I exhort therefore, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and givings of thanks be made for all men:
Parallel Translations
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I exhort therefore, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and givings of thanks be made for all men:
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I exhorte therfore that above all thynges prayers supplicacions intercessions and gevynge of thankes behad for all men:
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I Exhort therefore, that first of all supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giuing of thanks be made for all men,
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Cross-references (22)
Passages linked to 1 Timothy 2:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 2 Thessalonians 1:3 We are bound to always give thanks to God for you, brothers, even as it is appropriate, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of each and every one of you toward one another abounds,
- Matthew 6:9-10 Pray like this: ‘Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. Let your Kingdom come. Let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
- James 5:16 Confess your offenses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective.
- Psalms 67:1-4 May God be merciful to us, bless us, and cause his face to shine on us. That your way may be known on earth, and your salvation among all nations, let the peoples praise you, God. Let all the peoples praise you. Oh let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you will judge the peoples with equity, and govern the nations on earth.
- Ephesians 5:20 giving thanks always concerning all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God, even the Father;
- 1 Timothy 2:4 who desires all people to be saved and come to full knowledge of the truth.
- 2 Timothy 2:24 The Lord’s servant must not quarrel, but be gentle toward all, able to teach, patient,
- Titus 3:2 to speak evil of no one, not to be contentious, to be gentle, showing all humility toward all men.
- 1 Kings 8:41-43 “Moreover concerning the foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, when he comes out of a far country for your name’s sake (for they shall hear of your great name, and of your mighty hand, and of your outstretched arm); when he comes and prays toward this house; hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you for; that all the peoples of the earth may know your name, to fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by your name.
- Philippians 1:3 I thank my God whenever I remember you,
- 1 Timothy 5:5 Now she who is a widow indeed and desolate, has her hope set on God, and continues in petitions and prayers night and day.
- Titus 2:11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,
- Romans 1:8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, that your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world.
- Acts 17:30 The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent,
- 1 Corinthians 15:3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
- Hebrews 6:11 We desire that each one of you may show the same diligence to the fullness of hope even to the end,
- Romans 6:17 But thanks be to God, that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were delivered.
- Genesis 18:23-32 Abraham came near, and said, “Will you consume the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous within the city? Will you consume and not spare the place for the fifty righteous who are in it? May it be far from you to do things like that, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be like the wicked. May that be far from you. Shouldn’t the Judge of all the earth do right?” Yahweh said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare the whole place for their sake.” Abraham answered, “See now, I have taken it on myself to speak to the Lord, although I am dust and ashes. What if there will lack five of the fifty righteous? Will you destroy all the city for lack of five?” He said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” He spoke to him yet again, and said, “What if there are forty found there?” He said, “I will not do it for the forty’s sake.” He said, “Oh don’t let the Lord be angry, and I will speak. What if there are thirty found there?” He said, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.” He said, “See now, I have taken it on myself to speak to the Lord. What if there are twenty found there?” He said, “I will not destroy it for the twenty’s sake.” He said, “Oh don’t let the Lord be angry, and I will speak just once more. What if ten are found there?” He said, “I will not destroy it for the ten’s sake.”
- Psalms 72:19 Blessed be his glorious name forever! Let the whole earth be filled with his glory! Amen and amen.
- 2 Corinthians 8:6 So we urged Titus, that as he had made a beginning before, so he would also complete in you this grace.
- 1 Thessalonians 3:12 May the Lord make you to increase and abound in love toward one another, and toward all men, even as we also do toward you,
- Ephesians 3:13 Therefore I ask that you may not lose heart at my troubles for you, which are your glory.
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 1 I exhort therefore. These exercises of godliness maintain…
1 I exhort therefore. These exercises of godliness maintain and even strengthen us in the sincere worship and fear of God, and cherish the good conscience of which he had spoken. Not inappropriately does he make use of the word therefore, to denote an inference; for those exhortations depend on the preceding commandment.
That, above all, prayers be made. First, he speaks of public prayers, which he enjoins to be offered, not only for believers, but for all mankind. Some might reason thus with themselves: “Why should we be anxious about the salvation of unbelievers, with whom we have no connection? Is it not enough, if we, who are brethren, pray mutually for our brethren, and recommend to God the whole of his Church? for we have nothing to do with strangers.” This perverse view Paul meets, and enjoins the Ephesians to include in their prayers all men, and not to limit them to the body of the Church.
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What is the difference between three out of the four kinds which Paul enumerates, I own that I do not thoroughly understand. The view given by Augustine, who twists Paul’s words so as to denote ceremonial observances customary at that time, is quite childish. A simpler exposition is given by those who think that “requests” are when we ask to be delivered from what is evil; “prayers,” when we desire to obtain something profitable; and “supplications,” when we deplore before God injuries which we have endured. Yet for my own part, I do not draw the difference so ingeniously; or, at least, I prefer another way of distinguishing them.
Προσευχαὶ is the Greek word for every kind of prayer; and δεήσεις denotes those forms of petitions in which something definite is asked. In this way the two words agree with each other, as genus and species. ᾿Εντεύξεις is the word commonly used by Paul to signify those prayers which we offer for one another. The word used for it in the Latin Translation is “intercessiones,” intercessions. Yet Plato, in his second dialogue, styled Alcibiades, uses it in a different sense, to moan a definite petition offered by a person for himself; and in the very inscription of the book, and in many passages, he shows plainly, as I have said, that προσευχὴ is a general term.
But not to dwell longer than is proper on a matter that is not essential, Paul, in my own opinion, simply enjoins that, whenever public prayers are offered, petitions and supplications should be made for all men, even for those who at present are not at all related to us. And yet this heaping up of words is not superfluous; but Paul appears to me purposely to join together three terms for the same purpose, in order to recommend more warmly, and urge more strongly, earnest and constant prayer. We know now sluggish we are in this religious duty; and therefore we need not wonder if, for the purpose of arousing us to it, the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of Paul, employs various excitements.
And thanksgivings. As to this term, there is no obscurity; for, as he bids us make supplication to God for the salvation of unbelievers, so also to give thanks on account of their prosperity and success. That wonderful goodness which he shews every day, when
“he maketh his sun to rise on the good and the bad,” (Matthew 5:45,)
is worthy of being praised; and our love of our neighbor ought also to extend to those who are unworthy of it.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Having dispatched those things which pertain to doctrine, he…
Having dispatched those things which pertain to doctrine, he speaketh now in the second place of the other part of the ministry of the word, to wit, of public prayers. And first of all declaring this question, for whom we ought to pray: he teacheth that we must pray for all men, and especially for all manner of magistrates, which thing was at that time somewhat doubted of, seeing that kings, yea and the most part of magistrates were at that time enemies of the Church.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications,…
1 I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
Ver. 1. Supplications] Or, deprecations indited by that Spirit of supplication, or of deprecation, as some render it, Zec 11:10.
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Prayers] Strictly taken for petitions or requests of good at God’s hands, which go commonly accompanied with vows of better obedience, as Gen 28:21-22 Psa 51:14. Hence they have their name, προσευχαι.
Intercessions] Interparlings with God, either for ourselves (while we stand upon interrogatories with him, 1Pe 3:21, as Paul doth, Rom 8:33-35, and expostulate as David often, but especially when Satan, sin, and conscience accuse us), or for others, while we complain to God against such as wrong them, and withal set ourselves seriously to implore his aid for their relief and rescue, εντευξεις, επερωτημα.
For all men] i.e. For all sorts of men, as the word "all" is used Luk 11:42.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Timothy (as was said before) was left at Ephesus…
Timothy (as was said before) was left at Ephesus to manage the affairs of the church there in the absence of Paul, who in this Epistle directs him as to this management. First he exhorts him to see that prayers should be made for all men.
Supplications, dehseiv, for supply of wants.
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Prayers, proseucav, signifieth much the same; some will have it to signify petitions for the conservation or increase of what good things we have.
Intercessions, enteuzeiv, prayers for others, whether for the averting of evils from them, or the collation of good things upon them.
And giving of thanks; and blessings of God for good things bestowed upon ourselves or others. These Paul wills should be made υπερ παντων, which may be of all men, or for all men, but the next verse plainly shows that it is here rightly rendered
for all men, for there were at this time no kings in the church. Paul here establisheth prayers as a piece of the public ministry in the church of God, and a primary piece; therefore he saith, he exhorts that first of all; not in respect of time so much, as, principally, intimating it a great piece of the public ministry, which he would by no means have neglected. And he would have these prayers put up for all orders and sorts of men, such only excepted of whom St. John speaks, 1Jo 5:16, who had sinned that sin, for which he would not say Christians should pray.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain Observe here, 1. The duty which Timothy is exhorted…
Observe here, 1. The duty which Timothy is exhorted to take care of, and that is, of the duty of public prayer. I exhort thee, that supplications, prayers, and intercessions, with thanksgivings, be publicly made: prayer being a special and principal part of public worship, the minister of God must be assiduous and constant in it; deprecating evils threatened, supplicating for mercies wanted, interceding on the behalf of others, and giving thanks for blessings received.
Observe, 2. For whom we are to pray in general, for all men. Because we cannot pray acceptably for ourselves, if we pray only for ourselves; this is the noblest exercise of charity, and which God has put in the power of the poorest man upon earth to exercise: Let supplications and prayers be made for all men.
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Observe, 3. For whom we are more especially and in the first place to pray: for kings, and all in authority, who then were pagans and persecutors.
Mark, He says not for lawful and rightful kings’s but for such as have the pre-eminence and power in their hands, for all power is of God, And the powers that be, are ordained of God, Rom 13:2
But why first for kings?
Because they are such great instruments of good to mankind, because they most want our prayers, as they encounter with more difficulties, are exposed to more dangers, and are liable to greater temptations, than other men.
Observe, 4. The arguments which the apostle offers to engage us to this duty, That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty; that is, that we may be secured in the quiet and peaceable possession of our civil rights and interests, and that we may be protected in the free exercise of our religion, and in the practice of godliness; for though no prince can take our religion from us, if we resolve to keep it, yet they may disturb us in the quiet and peaceable enjoyment of it; and therefore it is our interest as well as our duty to pray for kings, and all that are in authority.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Here is, I. A charge given to Christians to…
Here is, I. A charge given to Christians to pray for all men in general, and particularly for all in authority. Timothy must take care that this be done. Paul does not send him any prescribed form of prayer, as we have reason to think he would if he had intended that ministers should be tied to that way of praying; but, in general, that they should make supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks: supplications for the averting of evil, prayers for the obtaining of good, intercessions for others, and thanksgivings for mercies already received. Paul thought it enough to give them general heads; they, having the scripture to direct them in prayer and the Spirit of prayer poured out upon them, needed not any further directions. Observe, The design of the Christian religion is to promote prayer; and the disciples of Christ must be praying people. Pray always with all prayer, Eph 6:18. There must be prayers for ourselves in the first place; this is implied here. We must also pray for all men, for the world of mankind in general, for particular persons who need or desire our prayers. See how far the Christian religion was from being a sect, when it taught men this diffusive charity, to pray, not only for those of their own way, but for all men. Pray for kings (Ti1 2:2); though the kings at this time were heathens, enemies to Christianity, and persecutors of Christians, yet they must pray for them, because it is for the public good that there should be civil government, and proper persons entrusted with the administration of it, for whom therefore we ought to pray, yea, though we ourselves suffer under them. For kings, and all that are in authority, that is, inferior magistrates: we must pray for them, and we must give thanks for them, pray for their welfare and for the welfare of their kingdoms, and therefore must not plot against them, that in the peace thereof we may have peace, and give thanks for them and for the benefit we have under their government, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. Here see what we must desire for kings, that God will so turn their hearts, and direct them and make use of them, that we under them may lead a quiet and peaceable life. He does not say, "that we may get preferments under them, grow rich, and be in honour and power under them;" no, the summit of the ambition of a good Christian is to lead a quiet and peaceable life, to get through the world unmolested in a low private station. We should desire that we and others may lead a peaceable life in all godliness and honesty, implying that we cannot expect to be kept quiet and peaceable unless we keep in all godliness and honesty. Let us mind our duty, and then we may expect to be taken under the protection both of God and the government. In all godliness and honesty. Here we have our duty as Christians summed up in two words: godliness, that is, the right worshipping of God; and honesty, that is, a good conduct towards all men. These two must go together; we are not truly honest if we are not godly, and do not render to God his due; and we are not truly godly if we are not honest, for God hates robbery for burnt-offering. Here we may observe, 1. Christians are to be men much given to prayer: they ought to abound herein, and should use themselves to prayers, supplications, etc. 2. In our prayers we are to have a generous concern for others as well as for ourselves; we are to pray for all men, and to give thanks for all men; and must not confine our prayers nor thanksgiving to our own persons or families. 3. Prayer consists of various parts, of supplications, intercessions, and thanksgivings; for we must pray for the mercies we want, as well as be thankful for mercies already received; and we are to deprecate the judgments which our own sins or the sins of others have deserved. 4. All men, yea, kings themselves, and those who are in authority, are to be prayed for. They want our prayers, for they have many difficulties to encounter, many snares to which their exalted stations expose them. 5. In praying for our governors, we take the most likely course to lead a peaceable and quiet life. The Jews at Babylon were commanded to seek the peace of the city whither the Lord had caused them to be carried captives, and to pray to the Lord for it; for in the peace thereof they should have peace, Jer 29:7. 6. If we would lead a peaceable and quiet life, we must live in all godliness and honesty; we must do our duty to God and man. He that will love life, and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile; let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek peace, and pursue it, Pe1 3:10, Pe1 3:11. Now the reason he gives for this is because this is good in the sight of God our Saviour; that is, the gospel of Christ requires this. That which is acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour we should do, and should abound in.
