Praying for Peace

Tuesdays With Timothy  # 12 

1 Timothy 2:1-2 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.

Paul entreats and exhorts Timothy, as he fights a good fight to pray. The man of God must be a man of prayer. If we look to the example of our Lord, we see what a great priority that He Himself placed upon prayer in His earthly ministry. Later, looking at the apostles, we see that they were given to the word and prayer (Acts 6:4) as the primary focus of their ministries. So must the man of God today devote himself to prayer. But this is not merely for pastors, but Timothy is to both apply this to himself and teach those he ministers to do likewise. All of God’s people need to be people of prayer.

Paul uses several words to describe prayer in this verse and each could have a shade of difference, but I believe the point is not so much to get bogged down on the differences but to realize that we are to pray for the good and betterment of others. I once spoke with a man who was railing against a particular politician in a very hateful manner and I reminded him that we are to pray for our leaders. His was response was that he did, and his prayers were more of the imprecatory sort. So Paul clears this up for us - the overarching thought here is we pray for the betterment of our neighbors. We pray for their needs, on their behalf, and being thankful for them or being thankful that God has providentially placed us together.

And the command is that we are to pray for all men. Not just the neighbors we like, or our church family, but our prayers should be for both saved and lost, sick and healthy, good and evil. Those that bless and those that curse. We should pray for all types of people without distinction. It is not possible to pray for all men without exception, which we will see soon enough, is important to note.

I find the next verse fascinating to consider. Paul was instructing Timothy to pray for the king and all in authority. Do we pray for every person who is in every type of official capacity all over the Earth? I don’t think that is possible to do either. I do believe we pray for those who have authority over us, and where ever you are when you read this, you should pray for those how have authority over you.

 How are we to pray for our rulers? The prayer was that the church would be able to live quiet, peaceable, godly, honest lives without persecution and government intrusion. God’s people are not to be rebels against authority. Jude characterizes the ungodly as those who dissident against authority. The line, of course, is drawn when we are compelled by authorities to go against God.  

We need to pray that the government would just leave us alone and allow us to live Christian lives. This doesn’t sell books and won’t get a lot of attention on the web. This won’t get the evangelical elite to hold conferences on this kind of life of peace and quiet. No, there has to be calls for boycotts or calls to extreme living, calls to build your platform and be heard. Paul tells us to pray so that we can live our lives as Christians. To work, and as a Christian, proclaim the glory of Christ. Raise your children, as Christians, and teach your kids about Christ. To be good neighbors, in the name of Christ for the glory of Christ, bless those that curse us and bless those we know and love.  To be able to quietly and peaceably, and honestly, live sacrificially for the good of others and glory of God. To be sure, that kind of living will draw enough attention of itself, and living that kind of life will draw persecution, but our hope is that God would turn the hearts of those in authority to see the benefit of having Christian citizens and allow us to do our work for Christ in peace.

The flip side to this is not that if the government is persecuting, all bets are off. Our living quiet peaceable lives do not hinge upon how the government treats us as any given point in history. We are to live as Christians no matter how bad it gets. The prayer is that God would turn the hearts of those in authority to allow God’s people to live as God’s people because those in authority over us don’t like that Christ is over all, which also includes them.