Pray for All

Tuesdays With Timothy  # 14

1 Timothy 1:1-8 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.  For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time. Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity. I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.

One evening a grabbed a novel and sat with my boys and  I opened to a random page in the middle of the book and read the second half of a long sentence. I asked them “what does the character mean by that phrase?” They laughed at me because the request was absurd. “Daddy, how can we know what the person meant by half a sentence? We don’t even know what the book is about and who is talking!” It was a silly thing for me to request. It is also a silly thing for a person to build a theology that way. No, it isn’t silly it is dangerous. I Timothy 2:4 is the second half of a sentence that is part of a larger thought. To rip half a sentence out of its immediate context and then use it as a proof text for universal atonement is dangerous proposition.

In verse one, Paul exhorts Timothy and the church to prayer. In verse eight, Paul exhorts men to pray. Wonder what Paul has in mind? In verse two, Paul tells us who to pray for and why. In verse three, he tells us why prayer is a good thing, and verses 4-6 tell us why we can have confidence in our prayers for the salvation of men, and verse seven tells us that Paul is a missionary to the very people that he request prayer for. So, verse eight is men, pray. The overall message is for people to pray for others, not a discourse in soteriology. That is the context.

Why should we pray for all men? If we back up a little further to the end of chapter one, Paul told us how that God saved the chief of sinners. He was an example to the saving grace of God, that God is gracious and can save even the worst sinners. If God can save Paul, he can save anyone. So, pray for all men.

Verse three immediately takes the focus to different types of people groups. Paul tells Timothy to pray for everyone, including those in authority so that they would lead a peaceable life. The only way this makes sense is if we are talking about all types of men. It is not possible to pray for every single person. It isn't even possible to pray for every single leader and person in authority. Paul specifies that the prayer for all types of people include those in authority so that THEY would be able to live in peace. Praying for a king in Egypt or a tribal chieftain in Europe where the gospel had not yet been proclaimed, would not provide peaceful living for Paul and Timothy. The "all in authority" cannot mean pray for every single person in authority in the world, but for those in authority over them, that they might live in peace.

It is good to do so because "God our Saviour; who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth." Who are the "all men"? The fact that Paul is speaking in general terms to all men being in groups of people in prayer, Paul is speaking that God wills that all types or all sorts of people will be saved. Paul was ordained a preacher and apostle to the Gentiles. Another class of people. Is Paul the preacher to every single Gentile on Earth? Or is his ministry to the people of group? He has the idea in mind of groups of people, not every single person on earth.

My Arminian friends may be up in arms at this point say “ALL MEANS ALL!” But only the Universalist believes that all men means all men. Is the rich man in Luke 16 a man? He lifted up his eyes in Hell, did he not? Does this verse apply to him? Will this man also come to the knowledge of the truth and should we pray for souls in Hell to be saved? No, of course not, unless, you are a Universalist. So the Arminian also restricts the usage of the word all to all LIVING men and himself doesn’t believe “all means all.”

 We see from other passages of scripture that Christ did not give his life a ransom for all people, but for many (Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45). But Paul’s point was we pray for all people because there is not group of people excluded from the gospel of salvation. Salvation is no longer predominantly to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but the gospel is to be proclaimed high and low throughout the world. Think about it this way, you may hear regularly people pray for our leaders in prayer meetings. We ask the Lord to give our leaders wisdom, or for God to protect us from our leaders. But how often do we pray that God would save them? How often do we pray that God would bring repentance to the halls of Congress? Maybe because we don’t think God will save them. Maybe because we think that group of people are beyond salvation because they are in power. Maybe we don’t pray for them because we don’t like their politics or their attitudes towards the gospel and towards Christianity. This goes to the heart of what Paul was saying. Pray for them, God wills that all people groups be saved, and that is why he goes and preaches to the Gentiles. This passage is about our Christian service, about Timothy as the man of God directing God’s people. Timothy, you pray for all men because God saves all sorts of men, the chief of sinners and the chiefs of nations. Pray for all men because Christ is the Saviour of the world.