II. As a reason why we should in our prayers concern ourselves for all men, he shows God's love to mankind in general, Ti1 2:4.
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1. One reason why all men are to be prayed for is because there is one God, and that God bears a good will to all mankind. There is one God (Ti1 2:5), and one only, there is no other, there can be no other, for there can be but one infinite. This one God will have all men to be saved; he desires not the death and destruction of any (Eze 33:11), but the welfare and salvation of all. Not that he has decreed the salvation of all, for then all men would be saved; but he has a good will to the salvation of all, and none perish but by their own fault, Mat 23:37. He will have all to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth, to be saved in the way that he has appointed and not otherwise. It concerns us to get the knowledge of the truth, because that is the way to be saved; Christ is the way and the truth, and so he is the life.
2. There is one Mediator, and that mediator gave himself a ransom for all. As the mercy of God extends itself to all his works, so the mediation of Christ extends itself thus far to all the children of men that he paid a price sufficient for the salvation of all mankind; he brought mankind to stand upon new terms with God, so that they are not now under the law as a covenant of works, but as a rule of life. They are under grace; not under the covenant of innocence, but under a new covenant: He gave himself a ransom. Observe, The death of Christ was a ransom, a counter-price. We deserved to have died. Christ died for us, to save us from death and hell; he gave himself a ransom voluntarily, a ransom for all; so that all mankind are put in a better condition than that of devils. He died to work out a common salvation: in order hereunto, he put himself into the office of Mediator between God and man. A mediator supposes a controversy. Sin had made a quarrel between us and God; Jesus Christ is a Mediator who undertakes to make peace, to bring God and man together, in the nature of an umpire or arbitrator, a days - man who lays his hand upon u both, Job 9:33. He is a ransom that was to be testified in due time; that is, in the Old Testament times, his sufferings and the glory that should follow were spoken of as things to be revealed in the last times, Pe1 1:10, Pe1 1:11. And they are accordingly revealed, Paul himself having been ordained a preacher and an apostle, to publish to the Gentiles the glad tidings of redemption and salvation by Jesus Christ. This doctrine of Christ's mediation Paul was entrusted to preach to every creature, Mar 16:15. He was appointed to be a teacher of the Gentiles; besides his general call to the apostleship, he was commissioned particularly to preach to the Gentiles, in faith and truth, or faithfully and truly. Note, (1.) It is good and acceptable in the sight of God and our Saviour that we pray for kings and for all men, and also that we lead a peaceable and quiet life; and this is a very good reason why we should do the one as well as the other. (2.) God has a good will to the salvation of all; so that it is not so much the want of a will in God to save them as it is a want of will in themselves to be saved in God's way. Here our blessed Lord charges the fault: You will not come unto me that you may have life, Joh 5:40. I would have gathered you, and you would not. (3.) Those who are saved must come to the knowledge of the truth, for this is God's appointed way to save sinners. Without knowledge the heart cannot be good; if we do not know the truth, we cannot be ruled by it. (4.) It is observable that the unity of God is asserted, and joined with the unity of the Mediator; and the church of Rome might as well maintain a plurality of gods as a plurality of mediators. (5.) He that is a Mediator in the New Testament sense, gave himself a ransom. Vain then is the pretence of the Romanists that there is but one Mediator of satisfaction, but many of intercession; for, according to Paul, Christ's giving himself a ransom was a necessary part of the Mediator's office; and indeed this lays the foundation for his intercession. (6.) Paul was ordained a minister, to declare this to the Gentiles, that Christ is the one Mediator between God and men, who gave himself a ransom for all. This is the substance of which all ministers are to preach, to the end of the world; and Paul magnified his office, as he was the apostle of the Gentiles, Rom 11:13. (7.) Ministers must preach the truth, what they apprehend to be so, and they must believe it themselves; they are, like our apostle, to preach in faith and verity, and they must also be faithful and trusty.
III. A direction how to pray, Ti1 2:8. 1. Now, under the gospel, prayer is not to be confined to any one particular house of prayer, but men must pray every where: no place is amiss for prayer, no place more acceptable to God than another, Joh 4:21. Pray every where. We must pray in our closets, pray in our families, pray at our meals, pray when we are on journeys, and pray in the solemn assemblies, whether more public or private. 2. It is the will of God that in prayer we should lift up holy hands: Lifting up holy hands, or pure hands, pure from the pollution of sin, washed in the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness. I will wash my hands, etc., Psa 26:6. 3. We must pray in charity: Without wrath, or malice, or anger at any person. 4. We must pray in faith without doubting (Jam 1:6), or, as some read it, without disputing, and then it falls under the head of charity.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain I exhort therefore, that first of all,.... The two…
I exhort therefore, that first of all,.... The two principal parts of public worship, being the ministry of the word and prayer; and the apostle having insisted on the former, in the preceding chapter, in which he orders Timothy to charge some that they teach no other doctrine than that of the Gospel, gives an account of his own ministry, and call to it, and of the glorious Gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to his trust, and stirs up Timothy to the faithful and diligent discharge of his work and office; now proceeds to the latter, to prayer, and exhorts unto it; either Timothy in particular, for so read the Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions, "I exhort thee", or "desire thee"; or else the church in general; unless it should rather be thought to be a charge to Timothy to exhort, and so Beza's Claromontane copy reads, "exhort thou therefore": but it is commonly considered as an exhortation of the apostle's, which he was very urgent in: it was what lay much upon his mind, and he was greatly desirous that it should be attended unto; for so the words may be read, "I exhort first of all", or before all things; of all things he had to say, this was the chief, or it was what he would have principally and chiefly done by others: for this does not so much regard the order of time, that prayer should be made early in the morning, in the first place, before anything else is done, and particularly before preaching, which seems to have been the custom of the primitive saints, Act 4:31 but the pre-eminence and superior excellency of it; though the words may be rendered, "I exhort, that first, the supplications of all be made": and so may regard public prayer, the prayer of the whole church, in distinction from private prayer, or the prayer of a single person; which is expressed by different words,
supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks: the first of these, "supplications", signifies such petitions for things that are wanted by men, either by themselves or others; and that either for their bodies or souls, as food and raiment for the one, and discoveries of pardoning love, supplies of grace, spiritual peace, comfort, &c. for the other: and the second word, "prayers", signifies good wishes and desires, directed and expressed to God for things that are in themselves to be wished for, and desired of God, either for ourselves or others: and the next word, "intercessions", intends either complaints exhibited in prayer against others that have done injuries; or prayers put up for others, either for the averting of evil from them, or for the bestowing some good thing on them: and the last word, "thanksgivings", with which requests should always be made known to God, designs that branch of prayer in which thanks are given to God for mercies received, whether temporal or spiritual: and these are to
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be made for all men; not only for all the saints, for all the churches of Christ, and, ministers of the Gospel; nor only for near relations and friends, according to the flesh; but for all the inhabitants of the country and city in which men dwell, the peace and prosperity of which are to be prayed for; yea, for enemies, and such as reproach, persecute, and despitefully use the saints, even for all sorts of men, Jews and Gentiles, rich and poor, high and low, bond and free, good men and bad men: for it cannot be understood of every individual that has been, is, or shall be in the world; millions of men are dead and gone, for whom prayer is not to be made; many in hell, to whom it would be of no service; and many in heaven, who stand in no need of it; nor is prayer to be made for such who have sinned the sin unto death, Jo1 5:16 besides, giving of thanks, as well as prayers, are to be made for all men; but certainly the meaning is not, that thanks should be given for wicked men, for persecutors, and particularly for a persecuting Nero, or for heretics, and false teachers, such as Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom the apostle had delivered to Satan. But the words must be understood of men of all sorts, of every rank and quality, as the following verse shows.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain I exhort therefore - Seeing God is so gracious.…
I exhort therefore - Seeing God is so gracious. In this chapter he gives directions,
1. With regard to public prayers
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2. With regard to doctrine. Supplication is here the imploring help in time of need: prayer is any kind of offering up our desires to God. But true prayer is the vehemency of holy zeal, the ardour of divine love, arising from a calm, undisturbed soul, moved upon by the Spirit of God. Intercession is prayer for others. We may likewise give thanks for all men, in the full sense of the word, for that God "willeth all men to be saved," and Christ is the Mediator of all.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Prayer, supplication, and thanksgiving, must be made for all
CHAPTER II.
Prayer, supplication, and thanksgiving, must be made for all
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men; because God wills that all should be saved, 1-4.
There is but one God and one Mediator, 5-7.
How men should pray, 8.
How women should adorn themselves, 9, 10.
They are not suffered to teach, nor to nor to usurp authority
over men, 11-14.
How they may expect to be saved in child-bearing, 15.
NOTES ON CHAP. II.
Verse 1. I exhort - that, first of all] Prayer for the pardon of sin, and for obtaining necessary supplies of grace, and continual protection from God, with gratitude and thanksgiving for mercies already received, are duties which our sinful and dependent state renders absolutely necessary; and which should be chief in our view, and first of all performed. It is difficult to know the precise difference between the four words used here by the apostle. They are sometimes distinguished thus: -
Supplications] δεησεις. Prayers for averting evils of every kind.
Prayers] προσευχας. Prayers for obtaining the good things, spiritual and temporal, which ourselves need.
Intercessions] εντευξεις. Prayers in behalf of others.
Giving of thanks] ευχαριστιας. Praises to God, as the parent of all good, for all the blessings which we and others have received. It is probable that the apostle gives directions here for public worship; and that the words may be thus paraphrased: "Now, I exhort first of all that, in the public assemblies, deprecations of evils, and supplications for such good things as are necessary, and intercessions for their conversion, and thanksgiving for mercies, be offered in behalf of all men - for heathens as well as for Christians, and for enemies as well as for friends." See Macknight.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain 1Ti 2:1. I exhort therefore — Seeing God is…
1Ti 2:1. I exhort therefore — Seeing God is so gracious, and thou art intrusted with the office of the ministry, I give thee this in charge among other things. He proceeds to give directions, 1st, With regard to public prayers; and, 2d, With regard to doctrine. That supplications — To prevent evil; prayers — To procure good; intercessions — On behalf of others; and giving of thanks — For mercies received; be made for all men — Chiefly in public. “Supplications, δεησεις,” says Whitby, “are deprecations for the pardon of sin, and averting divine judgments; προσευχαι, prayers, for the obtaining of all spiritual and temporal blessings; εντευξεις, intercessions, addresses presented to God for the salvation of others. And by this rule were the devotions of the church continually directed. For, saith the author of the book De Vocatione Gentium, ‘there is no part of the world in which the Christian people do not put up such prayers as these, praying not only for the saints, but for infidels, idolaters, the enemies of the cross, and the persecutors of Christ’s members; for Jews, heretics, and schismatics.’” Of prayer in general we may observe, it is any kind of offering up of our desires to God. But the true, effectual, fervent prayer, which St. James speaks of as availing much, implies the vehemency of holy zeal, the ardour of divine love, arising from a calm, undisturbed soul, moved upon by the Spirit of God. “By this exhortation,” says Macknight, “we are taught, while men live, not to despair of their conversion, however wicked they may be, but to use the means necessary thereto, and to beg of God to accompany these means with his blessing.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain I exhort, therefore - Margin, “desire.” The word exhort,…
I exhort, therefore - Margin, “desire.” The word exhort, however, better expresses the sense of the original. The exhortation here is not addressed particularly to Timothy, but relates to all who were called to lead in public prayer; 1Ti 2:8. This exhortation, it may be observed, is inconsistent with the supposition that a liturgy was then in use, or with the supposition that there ever would be a liturgy - since, in that case, the objects to be prayed for would be prescribed. How singular would it be now for an Episcopal bishop to “exhort” his presbyters to pray “for the President of the United States and for all who are in authority.” When the prayer is prescribed, do they not do this as a matter of course?
First of all - That is, as the first duty to be enjoined; the thing that is to be regarded with primary concern; compare Luk 12:1; 2Pe 1:20. It does not mean that this was to be the first thing in public worship in the order of time, but that it was to be regarded as a duty of primary importance. The duty of praying for the salvation of the whole world was not to be regarded as a subordinate and secondary thing.
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Supplications - It is not entirely easy to mark the difference in the meaning of the words used here, and it is not essential. They all relate to prayer, and refer only to the different parts of prayer, or to distinct classes of thought and desire which come before the mind in pleading for others. On the difference between the words supplications and prayers, see notes on Heb 5:7.
