It is Good to Pray

Tuesdays With Timothy  # 13

1 Timothy 2: 1-6 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.

Why should we pray for all men and why should we desire to live quiet and peaceable lives in godliness and honesty? Because this is good and acceptable in the sight of God Saviour. If for no other reason than because God says it is good for us to do so. God says it is both good and acceptable that we pray for others. I believe much is lost by the imbalance of some to say that God is indifferent towards our service because of justification, or that somehow God looks at our service to Him as Christians and says “imperfect, I don’t accept.” While at most, we are unprofitable servants, this doesn’t mean that our service is not pleasing to God or that we are unable to do anything, as Christians, that please our Father. In Christ, we are able to please the Father, and though our service will never be anything but imperfect, through and in His dear Son, we can please God through our following Him by faith. We cannot please God to earn salvation, but as His children, washed in the blood and in Christ we can please God by faithful obedience. It is good and acceptable in God’s sight when we bow the knee to Him and plead for the souls of our fellow man. Our God declares this a good thing for us to do. Our Saviour says that prayer for others is an acceptable act.

We are to pray for all types of men because Christ will save all types of men and bring all types of men to the knowledge of the truth. We are to pray for our fellow man, that God would save them. We are to intercede on their behalf unto our God and Saviour who is the only one who can intercede between man and God. As men we pray unto the man Christ Jesus, as He, the Godman, mediates our prayers as our great high priest.

We pray to the only true God, through the only mediator between man and God, who is the only Saviour of men and the only ransom that can redeem sinners, making Christ Jesus the only hope for man in life and death. God would have His people to pray for our fellow man for their good, for our good, and for God’s glory. We must pray for others who are also made in the image of God that the man Christ Jesus, would save and bring to the truth our fellow man, through His sacrifice on Calvary.

If this gets your Arminian blood boiling or you think I haven’t given these passages justice, stay tuned and I'll answer the objections and consider the great doctrines laid out in these passages. However, I do believe that the previous paragraph relates the overall point that Paul was getting at here - and it is not the death knell to Calvinism. It is a blow to the hyper-Calvinist hardshell's, but not to the doctrines of grace.