But again the idea seems to be liberality. Excessiveness. This is communicated by Paul elsewhere with the injunction to pray without ceasing. 

 

III. Practicality of prayer

 

From here, I want you to see the practicality of prayer.

 

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 

 

I see practicality in two ways.

 

1. Asking God to change their circumstances
2. Aiming their prayers toward the human means most likely to make this change

 

1. Asking God to change their circumstances

 

Firstly, I see it in the aim of these prayers. The aim of these prayers is not purely spiritual, not mystical or purely pietistic. Paul wants them to pray for kings and all who are in high positions, for a very practical reason — that Christians may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

 

I think a casual reading of this passage would lead a person to conclude that Paul is saying, “pray for all people, including kings and all who are in high positions… because (skipping to vs 4) God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth — even Caesar.

 

But that is not what the text says. This isn’t a passage about praying for the salvation of Joe Biden or Donald Trump. I mean do that — they both appear need it — but that is not what Paul is saying here. 

 

He is telling them pray for rulers so that “we” (the Christians) may lead a peaceful and quiet life.

 

So the aim of these multitude of prayers is practical. I have no doubt there are other aims at work but the one presented in the text is practical. 

 

He is saying ask God to give you something. Ask God to change the situation on the ground.

 

Now, I want to deal with something CS Lewis said that I think has caught on — which I think he should not have said.

 

“I pray because I can't help myself. I pray because I'm helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It doesn't change God. It changes me.” 

― C.S. Lewis

 

Not a single word of this is wrong. But the part about it not changing God, while true, pushes us towards a perspective on prayer that competes with God’s primary emphasis for why we should pray. 

 

If you want to know how God wants us to think about prayer, look to how he talks about it. 

 

And if you look at how he talks about it, if you take all of the prayer data in the Bible, you will find the following: God wants you to believe that prayer produces practical change in the world. 

 

This is an irrefutable conclusion. Does he want you to think other things about prayer? Certainly. Is there something to what Lewis is saying? Yes. 

 

But we must never become more sophisticated about prayer than Jesus himself who taught us to pray for changes in the world. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. 

 

The primary emphasis on prayer in the Bible is practical.

 

So that is one reason why I say that the prayer we see here, in addition to be prioritized and liberalized is practical. 

 

2. Aiming their prayers toward the human means most likely to make this change

 

But there’s another way we see that prayer is practical. Paul is not trying to get fancy with causes and effects. Paul wants Christians living in the Roman Empire to experience practical peace — he wants them to be left alone. He wants the persecution to stop. And so he suggests a very reasonable and practical course. Pray for the people who write and enforce the laws.

 

Additional insight provided by Josephus

 

Now what you wouldn’t know from only reading the text, is that shortly prior to Christianity bursting on the scene and even during the time of this letters, the Jews had formed multiple delegations to go to multiple levels of government — including Caesar himself to petition these leaders for equal protection under the law. 

 

The Roman system afforded rights and protections in two tiers. Roman citizens had more rights but non Roman citizens had significant rights as well. 

 

And those rights were protected by laws that applied to all living in the empire. People couldn’t steal from one another. People couldn’t murder each other. Etc…

 

But… on the ground, the Jews were often stolen from, murdered, and so forth. 

 

And so the Jews formed these delegations to go to the leaders of Rome asking for protection. And the Roman leaders (not just 1 or 2 but many) routinely sent word back into the municipalities (including Ephesus) saying, “hey guys, knock it off — leave the Jews alone.”

 

There’s a whole section of these letters in Josephus’ The Antiquity of the Jews. 

 

Now it seems to me that knowing that really sheds light on this passage. The Christians are not yet formally recognized by Rome. They could form no delegations to petition the government to for equal protection under the law. But they could petition the King of the Ages. 

 

And that is what Paul is calling them to do. We have no standing before Caesar. But Caesar must stand before our God. The Lord holds the king’s heart like waters in his hand. 

 

So Paul has a practical aim for his prayers. He wants the Ephesians to be able to live in peace. And so he calls for prayer aimed in the most practical direction to reach his practical goal — pray for the people in charge of writing and enforcing the laws.

 

That along with the Jews, the Christians too might have equal protection under the law.

 

Now we need to pause here and think through some implications of what has been said so far.

 

This tells us something about persecution: 

 

If you ever hear anyone suggest that persecution is the preferred condition for the growth of the church, you might turn them to this passage and ask, “then what was Paul thinking when he encouraged prayer for government leaders for the purpose of getting peaceful and quiet lives?”

 

Secondly, we see some application regarding praying for politicians. 

 

Here we have a very obvious guide for how to pray for people in political office. We simply pray they do their God appointed jobs. What is their job? To dispense justice without partiality. That’s it. To dispense justice without partiality. This should be the driving prayer when we pray for our politicians. 

 

It is very important for our understanding of the rest of the passage to be clear on this point. Paul isn’t urging them to pray for special favor. He is looking out in Ephesus and seeing the Roman citizens and even the non Roman citizens getting something the Christians are not — they are getting peace. They are being left alone. 

 

And this gives us a clearer sense of what Paul is doing in vs. 4-7

 

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

 

As I have already mentioned, the statement in vs. 4 is not the direct reason Paul is encouraging the people to pray for their leaders. The direct reason is the securing of peaceful and quiet lives.

 

So then why is he talking about God desiring all men to be saved? 

 

Step 1: Pray first and often

Step 2: Pray for rulers so that they will give us equal protection under the law. No partiality.

Step 3: Wanting this is good and pleasing in the sight of God our savior because when it comes to offering salvation, he shows no partiality…but desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. 

 

Paul is not saying, pray for everybody — even rulers — because God wants everyone to be saved.

 

He is saying, it would be good to have peaceful and quiet lives… so pray that the rulers execute justice impartially — because this is how God rules the world.

 

As Jesus says, He causes the rain the fall on the righteous and the unrighteous. 

 

In verse 1 — when Paul calls for prayer for all people, did he literally mean every single person who lives? No, he is calling us to liberality — and also impartiality — pray for all kinds of people. 

 

Does Paul suddenly change his use of “all people” in verse 4? No. Paul is talking about God’s impartiality in salvation. Which is something that is of special interest to Paul as he was called to be an apostle to a group of people who up till that time, were considered to be outside the redemptive purposes of God.

 

We can see that he is thinking “all kinds of people” and not literally “all people” because of what he said before (1) and what he says after…

 

5For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. 

 

This phrase, “the testimony given at the proper time” is an allusion to God revealing what Paul describes elsewhere as the mystery hidden for the ages… namely that God would extend his saving covenant to the Gentiles (Colossians 1:26-27, Romans 16:25-26)

 

And we see that Paul mentions this specifically in the next verse. 

 

7For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

 

This provides us with a final insight into how we should pray.

 

We have seen why we should prioritize prayer.

There is a battle waging

There is a Father welcoming us to approach his throne.

 

We have seen how we should pray. 

We should pray liberally.

We should pray practically. Asking God to meet our needs.

 

IV. Praying the Personality of God

 

Finally, we should pray for things which are in accordance with his nature. Perhaps you’ve heard that you should be sure to pray the will of God. That can get people hung up. Sometimes they don’t know. The better way to say it is to pray for things which are consistent with his character. 

 

That’s what Paul is doing in vs. 3-4 

 

Pray for the political leaders — that they enforce the law impartially — impartiality is good and pleasing in the sight of God our Savior Lord because he it is in accordance with his nature. 

 

So when we pray, we should pray for that which we know God is generally for.  

 

Communion:

 

There is no better way to introduce communion this morning than to remind you of what Paul said to the Romans in chapter 8.

 

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.