Intercessions - The noun used occurs only in this place and in 1Ti 4:5, of this Epistle. The verb, however ἐντυγχάνω entungchanō, occurs in Act 25:4; Rom 8:27, Rom 8:34; Rom 11:2; Heb 7:25. See the meaning explained in the Rom 8:26 note; Heb 7:25 note. There is one great Intercessor between God and man, who pleads for our salvation on the ground of what he himself has done, but we are permitted to intercede for others, not on the ground of any merit which they or we possess, but on the ground of the merit of the great Advocate and Intercessor. It is an inestimable privilege to be permitted to plead for the salvation of our fellow-men.
Giving of thanks - That is, in behalf of others. We ought to give thanks for the mercy of God to ourselves; it is right and proper also that we should give thanks for the goodness of God to others. We should render praise that there is a way of salvation provided; that no one is excluded from the offer of mercy; and that God is using so many means to call lost sinners to himself.
For all men - Prayers should be made for all people - for all need the grace and mercy of God; thanks should be rendered for all, for all may be saved. Does not this direction imply that Christ died for all mankind? How could we give thanks in their behalf if there were no mercy for them, and no way had been provided by which they could be saved? It may be observed here, that the direction to pray and to give thanks for all people, showed the large and catholic nature of Christianity. It was opposed entirely to the narrow and bigoted feelings of the Jews, who regarded the whole Gentile world as excluded from covenant mercies, and as having no offer of life. Christianity threw down all these barriers, and all people are on a level; and since Christ has died for all, there is ample ground for thanksgiving and praise in behalf of the whole human race.
See Supplementary note, 2Co 5:14.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Intercessions, as in the Protestant translation. If men’s intercessions…
Intercessions, as in the Protestant translation. If men’s intercessions to God in favour of others, are no injury to Christ, as our mediator, how can it be any injury to Christ for the Angels and saints in heaven to pray or intercede to God for us? (Witham) --- St. Augustine writes thus on this verse: By supplications are meant what are said before the consecration. By prayers, are what are said in and after the consecration and communion, at mass, including the Pater Noster [the Our Father]; which St. Jerome also says, our Lord taught his apostles to recite at the daily sacrifice of his body. (lib. iii. cont. Pelag. chap. 5) By intercessions, what are said after the communion: and by thanksgivings, what both the priest and people give to God for so great a mystery then offered and received. (ep. 50. ad Paulin.) See St. John Chrysostom on this place.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
John Nelson Darby 1862 · Public Domain 1 Timothy Chapter 2
1 Timothy Chapter 2
The apostle proceeds to give instructions founded on the great principles which he had established-on grace. The Jewish spirit might look on Gentile kings as enemies, and on Gentiles in general as unworthy of divine favour. The persecution of which Christians were the object gave the flesh occasion to nourish these dispositions and to enter into the spirit of the law. Grace rises above all these thoughts-all these feelings of the heart. It teaches us to think of all men with love. We belong to a Saviour-God, who acts in the gospel towards all men with love. Especially were they to pray for kings and those who had places in the world, that God would dispose their hearts to allow us to live in peace and quietness in all honesty. This was well-pleasing to a Saviour-God, who was willing that all men should be saved and be brought to know the truth. The subject here is not the counsels of God, but His dealings with men under the gospel. He acts in grace. It is the acceptable time-the day of salvation. He opens the door through the blood of Christ, and proclaims peace and a sure reception to all who come. The work is done; His character fully glorified with regard to sin. lf they refuse to come, that is the will of man. That God will fulfill His counsels after all makes no change in His dealings, nor in the responsibility of men. We have love to proclaim to all-in the spirit of love in our ways towards them. The distinction between Jew and Gentile totally disappears here. There is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, a Man, Christ Jesus. These are the two great truths which form the basis of all true religion. Judaism had already been the revelation and testimony in the world of the first: there was one only God. This remains eternally true, but did not suffice to bring men into relationship with God. With regard to men He abode within the veil in the darkness which shrouded His majesty. Christianity, while fully revealing the one God, presents the second truth: there is one mediator between God and men. There is one, and there is but one. It is as true that there is but one Mediator as that there is but one God. This is the great and distinctive truth of Christianity.
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Two things here characterise the Mediator. He is a man; He gave Himself a ransom for all. The time for this testimony was ordered of God.
Precious truth! We are in weakness, we are guilty, we could not bring ourselves near to God. We needed a Mediator, who, while maintaining the glory of God, should put us into such a position that He could present us to God in righteousness according to that glory. Christ gave Himself as a ransom. But He must be a man in order to suffer for men, and to represent men. And this He was. But this is not all. We are weak-here, where we are to receive the revelation of God; and weak, with regard to the use of our resources in God and our communion with Him -even when our guilt is blotted out. And, in our weakness to receive the revelation of God, Christ has revealed God, and all that He is in His own Person, in all the circumstances wherein man could have need either in body or in soul. He came down into the lowest depths in order that there should be none, even of the most wretched, who could not feel that God in His goodness was near him and was entirely accessible to him-come down to Him-His love finding its occasion in misery; and that there was no need to which He was not present, which He could not meet.
It is thus that He made himself known on earth; and, now that He is on high, He is still the same. Ho does not forget His human experiences: they are perpetuated by His divine power in the sympathizing feelings of His humanity, according to the energy of that divine love which was their source and their motive power. He is still a man in glory, and in divine perfection. His divinity imparts the strength of its love to His humanity, but does not set aside the latter. Nothing could resemble such a Mediator as this; nothing could equal the tenderness, the knowledge of the human heart, the sympathy, the experience of need. In the measure which divinity could give to what He did, and in the strength of its love, He came down, took part in all the sorrows of humanity, and entered into all the circumstances in which the human heart could be, and was wounded, oppressed, and discouraged, bowing down under the evil. No tenderness, no power of sympathy, no humanity like His; no human heart that can so understand, so feel with us, whatever the burden may be that oppresses the heart of man. It is the Man, the Christ Jesus, who is our Mediator; none so near, none who has come down so low, and entered with divine power into the need, and all the need, of man. The conscience is purified by His work, the heart relieved by that which He was, and which He is for ever.
There is but One: to think of another would be to snatch from Him His glory and from us our perfect consolation. His coming from on high, His divine nature, His death, His life as man in heaven, all point Him out as the one and only Mediator.
But there is another aspect of this truth, and of the fact that He is a Man. It is, that He is not merely a mediator as a Priest upon His throne, between Israel and the Lord; not simply the Messiah, in order to place Israel in relationship with their God, but a Man between God and men. It is according to the eternal nature of God Himself and to the need of men in His presence. It was of these truths, eternal and of universal bearing, that Paul was the herald and the apostle.
Possessing a character that belongs to all ages and that goes beyond them, all these facts had their time to be revealed.
All means dependent on man’s use of them had been tried with men-and in vain, as to recalling him to God; and now the necessary foundations of their relationship with God had to be set forth, laid by God Himself, and the Gentiles were to hear the testimony of grace. And such was the apostle’s testimony, “a teacher of the Gentiles in the faith and in the truth.”
Paul has plainly now laid the foundations, and he proceeds therefore to details. Men were to pray everywhere, lifting up pure hands, without wrath, and without vain human reasonings. Women were to walk in modesty, adorned with good works, and to learn in silence. A woman was forbidden to teach or to exercise authority over men; she was to abide in quietness and silence. The reason given for this is remarkable, and shews how, in our relations with God, everything depends on the original starting-point. In innocence Adam had the first place; in sin, Eve It was she who, being deceived, brought in transgression. Adam was not deceived, guilty as he was of disobeying God. United to his wife, he followed her, not deceived by the enemy but weak through his affection. Without the weakness, it was this which the second Adam did in grace; He followed His deceived and guilty bride, but in order to redeem and deliver her by taking her faults upon Himself. Eve suffered on earth the penalty of her fault in a way which is a mark of the judgment of God; but walking in modesty, with faith and love and holiness, she shall be delivered in the hour of her trial; and that which bears the stamp of judgment shall be an occasion of the mercy and succour of God.
John Nelson Darby — Synopsis of the Books of the Bible: the New Testament (c. 1857–1862) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain Exhortation to supplication for all men, especially for those…
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Exhortation to supplication for all men, especially for those in authority
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1Ti_2:1-7
1I exhort1 therefore, that, first of all,2 supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks [thanksgiving], be made for all men; 2For kings, and for all that are in authority; [,] that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all 3godliness and honesty.3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 4Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge 5of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; [,] 6Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified4 in 7due time. [,] Whereunto [In respect of which] I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle (I speak the truth in Christ,5 and lie not) [I speak the truth in Christ, I lie not]; a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1Ti_2:1. I exhort therefore, that, first of all. There is not a marked connection between this and the former chapter, but the Apostle passes simply from the general command (1Ti_1:18) to the special, and states at once what in his view is especially important. The whole of the second chapter contains precepts concerning the Christian Church. 1Ti_2:1-7 declares for whom and on what ground public prayer ought to be made; 1Ti_2:8-15 how men and women should conduct themselves in this respect; and, indeed, the last portion is not without some more precise suggestions as to the calling of women in general.—I exhort therefore, παρακαλῶ. The Apostle now personally counsels Timothy what he must do to fight a good fight in his pastoral office, and what should be his first task in his relation to the church. Πρῶτον must not be joined with ποιεῖσθαι (Luther), but with παρακαλῶ; οὖν is here a connective, which joins the exhortation to 1Ti_1:18-19, and was necessary on account of the digression in 1Ti_1:20. [The English Version reads: “I exhort therefore, that, first of all.” This reading is sustained by many expositors, as Luther, Calvin, Bengel, and later, among the English, Conybeare. But Alford adopts the same reading as is here given: “I exhort first of all;” so also Heydenreich, Matthies, Wiesinger, De Wette, Huther, Ellicott.—W.] The ground on which the Apostle chiefly urges these intercessions can be only probably determined. Perhaps, in time of persecution, they had been some. what neglected, or were less earnestly conducted by the believers at Ephesus, after they had left their first love (Rev_2:4); perhaps some persons had been excluded by party spirit, or by the want of unity. Whatever the reason, the Apostle exhorts that intercessions be made for all men—for mankind in its wholeness.—Supplications, prayers, intercessions, the giving of thanks; four words which mark the earnestness and comprehensiveness of all Christian petitions. In respect to the first three, the words of Calvin are of value: “Neque tamen super vαcanea est verborum congeries, sed mihi videtur Paulus consulto tres voces in eundem finem simul conjungere, ut precandi studium et assiduitatem magis commendet et vehementius urgeat.” As to the meaning of the εὐχαριστία, the Apostle elsewhere teaches that Christian devotion, as is implied in its nature, must at all times be accompanied with thanksgiving (1Th_5:17-18; Col_4:2). The view that the Apostle in each of these words would designate a special kind of prayer, is as arbitrary as the opinion that this is a mere empty tautology. But since one and the same subject is here denoted by different words, we may at least attempt to reach a more exact definition. That arbitrary exegesis into which many earlier and later commentators have fallen, will be entirely avoided if we study the grammatical force of the language. Δέησις, from δέομαι, egeo, signifies generally a prayer which springs from the feeling of want; προσευχή, a petition, not without regard to whom it is offered, like the preceding word, but distinctly addressed to God; comp. Php_4:6; ἔντευξις (from ἐντυγχάνω = adeo aliquem) means not intercession in and for itself (comp. 1Ti_4:5), but here, where ὑπὲρ πάντ. ἀνθρ. follows, it signifies prayer offered not so much for our own needs, as on behalf of others; εὐχαριστία, finally, is thanksgiving joined with all before, both for preservation from evil, and for the good in which men rejoice. Those for whom all such prayers are made are not only Christians, but Jews and heathen likewise; and the whole exhortation, therefore, is opposed to an unchristian exclusiveness.
