1 Timothy 2:1-7 Commentary

Most preachers are at least familiar with variations on some Christians’ refrain of “Prime Minister (or President) So-and-So is a turkey.” Or “Congressman (or Member of Parliament) Such-and-Such is trying to ruin our country.” I’m always a bit tempted to respond to such assertions by asking the complainant, “Do you pray for that leader as much as you criticize that leader?” That response, however, is often muffled by my awareness of my own habit of criticizing my own country’s leaders far more often than praying for them.

Paul likely challenges a number of God’s children by beginning this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson with verses 1-2’s “I urge [parakalo*], then, first of all, that petitions [deeseis], prayers [proseuches], intercession [enteuxeis] and thanksgiving [eucharistias] be made for all people [panton anthropon] – for kings [basileon] and all those in authority [hyperoche].”

Prompted by the Spirit, preachers might choose to incorporate into a message on 1 Timothy 2 some noteworthy things about the apostle’s extraordinary summons. By inserting verse 1’s oun (“therefore”) Paul seems to be linking it to something he has just written. But preachers can admit it’s not perfectly clear to what the apostle is referring.

It’s, what’s more, easy to overlook the placement of verse 1’s little phrase, proton panton (“first of all”). Paul has much to teach Timothy – so much that he’ll need two letters to do so. He’ll address gender roles and worship styles in the local church, as well as leadership roles and the proper care for vulnerable people. But before the apostle does any of that he summons his son in the faith to pray.

So it’s almost as if he suggests that before Timothy busies himself caring for and leading God’s people, he pray to God for them. It’s a good reminder to God’s adopted children who often long to do something instead of praying about it. Prayer may seldom be our last response to great need. But the apostle implies it must always be Jesus’ friends’ first response.

On top of that, preachers might point to the strength of the apostle’s summons to prayer. In verse 1, after all, he parakalo (“urges”) Timothy to pray for all people. So this is no mere suggestion. Prayer isn’t just one option among several for Timothy and his siblings in Christ. It’s Paul’s expectation. At the beginning of this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson, he makes it perfectly clear that prayer is a vital, perhaps even most important part of our faithful response to God’s amazing grace.

Preachers might also note the extraordinary scope of the kinds of prayers to which Paul summons Timothy. Some of us learned the acronym ACTSI as we learned to pray. It symbolizes the wide variety of prayers that please God. That acronym reminds God’s dearly beloved people that full-orbed prayers include adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication, and intercession. In 1 Timothy 2, Paul summons his son in the faith Timothy to make prayers that include thanksgiving, supplication, and intercession. In doing so, he invites his Christian friend to pray for the wellness of those for whom he prays.

But we might note that Paul doesn’t limit God’s people’s prayers to the wellness of others. He also summons us to offer our prayers of thanksgiving for all people. That’s not hard to do for the people who have blessed us. But since the people for whom the apostle invites us to pray includes all people, including our leaders, he’s reminding us to thank God for people we don’t necessarily like.

The scope of the people to whom the apostle summons Timothy to pray for their well-being is, in addition, candidly, breathtaking. He calls his son in the faith to pray for panton anthropon (“all people).” While it might seem that the apostle is thereby calling Timothy to pray for every single person, verse 1’s Greek (and common sense) leave open the possibility that he’s inviting him to, instead, pray for “all kinds of” people.

We might argue that, in doing so, Paul is summoning Jesus’ friends to a Christ-like life of prayer. For whom, after all, do we most naturally pray? For those closest to us – our family members and friends. God’s dearly beloved people also often respond to various crises by praying for their victims – such as those who currently live in places like Ukraine and Gaza.

While that kind of prayer is certainly appropriate, it easily omits one group of people for which Jesus repeatedly summoned his followers to pray: those who have made themselves our enemies. Pastorally sensitive preachers should admit that it can be exceedingly difficult to pray for the wellness of those who have hurt the people we love and/or ourselves. Yet by calling us to pray for “all people,” the apostle summons us to imitate the Jesus who prayed for the forgiveness of the people who condemned and tortured him to death.

In fact, as the biblical scholar David Carr notes, Paul repeats a form of verse 1’s panton anthropon (“all people”) in verse 4’s pantas anthropous (“all people). That repetition at least suggests that the apostle is calling Jesus’ friends to pray for all people because God longs to save all people. We pray even for our enemies in part because God wishes to save even our enemies.

Regardless of whether Christians consider basileon kai panton ton en hyperoche (“kings and all those in authority”) our enemies, Paul expects us to pray for their wellness. The Message paraphrases verse 2’s summons as “Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well.”

This is an extraordinary summons. After all, the human leaders of Paul’s world were neither democratically elected nor always particularly supportive of Jesus’ friends. Yet Paul insists that Rome’s sometimes despotic emperors be the beneficiaries of Jesus’ followers’ prayers for their well-being.

There is certainly, of course, a time and place for Jesus’ friends to prophetically criticize our various leaders. But Paul at least implies that we always couch those prayers in intercession for their leading, as well as themselves. Preachers and worship planners might, by the way, model this by including in our corporate worship regular prayers for all leaders, including and perhaps especially for those whom we dislike. Criticism of our leaders may be a necessary first response. But the apostle strongly suggests that it’s never Christians’ last word.

Candidly, however, the connection between Paul’s call to pray for all people and what seems to be its reason seems a bit murky. After all, this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson’s apostle calls his readers to, in the words of The Message, to “pray every way” we “know how, for everyone” we know “that [hina],” as the NIV continues, “we may live peaceful [eremon] and quiet [hesychion] lives in all godliness [eusebeia] and holiness [symnoteti]” (2).

God and Paul’s goal is clear. They long for Jesus’ friends, in the words of The Message, to “be quietly about our business of living simply in humble contemplation.” But the means to that end is less clear. Does Paul, as most scholars seem to believe, plead with Timothy to pray for rulers and others so that those leaders may govern in ways that allow God’s people to freely follow and serve Jesus Christ? Or does the apostle plead with Timothy to pray for all people, including our rulers, because the Spirit uses such a life of prayer to help foster in us godliness and holiness? Lead by the Spirit, preachers may even choose to look for ways to incorporate both of those reasons for Christians’ prayers for all people.

This leads into a second sort of mystery about this text. In verse 3 Paul says “This [toutou] is good [kalon] and pleases [apodekton] God our Savior.” But what is the antecedent of toutou (“this”)? In other words, what is it that the apostle says in verse 3 pleases God? Is it God’s adopted children’s prayers for all people? Is it peaceful and quiet lives that are lived in all godliness and holiness that pleases God? It, again, in some ways doesn’t matter. Faithful prayer that’s part of a godly and holy life is certainly acceptable to the God who has graciously saved us in Jesus Christ.

*I have here and elsewhere added in brackets the Greek words for the English words the NIV translation uses.

Illustration

In his book, Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph, Jan Swafford notes how when the puppet French Senate declared Napoleon emperor, it directed churches to teach all French children a new catechism that’s far longer on rules and threats than grace. It included these questions and answers:

Q. Why are we obliged to do all of these duties to our Emperor?

A. First, because God, who created empires and distributes them according to his will, in heaping on our Emperor gifts, both in peace and war, has established him as our sovereign and rendered him the minister of his power and image on earth. To honor and serve our Emperor is thus to honor and serve God himself.

Q. What should one think of those who fail in their duty to the Emperor?

A. According to the Apostle Saint Paul, they would be resisting the order established by God himself and would render themselves worthy of eternal damnation.

Q. What is forbidden in the Fourth Commandment?

A. We are forbidden to be disobedient to our superiors, to injure them or speak ill of them.