1Ti_2:2. For kings, and for all that are in authority. After this general injunction, some are named who need a special place in public prayers. There is no designation of Antonine and his associate rulers (Baur)—which, certainly, would be internal evidence of the spuriousness of the Epistle—but a general designation of the class, including the Roman emperor then or afterward living, and all under him invested with high office (comp. Rom_13:1).—That we may; not a statement of the character of the prayer, but of its purpose; and this, too, not in the subjective, but objective view. The Apostle does not mean that the church should be influenced, through such petitions, to lead a quiet and peaceable life under authority; but he supposes that God, who guides the hearts of kings as the water-brooks (Pro_21:1), will, in answer to the prayer of the church, move the hearts of kings, and of all in authority, to leave Christians at rest.—A quiet and peaceable life. No immoderate striving after the crown of martyrdom, but a quiet life to the glory of God, is the highest ideal. According to Olshausen, ἤρεμος denotes an inward, ἡσύχιος an outward rest; but others differ. It is most desirable that Christians should thus pass (διάγειν) their lives in all godliness and honesty. [The word rendered honesty should be gravity, according to Alford, Conybeare, and others. It should be remembered, however, that honesty, at the time of our English Version, came nearer than now to the idea of honorable or respectable, which lies at the root of σεμνότης.—W.] These last two words mark the sphere of the Christian life. Εὐσέβειᾳ, a word which, with Paul, occurs only in the Pastoral Epistles, and denotes our disposition toward God; σεμνότης, an expression also peculiar to the Pastoral Epistles, refers to the outward relation of the Christian toward his fellow-men. Wiesinger justly remarks, from a manuscript note of Olshausen, that a strong light is thrown on this whole exhortation, when we recal the conduct of the Jews shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem. It had been already enjoined in the Old Testament that the Jews should pray for their Gentile rulers (comp. Jer_29:7; Ezr_6:10). The custom remained among them. Augustus ordered that a lamb should be offered for him daily in the temple; and, until the destruction of Jerusalem, this usage lasted; but the Zealots regarded it as a Divine worship, and demanded that the offering should cease. Joseph., De Bello Jud.ii. 17. [This injunction of St. Paul became the rule of the early church; and it is interesting to trace it in the prayers for kings found in almost all the primitive liturgies. Liturgia Basilii, Goar, Rit. Græc., pp. 171, 178; Liturgia Marci, Renaudot, Lit. Orient., tom. 1, p. 133; Miss. Sarisb. Missa pro Rege, Lit. Gallic., Mabillon, p. 246. Chrysostom informs us that it was the custom, in his day, to offer daily prayers for kings and all in authority. Hom. 6 in 1 Tim. The prayers for the royal family, in the English Version, although they do not appear to have been translated from any very ancient offices, are yet, in substance and expression, conformed to the primitive. See Palmer, Orig. Liturg. We have here the true reverence of law which Christianity teaches. But we are never to confound this, or like maxims—e.g., Rom_13:1—with any theory of the divine right of kings, or with “passive obedience” to any tyranny, as has been done by some divines. The political duty of men in a Christian state cannot be the same with that of the primitive church under a Nero.—W.]
1Ti_2:3. For this is good and acceptable;τοῦτοsc.παιεῖσθαι ἐντεύξ. The Apostle now adds various motives (1Ti_2:3-7) toward obeying the exhortation given in 1Ti_2:1-2. The first is, that every such prayer is good in and for itself, καλόν; it shows the true Christian spirit which marks the professor of the gospel; it yields us the enjoyment of that privilege named in 1Ti_2:2. It is again, as a second motive, ἀπόδεκτον ἐνώπιον τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Θεοῦ. This is God’s will; it befits His desire and purpose; it is already expressed in the name σωτήρ, and this appears clearly from the following (1Ti_2:4-5). Our Saviour wills that all should be saved; and thus we pray for all, as the objects of His gracious will.
1Ti_2:4. Who will have all men to be saved. Paul teaches not only here, but in other places (comp. Rom_8:32; Rom_11:32; Tit_2:11), that the desire of God to bless all sinners is unlimited, yet it can be only in the ordained way of faith. And here, perhaps, he affirms it, in order to maintain this doctrine plainly against every Gnostic limitation of salvation, as well as to give a fit motive for prayer. For, had God willed the contrary of what is here revealed, it would be foolish and fruitless to pray for the welfare of others, when perhaps his or that person might be shut out from the plan of salvation. Yet more, the Apostle speaks here of the θέλειν of God in general, not of the βούλημα, which regards believers (Eph_1:11). It is therefore entirely needless, by any exegetical gloss, to limit the expression, all men, or to understand πάντας ἀνθρ. in the sense of all classes of men (which would make 1Ti_2:1 an absurdity).—Unto the knowledge of the truth; properly, not all truth, not even all religious truth in general, but Christian truth. This added clause explains through what means the σωθῆναι of all men must be wrought.
1Ti_2:5. For there is one God the man Christ Jesus. The ground of the general redemptive plan of God is here so shown (γάρ) as to give a third motive in justification of Christian intercessions; the unity of person whence the plan of universal salvation has gone forth, and through whom it is completed. The unity of God, which the Apostle clearly declares in other places (Rom_3:29-30; 1Co_8:4; Eph_4:6), is here placed distinctly in the foreground, to show how arbitrary is any limit of Christian intercession; the unity of the Mediator, to prove that the Jew has not the least advantage over the heathen, since both must be saved in one and the same way. Μεσίτης, He who stands between God and man, in order to effect a new union (comp. Gal_3:20): “inter Deum atque homines medius constitutus;” Tertullianus. When Paul calls Him, finally, with special emphasis, the man Christ Jesus, it is not absolutely necessary to infer that he was opposing the heresy of Docetism (Huther), although such a purpose is quite possible and probable, when we think how early the real manhood of the Lord was doubted (1Jn_4:3), and what high dignity the first Gnostics ascribed to Æons and to angels. The thought, too, is genuinely Pauline (see Rom_5:15; 1Co_15:31; Php_2:7-8; Heb_2:16-17), and it is most fitting in this place, since the Lord, had He not been real man, could not have been also μεσίτης; while, again, the ἀνθρώπων just before called out almost involuntarily this emphatic ἄνθρωπος.
1Ti_2:6. Who gave himself. This expresses the mode in which the Mediator has fulfilled His office, and the universality of the redemptive plan. Has given, δούς, comp. Gal_1:4; Tit_2:14. The voluntary character of the offering of the Lord is here, as often before, set forth by the Apostle; and although he does not speak in express words of this sacrifice in his death, yet it follows from the very purpose of the Mediator to give a ransom for all; since the price of redemption could be nothing less than Himself, His blood, and life. Ἀντίλυτρον, somewhat stronger yet than the usual λύτρον (Mat_20:28), since the idea of an exchange, which lies in the substantive itself, gains special force from the preposition (Matthies). In connection with ἀντίλυτρον, ὑπέρ is not, in this place at least, simply to be understood in commodum (Huther), but here the idea of substitution must be firmly held. This one ransom weighs more than all the souls in whose place it is reckoned; and here, too, these souls are spoken of as πάντες. See further under Doctrinal and Ethical thoughts. [It appears by no means just, either on exegetical or doctrinal grounds, to draw the idea of substitution from this passage. The phrase ἀντίλυτρον simply includes the meaning of satisfaction, freedom purchased by a sufficient ransom. Undoubtedly the truth of a vicarious sacrifice in its living sense, Christ in us and we in Him, is the blessed truth of the word of God. But it has been the vice of theology always to lower this holy mystery of a Divine love and sacrifice to a commercial contract. The cur Deus homo of Anselm cannot explain that mystery so truly to the Christian reason or heart, as the few words of St. John the Divine: “God is love. God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son.” And it may be well for any who read this image of St. Paul, to weigh the following profound sentence of Coleridge. “Forgiveness of sin, the abolition of guilt, through the redemptive power of Christ’s love, and of His perfect obedience, is expressed, on account of the resemblance of the consequence in both cases, by the payment of a debt for another, which debt the payer had not himself incurred. Now the impropriation of this metaphor (i. e., the taking it literally), by transferring the sameness from the consequents to the antecedents, or inferring the identity of the causes from a resemblance in the effects, this view or scheme of redemption, grounded on this confession, I believe to be altogether unscriptural;” “Aids to Reflection, Aphor. 19, on Spirit. Relig.”—W.]—To be testified in due time;τὸ μαρτύριον καιροῖς ἰδίοις. Luther: “That it should be preached in his own time;” Vulgata: “cujus testimonium temporibus suis confirmatum est.” Chrysostom, and other Church fathers, incorrectly understand the suffering and death of the Lord as itself the μαρτύριον. But the idea (Huther) that the reference is to the preaching of the gospel, which has now been sent at a fitting time, seems alike arbitrary, since in this case the beginning of 1Ti_2:7 sinks almost to fiat tautology. We think, rather, that μαρτύριον should here be held in apposition to ἀντίλυτρον; to wit, that the Apostle calls this sacrifice of the Lord in death for our ransom the great μαρτύριον; the witness of the truth stated in 1Ti_2:4, which is raised above all doubt through this blessed revelation of grace. Since this offering is made, there cannot be any further question whether God wills the salvation of all. The Apostle does not speak of a testimony which he is the first to affirm, but one to which God has given witness already in His Son; and in 1Ti_2:7 he first alludes to his own personal connection with it. “Innuitur testimonium redemtionis universalis;” Bengel.—In due time, καιροῖς ἰδίοις; that is, in the time foreordained by God, and for this reason most fitting; in other words, in the πλήρωμα τ. καιροῦ (Gal_4:4); comp. 1Ti_6:15; Act_17:26; Tit_1:2.
1Ti_2:7. Whereunto I am ordained.Εἴς ὁ, ad quod (testimonium, sc. annunciandum); another remembrance of his apostolic calling and dignity, as 1Ti_1:12. Paul points to the universal character of his calling, as proof of the universality of Divine grace; and this again as the great motive to pray for all.—A preacher; this general design of his calling is denoted by a name suited to all messengers of the gospel, and precedes the specific official title, ἀπόστολος.—I speak the truth, &c. (comp. Rom_9:1). A solemn adjuration, which, in view of so weighty a matter, and the many personal misjudgments concerning Paul, is quite appropriate here, and may well awaken confidence, not distrust. Although this digression has no logical force, it agrees well with a friendly, confiding letter like this, where his heart speaks in the most artless manner.—A teacher of the Gentiles. A more exact statement of the special sphere in which he is called to the work of his apostolic office. This mention of his peculiar gift lends new force to his exhortation to pray for all men.—In faith and in verity. Not only in true faith (Heydenreich, Mack, De Wette), but both conceptions are to be closely distinguished. Faith (a noteworthy variation, ἐν πνεύματι), means faith in Christ, which is the great personal motive in the life of the Apostle; truth, that objective Christian truth itself, which is known and received by faith. The preposition ἐν seems, as often, to denote the means whereby the Apostle sought to reach the appointed end. That the words are to be taken as a formal assertion, like ἀλήθ. λέγω (1Ti_2:6), is not probable.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The doctrine of Christian intercession, which the Apostle teaches with such heartfelt power, breathes the whole spirit of Christianity. The Lord Himself commended it, even for our enemies (Mat_5:44). Thus, too, James, who was so fully quickened by the spirit of his glorified Master (Jam_5:16); and it is evident how strongly, and how often, Paul enjoins the intercession of the brethren. That the early Christians likewise earnestly kept this apostolic precept, and, even amidst the worst persecutions, did not cease to pray for kings and for those in authority, is clear from the early liturgies, as well as the testimony of apologists and church fathers. Thus, e.g., Tertullian, Apol., cap. 1Tim 30: “Manibus expansis oramus pro omnibus imperatoribus vitam illis prolixam, imperium securum, domum tutam, exercitus fortes, senatum fidelem, populum probum, orbem quietum, et quæcumque hominis et Cæsaris vota sunt.” And Polycarp, ad Philipp., cap. 12, says: “Pro omnibus sanctis orate. Orate etiam pro regilus, et potestatibus et principibus, atque pro persequentibus et odientibus vos, et pro inimicis crucis, ut fructus vester manifestus sit in omnibus, ut sitis in illo perfecti.” With this practice of Christian prayer, the Apostle exhorts believers to lead a quiet and holy life; and in this he shows his confidence, that such prayer for the community will obtain a blessing from God;—an unreasonable hope, if he speaks only of an influence on our own minds, not a supernatural power in prayer. This injunction is thus an indirect proof that there is not only a subjective, but also an objective connection, granted and assured of God, between prayer and its effects.
2. According to the express teaching of the Apostle, Christianity is the great instrument of salvation for all men. If the word ἐκκλησία is rightly understood, the saying, extra ecclesiam nulla salus, has a sound sense. The right of Christian missionary work is grounded in this faith. The universality of God’s plan of redemption is the mightiest spur of that Christian humanity which embraces all men. It is impossible, therefore, to be truly human, if one is not truly Christian; and it is alike contradictory to profess ourselves truly Christian, without being human.
3. “God wills that all men should be saved.” It is a sorry dogmatism which would weaken the proof given in this passage for the universality of the plan of redemption, by exegetical arts; e.g., when any seek to explain will in the absurd sense of desire; or all men in the sense of all classes—as Calvin and others have here done. Exegetical honesty forbids us to find in this place less than what is said, in other words, in 1Ti_4:10 and 2Pe_3:9. The inevitable necessity of an ἀποκατάστασις πάντων, from the fact that at some time, sooner or later, what God wills must be fulfilled, does not follow, however, from this position. The will of God here spoken of is not absolute, but conditional; i. e., God wills that all men be saved by means of faith; but as faith, on the one side, is a gift of grace, so, on the other, it is a duty, whose neglect deserves punishment, and unbelief is a guilt that must have its reckoning. Against such views of Universalism we urge also, in their full force, the many positive expressions which set forth the eternal blessedness of believers, as grounded in the free decisions of God, and His grace in Christ. True wisdom lies not in sacrificing one series of these conceptions to the other, but in holding both with equal strength, since the unity of the seeming contradictions must be always a problem for Christian philosophy. These apostolic expressions, finally, give the fullest right to the freest, most unlimited, and powerful announcement of the gospel, while it must be left to God to show us the perfection of His purposes, and to justify them before our eyes. [It is the error of every theological system like that here alluded to, that it does not take its starting point from the moral facts of the Christian consciousness, but from the abstract idea of the Divine will. The iron chain of its logic must therefore end in a fatalism, which excludes all moral conditions based on the free choice of man. Such a premise may end in the dogma of absolute decrees and limited atonement; or it may equally lead to Universalism. If the will of God be irrespective of human action, there can be no limit to His grace. Or, again, if it be a logic within the circle of purely speculative ideas, it will end in the Pantheism of Spinoza; in an impersonal substance, of which all human actions are only phenomena, without any moral quality of good or evil. All these are forms of the same ground error. A Christian theology begins with the facts of our personal being, of sin and responsibility, and thence reasons to the character of God. The sentence of Hooker, B. 1, c. 2, is profound: “They err, who think that of the will of God to do this or that, there is no reason besides His will.” And this of Cudworth, Serm. I., breathes the heart of the gospel: “It is the sweetest flower in all the garland of His attributes, that He is mighty to save; and this is far more magnificent for Him than to be styled mighty to destroy. For that, except it be in a way of justice, speaks no power at all, but mere impotency; for the root of all power is goodness.”—W.]
4. If the death of the Saviour is revealed as a ransom for all, it is most important to distinguish between the power of His death, which is great enough to effect the redemption of all, and the fruit of His death, which is shared only by the believing and regenerate. As to the first point, the words of Augustin are weighty; Sermo 114, de tempore: “Unâ morte universum mundum, sicut omnium conditor, ita omnium reparator, absolvit: indubitanter enim credimus, quod totum mundum redemit, qui plus dedit, quam totus mundus valeret.” The other point is met by the words of the Saviour: “The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep;” and again: “I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou hast given me;” John 10, 17.
5. According to the express doctrine of our Apostle, the mediatorial office of the man Christ Jesus is not only the cardinal truth of Christianity, but the conditio sine quâ non of the eternal salvation of man. The existence of the only God would be, indeed, no glad message for fallen man, did he not hear also of a Mediator between God and man. In contrast to this soteriological doctrine of the Apostle, the boldness of many at this day is strange indeed, who assert that they need no Mediator, but that man can go directly to the Father without the Son. Such men lack above all the living knowledge of the desert of sin, and the holiness of God. The God whom they approach is not the God revealed in the Scriptures, but rather the idol of their own darkened understanding.
[We may fitly append here a passage from Archbishop Trench’s “Sermons,” which sets forth the living view of the mediatorial sacrifice, as it is distinguished alike from any forensic theory of imputation, and any denial of it on moral grounds. “Could God be well-pleased with the sufferings of the innocent and holy? What satisfaction could He find in these? Assuredly not: but be could have pleasure—nay, according to the moral necessities of His own being, he must have the highest joy, satisfaction, and delight—in the love, the patience, the obedience, which those sufferings gave Him the opportunity of displaying. Nor was it, as some among the schoolmen taught, that God arbitrarily ascribed and imputed to Christ’s obedience unto death a value which made it equal to the needs and sins of the whole world. We affirm rather with the deeper theologians of those and all times, who crave to deal with realities, not ascriptions and imputations, that His offering had in itself this intrinsic value. Christ satisfied herein, not the Divine anger, but the Divine craving after a perfect holiness, righteousness, and obedience in man.”—W.]
6. Against all Docetist tendencies which now and then appear in the church, the Apostle’s assertion of the real manhood of Christ has always the deepest significance. There is among the strong defenders of the divinity of the Son far more Crypto-Docetism, far more fear of allowing the full and undiminished truth of Christ’s humanity, than they themselves know. On the other side, it is much to be wished that all who rightly hold the ἄνθρωπος Ἰ. Χρ., could as readily accept what the Apostle further says in the Pastoral Epistles, in respect to the divinity of the Lord; see 1Ti_3:16; Tit_2:13. The very Docetism so early visible in the apostolic age, is an indirect proof of the superhuman character of the Saviour. His appearance was so wonderful, that men could not at first believe Him to be real man.
7. “Christianity knits the ties by which natural religion binds men to one God still more closely, through the one only Mediator; for He points to the one centre of all. Christ is the bond of the God-head and manhood;” Heubner.
8. The apostolic command to pray for all men has been often interpreted as allowing prayers for the dead. The words of Luther are noteworthy on this subject, Kirchenpostille, Dom. I., Post Trin.: “We have no command from God to pray for the dead, therefore no one can sin who does not pray for them. For, in what God has neither commanded nor forbidden, no man can sin. Yet, because God has not granted us to know the state of the soul, and we must be uncertain whether it has not met already its final doom, and therefore cannot tell if the soul be condemned, it is no sin that thou prayest for the dead; but in such wise, that thou leave it in doubt, and say thus: ‘Dear God, if this soul be in that state that Thou yet mayest help it, I pray Thee to Le gracious unto it.’ For God has promised to hear us in what we ask. Therefore, if thou hast prayed once, or thrice, thou shouldest believe that thou art heard, and pray no more, lest thou tempt God.”
9. If we have, according to the doctrine of the Apostle, only one Mediator between God and man, then the invocation of saints, and Mariolatry especially, as practiced in the Roman Church in recent times, is already condemned in its very principle.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
Public prayer no secondary thing, but the chief element in the assembly of believers.—The duty of special intercession: (1) Its extent (1Ti_2:1-2); (2) its ground (1Ti_2:3-7).—To pray for others: (1) Its intrinsic worth; (2) how seldom and poorly performed.—The relation of Christian subjects toward their rulers.—The influence of religious life and prayer on the welfare of the Church.—God wills that all men be saved: (1) No mere show or pretence of will, but a right earnest will; (2) no inactive will, but mighty, and working for the good of all; (3) no absolute and despotic will, but a conditioned and holy will, against which the stiff-necked enmity of unbelief can hold out to its own eternal shame.—The knowledge of the truth, the Divine means for the eternal redemption of the sinner.—One Mediator for all: (1) What a privilege to know Him! (2) what a curse to reject Him! (3) what a duty, after man has found Him, to make Him known to others also!—The high significance of the true manhood of the Lord. Without it, (1) There is no perfect revelation of God in Christ; (2) there is no true reconciliation of the Divine and the human, in and through Christ.—Christ the ransom for all: (1) From what; (2) for what; (3) to what the Christian is thus redeemed.—The manifestation of Christ the pivot of the world’s history.—God’s time is always the best.—As Paul, so every minister of the Gospel must be assured of his Divine calling.—Faith and truth the great means to bring others to a knowledge of the gospel.—Missions to the heathen a continuation of the work of Paul.
Starke: Osiander: Christians ought not only to pray for those who, like them, profess some sort of religion, but for all men, that God will guide their hearts to the gospel of Christ.—Lange’s Opp.: There is in intercession for others the purest exercise of love for others.—One of the best and most valuable kinds of tax which we owe and may pay to our rulers, is to pray for them, and to thank God heartily for the good we receive through them.—Anton: Prayer is a real Noah’s ark, in which we may shut ourselves amidst threatening floods.—We cannot else pass through the tossing world (Luke) Luk_18:7-8).—Bibl. Würt.: If God is minded to bring all men to the knowledge of the truth, who do not wilfully shut their eyes to it; if Christ has given Himself in death for all, that they may be kept from eternal ruin, we ought also, as holy children, to follow this example of God and Christ, gladly encourage all to seek their eternal health and salvation, and omit nothing which may aid toward it (Rom_10:1).—Lange’s Opp.: How can the Christian religion be other than true, since it leads to the knowledge of saving truths, while all other truths are only phantoms?—If it be the earnest will of God to save all men, none can excuse himself who remains godless and unbelieving.—Since the satisfaction of Christ is the masterwork and centre of the gospel, it must be chiefly urged by all teachers, and most fully embraced and believingly applied by all hearers (1Co_1:23; Gal_2:20).—Osiander: The gospel of Christ belongs to the Gentiles also (Isa_49:6).—Heubner: Common prayer is a means of uniting hearts, a true bond of the Church.—Where the best Christians are, there are the best citizens.—Polytheism severs nations; Christianity binds all in one.—An angel could not be the Reconciler of the world.—All perfect virtue is self-sacrifice, a denial of my personal self, just as every ungodly life is egoism.—Christian integrity speaks truth.—Lisco: The duty of common prayer.—Intercession a work of love.—The greatest thought, the noblest deed, and the holiest decision.
1Ti_2:1-6. Epistle for Rogation day, in the Grand Duchy of Hesse and elsewhere.—Beck: Intercession, the consecration of a life of prayer.—Intercession the crown of prayer.—Knippenberg: On the right spirit of Christian intercession.—Dräseke: Christian intercession considered, (1) In its nature; (2) in its dignity; (3) in its effects.—Dietzsch: The wish of a Christian people for the welfare of its rulers.—W. Hofacker: Of the right priestly spirit, as the need of our time.
Footnotes:
[1]1Ti_2:1.—[παρακαλῶ; παρακάλει, G.—evidently, as Huther says, a conjecture for the sake of giving to the Apostle’s address to Timothy the form of a command.—E. H.]
[2]1Ti_2:1.—[πρῶτον πάντ.; not, at the beginning or opening of public service (C. and H. after Chrysostom), but “before all things”—as the author, who follows Huther, observes, the words are to be connected with παρακαλῶ.—E. H.]
[3]1Ti_2:2.—[σεμνότητι. If the English word respectability had not lost its meaning, it would perhaps be the proper word to express the sense of the Apostle here. Dignity is too stately. Vulgate: “castitate.” Calvin: “honestate.” C. and H.: “gravity.” German Version: “Ehrbarkeit.” The word means on estate or condition of honor, &c., founded upon the possession of the corresponding moral quality, honesty.—E. H.]
[4]1Ti_2:6.—[τὸ μαρτύριον; omitted by A., and rejected by Lachmann. It stands in the Sinaiticus without the article. In some MSS. οὗ was written before τὸ μαρ. The omission from A. is certainly singular. The sense is much better with than without the words. Tischendorf retains them. Huther says that Lachmann did; but this is a mistake—at least, they are not in the large edition of 1850.—E. H.]
[5]1Ti_2:7.—The words of the Recepta, ἐν Χριστῷ, are wanting in A. D.1 F. G., and others, and for this reason have been left out by Griesbach, Scholz, Lachmann, Tischendorf, and others. Perhaps they were introduced from Rom_9:1. The Sinaiticus has retained them. [They are not in Murdock’s Syriac Translation.—E. H.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain CHURCH ORDER PRESCRIBED, 1Ti_2:1 to 1Ti_4:16.
PART SECOND.
CHURCH ORDER PRESCRIBED, 1Ti_2:1 to 1Ti_4:16.
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1. In worship, 1Ti_2:1-15.
a. Public prayer universally to be offered by men, 1Ti_2:1-8.
1. Therefore—As an outflow from the general charge of 1Ti_1:18. First of the specific elements of the charge.
Supplications, prayers, intercessions—Words nearly synonymous, accumulated to show the variety yet oneness of prayer. Supplication is the call of felt need; prayer is the generic word for asking divine favour; intercession is more immediate and personal entreaty.
All men—The religion for our entire race suggests prayer for the entire race.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 1–7. Directions for Common Prayer and Intercession for all,…
1–7. Directions for Common Prayer and Intercession for all, since the Gospel is for all
1. I exhort therefore that, first of all] Rather, I exhort therefore first of all; as my first special injunction after my general charge and commission, ch. 1 1Tim 1:3–5, 18, 19; the verb itself partly suggests the taking up of the subject in new form.
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that … supplications … be made] The position of the Greek verb suggests its being middle voice rather than passive. So R.V. margin and Alford following Chrysostom: ‘I exhort to make supplications.’ The present tense implies the habitual making; and the absence of a subject leaves it unemphatic. In a modern rendering it might run exactly “I recommend therefore first of all the practice of common supplication and prayer, of common intercession and thanksgiving, in behalf of all men.” The middle is found in 17 places at least in N. T., in two of these governing the same word ‘supplications,’ Luk_5:33; Php_1:4. So Chrysostom in his comment here uses as the natural phrase ‘for all the world … we make our supplication.’ The only place where the passive occurs is in the perfect participle, Heb_12:27, ‘as of things that have been made.’
supplications, prayers, intercessions] In the first word there is, from its derivation, the idea of a felt ‘want’ and petition for its supply; cf. esp. Php_1:4; Luk_1:13; 2Ti_1:3. Notice how in English, in the prayer of St Chrysostom, ‘our common supplications’ is explained by “requests” and by “desires and petitions.”
In the second, the idea of vow and ‘worship towards’ God, cf. Mat_21:13, ‘my house shall be called the house of prayer,’ Act_2:42, ‘they continued stedfastly … in the breaking of bread and the prayers.’
In the third, the idea of a personal interview and solicitation, such as Abraham’s for Sodom: either (1) against, or (2) for some one: for (1) cf. Act_25:24, ‘made suit to me, crying that he ought not to live,’ Rom_11:2, ‘he pleadeth with God against Israel’: for (2) Rom_8:26, ‘The Spirit (and Rom 8:34 Christ Jesus) maketh intercession for us,’ Heb_7:25 ‘He ever liveth to make intercession for us.’ See note also on chap. 1Ti_4:5.
The plural of each as being a collection of concrete examples is the earlier way of representing the abstract noun; and it also helps to give the force, implied by the whole context, of common, public, prayer. Augustine says that the four words refer to the liturgical form of administration of Holy Communion: we may certainly say the converse that our ‘Divine Liturgy’ is modelled on this authorised rule, taking e.g. the modern ‘Prayer for the Church Militant’ with its express embodiment of this passage, or the ancient Gloria in Excelsis—(1) “In earth peace, goodwill towards men: (2) we bless thee, we worship Thee, O Lord, (3) Thou that takest away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us; (4) we give thanks to Thee, God the Father Almighty”: or taking the service as a whole, we get (1) the supplication for mercy and grace in the Kyrie after each Commandment, in the collects for the Queen and that for the day and the Church Militant, (2) the prayer of worship in the prayers of humble access and consecration, (3) the intercession in the Lord’s Prayer and following prayers, (4) the thanksgiving of the Gloria in Excelsis summarising all before.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (1) I exhort therefore.—Now Timothy was to begin to…
II.
(1) I exhort therefore.—Now Timothy was to begin to carry out his master St. Paul’s great charge—the charge which bade him teach all men to put their entire, their perfect, trust in the Saviour of sinners—by instructing the Church of Ephesus, in the first place, to pray constantly for all sorts and conditions of men. The detailed injunctions how the charge was to be carried out are introduced by the Greek particle oun, translated in our version by “therefore;” it may be paraphrased thus: “In pursuance of my great charge, I proceed by special details; in the first place, let prayers for all be offered by the congregation.”
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Supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks.—Many attempts, some of them not very happy ones, have been made by grammarians and commentators to distinguish between these terms, each of which denotes prayer. On the whole, it may be assumed that the Greek word translated “supplications” signifies a request for particular benefits, and is a special form of the more general word rendered “prayers.” The third expression in the English version translated “intercessions” suggests a closer and more intimate communion with God on the part of the one praying. It speaks of drawing near God, of entering into free, familiar speech with Him. The Greek word suggests prayer in its most individual, urgent form. The fourth term, “giving of thanks,” expresses that which ought never to be absent from any of our devotions, gratitude for past mercies. Archbishop Trench remarks how this peculiar form of prayer will subsist in heaven when, in the very nature of things, all other forms of prayer will have ceased in the entire fruition of the things prayed for, for then only will the redeemed know how much they owe to their Lord. The word eucharist is derived from the Greek word used in this place—eucharistia—for in the Holy Communion the Church embodies its highest act of thanksgiving for the highest benefits received.
For all men.—Professor Reynolds well comments on the hardness of the task set us here—“It is difficult for us always to love all men, to think of all men as equally dear to God, or to regard all men as equally capable of being blessed. Timothy, after reading this letter, probably walked along the marble colonnade of the great temple of Artemis, or heard the hum of some twenty thousand Asiatic Greeks crowded in the vast theatre to witness the gladiatorial fight, or encountered a procession of Bacchantes, or turned into the synagogue on the side of the Coresias and saw the averted looks, and felt the bitter hatred of some old friends. We, with some knowledge of the modern world, have to look into the ‘hells’ upon earth; to survey the gold-fields and battle-fields; the African slave-hunts; the throngs and saloons of Pekin, Calcutta, and Paris; the monasteries of Tibet; and make prayers, petitions, intercessions, and thanksgivings, too, on behalf of all men. In the beginning of the Gospel, Timothy received this quiet injunction from the Apostle Paul. Now the once whispered word peals like the voice of many waters and mighty thunderings over the whole Church of God.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain First of all, that for that, first of all,…
First of all, that for that, first of all, A.V; thanksgivings for and giving of thanks. A.V I exhort therefore. The insertion of the connecting particle "therefore" marks that this arrangement of Church prayers is a part as the following words, first of all, mark that it is the first part of that charge or administration which was now committed to Timothy. Supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings (see the Prayer for the Church Militant). The question naturally arises whether the first words here used dehsiv proseucav, and ejnteuxeiv have any distinctive meaning, or are merely accumulated, like synonyms m legal documents, or various phrases in rhetorical addresses, to ensure completeness and to add force. It is against the notion of any distinctive meaning attaching to them that no such distinction can be supported by actual use. In Php_4:6 two of the words (proseuch and dehsiv) are used in conjunction as here with eujcaristia, with no apparent difference, both being the way of making known their requests to God. (so also Eph_6:18 and 1Ti_5:5) Again, in the ancient Liturgies, the words deesqai and proseucesqai are constantly used of the same praying. It may, however, perhaps be said that every dehsiv is a proseuch, though every proseuch is not a dehsiv. The dehsiv is a "petition a distinct asking something of God, which a proseuch need not necessarily be. It may be merely an act of adoration, of confession, of recital of God"s mercies, and so on. So as regards ejnteuxeiv, here rendered "intercessions." There is nothing in the etymology or in the use of this word, which only occurs elsewhere in the New Testament inmenov 1Ti_4:5, to limit the meaning of it to "intercession." Nor has it this meaning in the passage where it occurs in the Liturgy of St. Clement, near the close, where God is addressed as JO kaintwn ejpista taxeiv, "Who understandest the petitions even of those who are silent." In RAPC 2Ma 4:8 and Diod. Sic., 16:55 it seems to mean "a request preferred in a personal interview," whichis an extension of its common meaning in classical Greek of "access," "an interview," "social intercourse," or the like. But when we turn to the use of the verb ejntugcanw in the New Testament, we seem to get the idea of "intercession." Entugcanein is to go to someone to ask him to take action against or in favor of some third party (see Act_25:24; Rom_11:2 Rom_8:27, Rom_8:28, Rom_8:34; Heb_7:25) and so Chrysostom (quoted in Steph., "Thesaur.") explains ejntucia to be the action of one who applies to God to avenge him of those who have done him wrong. So that perhaps "intercessions" is, on the whole, the best rendering here, though an imperfect one; and would comprise the prayers for the emperor, for the Church, for the sick, travelers, slaves, captives, etc., for the bishops, clergy, and laity, etc., and such prayers as "Turn away from us every plot (ejpiboulhn) of wicked men" (Liturgy of St. Mark).
Vers. 1-15.
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Public worship.
The whole chapter is given up to directions concerning the public worship of the Church. We may notice the following particulars.
I THE SUBJECTS OF PUBLIC PRAYER. When the Church meets together in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, it meets as pre-eminently the friend of the human race. As the Church of him who is the world"s Savior and Redeemer, it must manifest the same spirit of universal love which animated him. It is not as being haters of the human race (as their enemies falsely said), but as being true lovers of their kind, that Christians banded themselves together and refused all fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. This love, then, was especially to be shown in their united prayers. When they came together, though perhaps their enemies were thirsting for their blood, they were to offer up their united prayers for all men. Specially, with a view to the peace and order of society, should they pray for kings and governors and all in authority, that by God"s blessing upon their government the course of this world might be so peaceably ordered that his Church might serve him joyfully in all godly quietness. And if we consider how much human happiness depends upon good government on the part of the rulers, and upon quiet obedience to the laws on the part of the people, we shall see how much need there is for such prayers. In our own days the restless spirit that is abroad, the impatience of all control, and the general weakening of rule and authority all over the world, increases the need both of wisdom and strength in rulers, and consequently for the strengthening of their hands by the prayers and intercessions of the people of God.
II THE PERSONS WHO ARE TO PRAY IN THE CHRISTIAN ASSEMBLIES. These are limited to the men. The prayers and the teaching in the congregation are to be conducted by men only. The difference of sex, and the different social and religious functions of each sex, are really of Divine appointment. As St. Paul says to the Corinthians, (1Co_11:9) "the woman was made for the man, and not the man for the woman;" and all the subsequent relations of the man and woman, in the family, in the state, and in the Church, are naturally evolved from their primeval state as ordered by God. It is obvious, too, that there must be harmony in these various relations, and that the principle which rules in one department of life must rule in the others also. Anyhow, it is distinctly laid down, on the apostolic authority of St. Paul, that in the Church assemblies the functions of public prayer, and public teaching and preaching, are confined to men. The wide field of more private female ministrations is still open to godly women, and seems to be amply justified by the existence of prophetesses in the primitive Church, and by such examples as that of Priscilla. (Act_18:26) As regards the character of the men who lead the prayers of the congregation, three qualifications are named: holiness, quietness of spirit, simplicity in the petitions. The hands that are lifted up to God in prayer must be clean hands, unstained by blood, untainted by bribes or dishonest gains, unpolluted by any evil deeds. The prayers that are offered must come from hearts where no malice or ill will dwells, no resentment for wrongs received or injuries endured; and from minds where the spirit of controversy is dumb, and no caviling is to be found. Sincerity and godly simplicity, with an honest faith in the faithfulness of God, are essential to acceptable prayer.
III The third feature in the public assemblies of the saints on which St. Paul insists is THE MODEST DRESS AND DEMEANOUR OF THE CONGREGATION. This applies especially to the women, but it is true of the men also. Christians come to church to worship the glorious God, to humble themselves before his holy presence, and to hear his Word, not for display, not to attract notice, not for vain-glory or worldly vanity. It is, therefore, quite out of place for either men or women to make a parade of finery in church. The ornaments best suited for persons professing godliness at all times, but especially when they approach the throne of God, are those of a pure heart and a meek spirit, and an abundance of good works. It is the hidden man of the heart which needs adorning for its access to the court of heaven.
HOMILIES BY T. CROSKERY.
Ver. 1.
The regulation of public worship.
The apostle gives Timothy a series of injunctions respecting the assemblies for public worship, which sprang naturally out of the solemn charge he had given him in the previous chapter.
I THE PARAMOUNT DUTY OF PUBLIC PRAYER. "I exhort therefore, first of all, that petitions, prayers, supplications, thanksgivings, be made for all men.
1. The leading place given to prayer in this series of instructions respecting the administration of the Church, proves its pre-eminent importance. It is the breath of vital godliness.
1. God promises to hear public prayer; (2Ch_7:14-16)
2. Christ sanctifies it by his presence; (Mat_18:20)
3. the saints delight in it; (Psa_42:4)
4. they are to be exhorted to the exercise of it; (Heb_10:25)
5. it is not to be conducted in an unknown tongue. (1Co_14:14-16)
6. The variety of terms in which it is here described implies the diversity of circumstances in which Gods people are placed.
(1) "Petitions." This term expresses the sense of insufficiency and need, and may be a special form of a particular prayer.
(2) "Prayers." This is prayer in general, as representing the spirit of devotion.
(3) "Supplications." This signifies a closer dealing with God, a more childlike confidence in prayer.
(4) "Thanksgivings." This suggests that element which ought never to be absent from our supplications gratitude for past mercies.
II FOR WHOM ARE WE TO PRAY? "For all men.
1. It would not be acceptable prayer if we were to pray only for ourselves. It is not Christ-like to look down with a sense of superiority upon the mass of men as sunk in perdition.
2. We are bound to love all men, and therefore to pray for their welfare. Much of our happiness depends upon our identifying ourselves lovingly with others.
III PRAYERS ARE SPECIALLY TO BE MADE FOR KINGS AND ALL IN HIGH PLACE. "For kings and for all in high place.
1. Such persons pre-eminently need our prayers.
1. They wield great power for good or evil;
2. they are exposed to many dangers;
3. they are liable to greater temptations than other men.
2. God has power to influence their public action.
1. The hearts of kings are in his hands;
2. he sets them up and he removes them; (Dan_2:21)
3. (3) he can establish their throne in righteousness and justice. (Pro_16:12)
4. Kings can do much to promote the well-being of the Church of God. "That we may pass a quiet and tranquil life in all godliness and gravity." We should pray for kings, because they can promote our outward peace and our inward tranquility, by restraining the bad and encouraging the good. Kings can thus protect us in the exercise of our religion and in the practice of godliness. Wicked kings can expose the godly to cruel risks, and expose their gravity to unseemly perils.
5. The duty of praying for kings is not affected by the consideration that they are pagans, or oppressors, or persecutors.
(1) Christians will pray the more earnestly for them that God will change their hearts. All the kings were pagans in the days of the apostle, and many of them persecutors.
(2) It was specially necessary to enjoin prayer for kings upon Christian communities, consisting largely of Jews who had an intense longing to throw off the Roman yoke. It is a curious fact that it was the cessation of prayer by the Jews on behalf of the Roman emperor that led to the final war four years after this injunction was given by the apostle. It may have been owing to his injunction that the Christians were not involved in the disasters of that fatal rebellion. T.C.
HOMILIES BY R. FINLAYSON
Vers. 1-7.
Universalism.
I UNIVERSALITY IN OUR APPEARING BEFORE GOD ON BEHALF OF OTHERS.
1. Broad teaching. "I exhort therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings, be made for all men." This is the first duty which pressed upon the apostle"s mind, as claiming attention. If a priest is one who acts for others, then there is here required of us priestly service, which is only in accordance with our being called, in 1Pe_2:5, a holy priesthood. Our priestly service is here regarded as twofold.
(1) Prayer for all. For the sake of emphasis and fullness three words are used to denote prayer, which a Greek would be better able to distinguish than we can do now. The first word seems to mark the state of need out of which petitions take their rise. The second word seems to mark our approaching God with our petitions. The third word seems to mark the urgent way in which we are to approach God with our petitions. An intercessory character is given to all three by the accompanying words. It is right that we should turn our wants into petitions for ourselves, that we should approach God with these petitions, and that we should press them with all urgency. But there is a range of want beyond ourselves which we are here directed to cover by intercession. We are to turn the wants of others into intercessions for them; with our intercessory petitions we are to go to the throne of grace, and we are to press them there with all the urgency of which we are capable. We are not to be so selfish as to think only of ourselves in our prayers. The Spirit, even in the way of blessing us, would direct us away from ourselves to what others need. But for whom are we to intercede? This is the point to which the teaching of the apostle specially refers. It is certainly our duty to intercede for our family and friends. "He that provideth not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." And, if we do not take the wants of our own before God, we are not acting the natural part, which is to be expected of us as Christians. But there is also a family selfishness, from which, if we would have the larger blessing, we must be freed in our prayers. "O God, the Creator and Preserver of all mankind, we humbly beseech thee for all sorts and conditions of men; that thou wouldest be pleased to make thy ways known unto them, thy saving health unto all nations." We are not to be prevented from interceding for others by reason of their ill desert. God has shown us Abraham, that prince of the elder covenant, using his privilege on behalf of undeserving Lot, and also on behalf of ungodly Sodom. He has also shown us his afflicted patriarch under direction to pray for the uncharitable Eliphaz, Zophar, and Bildad. They were to offer sacrifice; but God said, "My servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept." "We are to pursue the sinner with love; we are to weave around the impenitent a network of prayer from which he may find it hard to extricate himself." We are not to allow obscurity or distance to separate us from souls. St. Vincent de Paul conveys some of his prayers (as by a definite grant) "to the most forgotten soul in purgatory." Surely we are entitled to convey our prayers to the most forgotten soul in this world. Roman Catholic writers are to be commended for the stress they lay on the ties which unite us to the great human society in which God has placed us. It is net their truth, for it is simply the spirit of our being here enjoined to offer up prayer for all men. We are to think of ourselves as belonging to a great world of need, belonging to it more than we do to ourselves; and we belong to it in this way, that we are bound to pray for it with all earnestness that the ends of Christ may be advanced in it; thus, we believe, making our influence felt in circle after circle to its utmost bound.
(2) Thanksgiving for all. It is the frequent teaching of the apostle that thanksgiving is to accompany the presentation of petitions. We are not to be so much taken up with our wants as to forget our mercies. While, then, we are to be quick to see the wants of others, we are also to be quick to see their mercies. And while we turn their wants into intercessions, we are to turn their mercies into thanksgivings. But for whom are we to thank God? We are especially to give thanks for those who are bound up with us in the family unity, if they are free from calamity, and more so if they are the subjects of saving grace. There may be those in our homes who cannot thank God for themselves, and we are to do this for them. But we are to give our thanksgivings a wider sweep, We are to give thanks for our neighbor, even when he may bear us a grudge, even when his interests may seem to conflict with ours. We are to get beyond all that would narrow our souls, and lay hold upon this, that God sees fit to bless him; and why should we begrudge the Giver his due of praise? We are to thank God for those who are sensible of their mercies, and are not remiss themselves in thanking God. We do not need to be afraid of God receiving too much gratitude for mercies bestowed. If there are those who are ungrateful for mercies and do not give God the glory, it is meet that we, who have a right understanding of things and are jealous of God"s glory, should see that he is not robbed of his sacrifice of praise. Our thanksgiving is to extend far beyond our knowledge. We are to seize the spirit of universality which the apostle here inculcates. "Almighty God, Father of all mercies, we thine unworthy servants do give thee most humble and hearty thanks for all thy goodness and loving-kindness to us and to all men." A requirement for both parts of this priestly work is, that we take pains to acquaint ourselves with the men that dwell on the earth, and with what is taking place among them. A second requirement is that we open our hearts to their needs and mercies. By intelligence and large-heartedness, our work shall answer its end, viz. the calling down of blessing on men.
2. Special teaching. "For kings and all that are in high place; that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and gravity." We are to understand the highest and the subordinate representatives of authority in the state. Our duty branches out in the same way as before.
(1) Prayer for kings and magistrates. We are to pray for them especially in their official capacity, that they may be enabled faithfully to discharge the duties of their office, and to glorify God therein.
(2) Thanksgiving for kings and magistrates. In this land we can give unfeigned thanks to God that we enjoy so largely the blessings of good government. The public recognition of kings and magistrates would be conducive to their leading a tranquil and quiet life. The first word points to the state not using its power against them. The second word points to their not provoking a collision with the state. By the course enjoined, a right impression would go abroad regarding them, that they were not decriers of dignities, secret plotters against the existing form of government. It was good advice which was given to the Jews of the Captivity: "Seek the peace of the city, whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and Tray unto the Lord for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace." So the good advice of the apostle here saved the Christians (in the midst of the Roman empire) from many a false step. They could follow the quiet course in all godliness and gravity. The first word points to the habit of the Christian"s mind, which is that he has a regard to the will of God in all things. The second word points to his having a regard to the propriety of things, which is "the appropriate setting of higher graces and virtues." Not mere policy, but the God-regarding habit, and the sense of propriety, kept the Christians in the quiet course.
3. Motive. "This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior." The intermediate reference is brought in to illustrate the universality of our service for others. This service in its universality is recommended, as having a high excellence in itself. Moreover, it is peculiarly pleasing to God in his character as Savior, which is to be further brought out. Even Rousseau is our teacher of universality. "The good man," he says, "plans his life with a reference to the whole, while the wicked man would gladly order all things with reference to himself. The latter makes himself the center of all things, the other orders all with reference to a common Center, even to God.
II UNIVERSALITY OF THE PURPOSE OF SALVATION. "Who willeth that all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth." It would be making feebleness of the words to suppose the apostle"s idea to be that God is willing that all men should be saved, as it is plainly dogmatic prejudice that accounts for Calvin"s assertion that the apostle is thinking, not of individuals, but of classes of men. It is a great truth, of which we are not to be robbed, that of every man it can be said that God willeth that he should be saved. We are to think of his will as in a state of active volition. It was in this state when, in the depths of eternity, he formed the purpose of our salvation. It is in this state now when, in the pleadings of the exalted Christ, in the workings of the Spirit, in all the dealings of Providence, he is seeking to secure the condition of our salvation, viz. our coming to the knowledge of the truth. We are to understand not mere intellectual knowledge, But experimental knowledge-our laying hold by faith upon our Representative, and coming to know in our experience that there is salvation in him. This his active volition is directed toward all; it cannot Be said that he desires the salvation of one more than of another. He uses means, not towards one here and another there, but towards all alike coming to the knowledge of the truth, and finding ample and everlasting shelter in his love. And if it is so with God, it is made plain as it could not otherwise be, that we are not to narrow down our petitions and thanksgivings (which are expressive of active volition) to a little circle of our own, but are to widen them out even toward all men.
III UNIVERSALITY OF THE DISPENSATION OF SALVATION.
1. Presided over by the one God. "For there is one God." The pagan idea was that there were many gods. There was a god for every nation, a god for every small community, a god for every household. The god so attached was supposed to be devoted to the interests of his devotees, in preference or even in opposition to the interests of all others. What was that but breaking up the race into factions, and under the most powerful example? We have a much nobler conception all men under one God, and not different men under different gods. As we are all under the canopy of heaven, so we are all under the same canopy of the Divine love. "Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also.
The great God that loveth all, Hath made both great and small.
That shuts out all clashing of administration. As all are under the same Divine government, so all are governed on the same impartial, universal principles, and governed toward the one end of their salvation.
2. In the hands of the one Mediator. "One Mediator also between God and men, himself man, Christ Jesus." A mediator is one who acts between two. Christ Jesus is here said to be Mediator between God and man. God, as it were, allows the administration to go out of his hands, but it does not suffer in doing so; for it passes into the hand, not of many mediators with many administrations, but into the hands of one Mediator, by which there is preserved the grand equality and universality of the administration. Christ could mediate on the Divine side, being God himself, thus carrying into the administration the whole mind of him whom he represented. The remarkable thing which alone is noted was that, to mediate on the human side, he became man, being linked not to some men, but to all men; so that his mediation could be in the interest, not of some, but of all. It is matter for solemn thought to every man that Christ is linked to him, and linked to him with a view according to the whole spirit of the administration to his being saved.
IV UNIVERSALITY OF THE RANSOM. "Who gave himself a Ransom for all." If the language had been that Christ gave himself for all, there would not have been excluded the idea of substitution. But emphasis is given to this idea by the word which is translated "ransom." It is literally "loosing-price instead of." It is implied that we were captives, hopelessly bound in the consequences of our sins. Not able to do anything for ourselves, we needed to be indebted to a substitute. The price our Substitute paid as ransom was himself, i.e. his life, which, being the life of him who was God as well as man, was more than equal to the lives of all men together. Such is the way not to be too much literalized in which the truth is conveyed here. The stress of the thought is to be laid on all. Time was when it was considered dangerous to say that Christ died for all. The apostle does not shrink from it, neither here nor where his language is that "Christ tasted death for every man." It adds a deep solemnity to the existence of a man that this price has been paid for him. How shall he get rid of the obligation incurred, unless by doing as the captive does for whose ransom the stipulated money has been paid? As the captive goes forth into the possession of freedom, grateful to his redeemer, so let each of us go forth into the possession of our freedom in Christ, grateful to him as having redeemed us with his blood.
V UNIVERSALITY OF THE TESTIMONY. "The testimony to be borne in its own times." It is generally assumed that the reference is to the universal proclamation of the gospel. But there is this to be considered, that what is to be witnessed to is, that Christ Jesus gave himself a Ransom for all, i.e. all that ever lived, that live now, or shall ever live. And this does not seem to be properly witnessed to or borne out merely by the men of a distant time, or of distant times or ages, all having the knowledge of the gospel. It is better not to fix down the manner of the testimony, but to allow the verse to remain in its own universality, to have its due weight as one of many verses that bear upon the same point. There is suggested not more than suggested some great testimony to the universality of the ransom. We cannot tell what the testimony will be, as it is here, for good reason, not condescended on. It is not borne now, but it is to be borne it may be after long ages yet in its own times.
VI PAUL"S CONTRIBUTION TO THE UNIVERSALITY OF THE TESTIMONY. "Whereunto I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I speak the truth, I lie not), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth." Paul was privileged in his day before the arrival of the times to help forward the demonstration of the universal ransom. For this he was appointed a preacher, literally a herald, i.e. one that cried aloud in the Name of Christ and spared not. He was also appointed to the high office of apostle, with which is connected the double asseveration, "I speak the truth, I lie not." We cannot think of it being made thus strong for the sake of Timothy, but for the sake of some who were to be reached through Timothy. He was further appointed a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. In this he overstepped Jewish limits, and was entering as far as he could into the universality of the gospel. And what he called upon men everywhere to do was to believe, the object of their faith being the truth that Christ died for them and for all. R.F.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain I exhort, therefore, that, first of all, supplications.
1Ti_2:1-2
I exhort, therefore, that, first of all, supplications.
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Prayer for others
The true Christian, however, recognizes in human history the moral government of God, He believes, because God has declared it, that a mysterious but all-wise Providence governs the nations upon the earth; and that Jehovah continually regards the moral qualities of human agencies. He believes that the decay and calamities of successive empires have ever had a close and direct connection with their contempt of virtue and religion.
I. The duty of prayer for others, and more especially for persons in authority, Intercessory prayer is here stated to be a duty; for when the apostle says I exhort, he speaks by Divine command. If we recognize the authority of revelation, we must admit the act of intercession for others to be an act in precise conformity with the revealed will of God. But there are two results of the most beneficial kind which necessarily arise from intercessory prayer.
1. In every case in which we implore God on behalf of others, we recognize Him as the source of power, authority, mercy and grace. The address we make to Him implies our conviction that He is the Preserver and the Benefactor from whom all succour is derived.
2. But prayer forgathers is, besides this, an act of charity. We cannot voluntarily exercise this duty but in the spirit of charity. Prayer for others implies, by its very act, our participation in their wants, our sympathy in their sorrows, our general interest in their welfare.
II. But the nature and importance of this duty will be rendered more evident as we consider the design for which prayer for others is to be offered--that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. There are two ways in which public prayer may be supposed to be the direct channel of benefit to the community.
1. In the first place, there is nothing which so tends to allay irritation, to excite compassion, to restrain envy and revenge, to calm the turbulent passions of every kind, as social prayer. Were large bodies of men honestly and frequently united in prayer to God for a blessing upon the community; were they to connect earthly government with Gods kind purposes to the world of social order and of mutual good will, these united prayers would be found to be the strongest cement of the various parts of the social fabric, by bringing out before the minds of all the highest and the noblest motives by which intelligent beings, and at the same time capable of affection, can be influenced. Imagine the rich unfeignedly imploring Gods blessing upon the poor--and where could be found room for the exercise of injustice and oppression? Imagine the poor praying for the rich--and where would be found room for the exercise of envy, of violence, of revenge, and of robbery? Imagine the rich praying for the rich--and where would be room for the display of rivalry, contention, and selfish ambition? Imagine the poor praying for the poor--how much kindness and mutual affection would be immediately drawn out into active operation! Imagine those in authority imploring God for a blessing on every measure they undertake, and upon all their national policy--and where would be any scope for individual and selfish aggrandizement? where would be any disunion of the interests of the ruler and the ruled? Or imagine the minds of the community united in prayer for those whom God has set over them--and where would be the wish for riot, for outrage, for insubordination, or violence?
2. But a second method in which prayer will powerfully act upon a nation is through the direct blessings which God, the righteous and the Almighty Governor, will certainly bestow. It is evident that God designs to bestow these blessings through this very channel. How easily can He send healthful seasons and external peace! How easily can He enlighten the minds, and prompt the measures of those by whom the affairs of the State are administered! (G. Noel.)
Prayer for those in authority
I. The duty enjoined in the words of our text--namely, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men; for kings, and all that are in authority.
1. The constituent parts of this important duty. The several parts of public worship are comprehended in the text, in what the apostle denominates supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks. By supplications we understand the deprecation of those calamities to which we are exposed in common with all men. The apostle next speaks of prayers--by which we understand petitions--which it is our privilege to present to the throne of the heavenly grace, through Jesus Christ, for the supply of our various wants. The apostle, in connection with prayer, speaks of intercessions--that is, prayer--for others; those petitions which we are called to offer for all sorts and conditions of men, according to their several necessities. To supplications, prayers, and intercessions, the apostle adds giving of thanks, as an expression of our gratitude for all the benefits vouchsafed to us by the great Author of our being.
2. The extent of our Christian obligations in regard to this duty. The apostle teaches us that in our acts of public devotion we are to pray for all men. Here is nothing partial, exclusive, or sectarian. But we are not only taught to pray for all men in general, but for our rulers in particular, whether supreme or subordinate. And as it is the Lord that giveth salvation unto kings, to Him we ought to pray on their behalf, that He may bless them in their royal persons, families, and government. The honour, welfare, and happiness of nations depend much on the wisdom, piety, and government of those who reign. But in praying for all that are in authority, we should not only pray for kings and for ministers, but also for magistrates, who may either be a great blessing or a great curse. It becomes us to pray, from a consideration of the importance of their office.
3. The order in which this is presented by the holy apostle. I exhort, therefore, that, first of all, supplications and prayers be made for all men. This is not a secondary duty, a thing merely optional; no; it is a duty of paramount importance, which ought to take the precedency of every other in the public assemblies of the Church of God. The prayers of the people of God are more to be depended on than all the strength of our fleets or armies.
II. The arguments by which this important duty is enforced.
1. That as professing Christians we may give no just cause of offence to the government under which we live; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty; that we may be preserved from all sedition, privy conspiracy, and rebellion; so live as the gospel may not be blamed; but that we who, by the principles of our Divine religion, are taught to abhor everything that would be injurious to others, conduct ourselves so as to prove that we are the friends of all and the enemies of none. If the State be not in safety, the subjects cannot be secure; self-preservation, therefore, ought to lead men to pray for the government under which they live. The psalmist, a true patriot, inspired with the love of his country, a holy zeal for the glory of God, and an ardent desire for the prosperity of both Church and State, says, when speaking of the people of God, I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. For my brethren and companions sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee. Because of the house of the Lord our God, I will seek thy good. Let us, then, cultivate the spirit of true loyalty, patriotism, and religion, as that which is best calculated to promote our individual interest, the Churchs good, and the commonwealth of the nation.
2. That we may secure the Divine approbation of our conduct, which is done by sincerely, faithfully, and affectionately praying for all men; for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God and our Saviour, and therefore has the highest possible sanction. It is not said that it is good and acceptable in the sight of God to speak evil of dignitaries, by railing against those who are higher in rank, power, or authority than ourselves, whether in Church or State. The evil is prohibited; it is written, thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people; and, therefore, to indulge in it were a crime in the sight of God, as well as contrary to the rules of that society by which many of us profess to be governed, which says, that We shall neither speak evil of magistrates nor of ministers. It is not said that it is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour to treat the office of rightful governors with contempt.
3. That the will of God, in reference to the salvation of our guilty race, may be accomplished. If we ask, what is the will of God our Saviour concerning the human race? we are taught to believe that it is gracious and merciful. He would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. Many have been saved in answer to prayer; and we, have good reason to believe that more would if we had prayed more.
III. The inferences which may be deduced from the subject.
1. That we are not good subjects unless we pray for all our constituted authorities. In early times, the members of the Jewish Church were called to pray for heathen princes, even for those who carried them away captive into Babylon, unto the God of heaven, for the life of the king and of his sons, and in obedience to the command of God Himself, by the prophet Jeremiah, as a means of securing their own interests that ye may be increased therein and not diminished; seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it; for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.
2. If we are not praying subjects, we are not good Christians; for all good Christians are men of prayer, and no Christian can be satisfied with merely praying for himself, his family, or the Church of God.
3. We conclude, from the nature of this duty, that if we are not good Christians we shall never yield a conscientious obedience to the apostolic exhortation recorded in our text. (A. Bell.)
The duty of prayer for all who are in eminent place
I. On the object of government. I leave it to men of another taste and profession to enter minutely into the inferior objects of government, as well as into the means by which those objects may be obtained; and, keeping within the boundary of the text, shall observe that government is intended to promote security, happiness, piety, and religious influence. It has often been stated that a large portion of all codes of law, as of all history, is a proof of human depravity. Men have fallen from God; and, corrupted in their social propensities, they envy, injure, and destroy each other. All communities, therefore, have found it necessary to agree to some restraint, and to lodge in some hands a controlling power; the individual is to be blended with the general good, that the general may return individual advantage. Security, then, is one great object of government. And it is the glory of government to hold the shield over all--to defend the poor, the fatherless, and the widow, as well as the men of might, and the great, and the noble. Now, though under God, mens personal and social happiness greatly depends on their own industry and carefulness, yet has it some connection with the government under which we live. There are numerous ways in which religion and piety may be aided by the men who are in authority, and especially by kings becoming nursing fathers, and their queens nursing mothers. The word we render honesty is of rather questionable meaning; some translate it gravity; its general import is to behave decorously and worthily. As connected with godliness, it implies a desire that Christians may be allowed to conduct religious worship, and the whole of their profession, in a way suitable to religion itself; and that, being delivered from the evils of persecution, they may be exempt from temptation to act inconsistently with their high vocation. The gravity and dignity here mentioned convey, however, to me the idea of Christian influence--influence of character, of benevolent exertion.
II. The best way of securing this object. There are numerous ways in which some good may be done, and in which, therefore, it is our duty to act. Home, and its immediate vicinity, and the nearest relations, are the great sphere of our influence; and here the Christian must act in promoting the morals, the intelligence, and the spirituality of all around him. The Christian, too, has political privileges; and in votes, and in petitions, and in every peaceful and constitutional way, it is his duty to act for the public good in the fear of the Lord. The laws, too, must be supported in their majesty by all--even by the humblest in society; as, without the countenance of the many, the few who have to enforce them, however elevated their rank and unbroken their integrity, will be too feeble, and the object of government will not be obtained. Nor must it be forgotten that well-directed charity is a most efficient way of promoting the security and happiness, as well as the godliness, of the community. The way, however, of securing this object marked out in the text is prayer. I attach importance to prayer, for the following reasons:--
1. God generally deals with nations according to their moral character and piety. From the times in which the Assyrian, the Persian, the Grecian, the Roman Powers were punished, to the days of revolutionary and sanguinary France, Providence has preached this awful doctrine. Hear Isaiah: If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land.
2. That a nations morals and piety will be in the degree of its prayerfulness.
3. I urge prayer, because the hearts of kings, and of nobles, and of senators--of all in authority--are at the disposal of Him who hears His people when they call. He can turn the counsel of Ahithophel into foolishness; He bringeth to nothing the devices of the wise; He inspired Solomon with wisdom; by Him kings reign and princes decree righteousness.
III. Our present inducement to seek this object in this way especially.
1. You will see the necessity of prayer for the nation when I remind you of the hazard which always attends measures which have not been tried.
2. You will see the necessity of prayer for the nation when I remind you of the important business which its parliament has to transact.
3. The delicate position of the nations, and our connection with them, will further show the need of grace to enlighten all who take a lead in our public affairs.
4. There is another reason why, at this time, we should be earnest in prayer of a more religious kind--viz., the near approach of the latter-day glory in the Church. (J. K. Foster.)
On intercession for others
I am led by these words to consider the great Christian duty of praying for others. Perhaps there is none more neglected, with so little consciousness of sin in the omission of it. It is enforced by the example of the most eminent saints. Thus Abraham interceded with God for Sodom; and He said, in answer to his prayer, I will not destroy it for tens sake. Moses, the illustrious type of the great Intercessor, prayed for the people; and we learn that God would have destroyed the Israelites had not Moses His chosen stood in the gap: I prayed, saith he, unto the Lord, and said, O Lord God, destroy not Thy people and Thine inheritance, which Thou hast redeemed through Thy greatness. God forbid, said Samuel, that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you. The Psalmist exhorts to pray for the peace of Jerusalem, They shall prosper that love thee Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces. Isaiah expresses his determination not to hold his peace for Zions sake and for Jerusalem not to rest until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. Daniel humbled himself before God day and night, and fasted and prayed for the sins of the Jews. I would not, however, enforce this duty merely, or chiefly, because it is enjoined to us by thee precepts and recommended to us by the practice of patriarchs, judges, psalmists, prophets, and apostles, and of Him who is in all respects our great Example: it is rather because this duty is included within the general obligation of Christian love, of which it forms an essential part. Leaving, therefore, the question of the duty of intercession, I proceed to consider its advantages.
I. Intercession for others may be considered as the means of exciting benevolent affections in ourselves. Ask me, What is the glory of an angel above a devil? I answer, It is the spirit of love which animates the one, of which the other is destitute. It is not the absence of external splendour, it is not the suffering and misery, it is the want of benevolence, by which a fallen spirit is degraded, and which makes him odious. Ask me, What is the peculiar glory of the gospel above every other religion? I reply, It is the spirit of love which breathes in it. The providence of God seems purposely to have placed the Christian in a scene where the exercise of love is needed, and his benevolent affections continually called forth; where wants and miseries present themselves on every side amongst his fellow-creatures and his friends. What can he do for them? His own means are insufficient to relieve them; but he can pray; he can implore God to supply what he cannot do. Have you a dear relation sick or afflicted? Are you indebted to a generous benefactor to whom you cannot repay the debt of gratitude? O what a just and noble return may you render him by your prayers!
II. Intercession for others will also produce the spirit of love in those for whom we pray. Love creates love. You cannot meet your friend after your heart has been engaged in fervent supplication for him, without expressing that genuine tenderness which will produce a reciprocal regard in him. Intercession enlarges the exercise of friendship: it opens a new source of love. Let not a Christian say, I am forsaken--I meet with no acts of kindness. Has he then no Christian friends? Let him think of them as interceding for him. Intercession for our friends refines our friendship and redeems it from those debasing feelings by which the attachments of worldly men are so often degraded.
III. The third advantage on intercession foe our friends consists in its exciting our love towards God. This is its direct influence. Can you go to the Father of Mercies day by day imploring blessings upon all you love? can you diversify these petitions, adapting them to the various necessities, sorrows, and circumstances of your friends? and do you not exclaim, How infinite the riches, how boundless the power, how vast the bounty of the Being I address? He is the Giver of all good things to my children, to my friend, to my neighbour, to my country, to the whole world, to the universe!
IV. The last advantage which i shall mention in intercession for our friends is that it is the direct means of promoting their welfare. Why, when He intends to bless, may He not do so through the medium of prayer and intercession? Can anything be more consonant to the general analogy and constitution of the world? Even the great benefits of redemption are conveyed to us through the intercession of the Redeemer. What an example did He exhibit of the performance of this duty!
V. Let us learn who has been our truest friend, to whom we have been most indebted. Think often of Him who has laboured the most for your welfare, who has most watched over your soul, and prayed the most effectually for you. Think of Him who now liveth to make intercession for you. That Friend is Christ. (J. Venn.)
Gordon and intercessory prayer
Canon Wilberforce told the following characteristic incident about General Gordon:--Just before General Gordon started, as he believed for the Congo, he sent to a prayer-meeting over which the Canon was presiding, asking for the prayers of those assembled. He said in his letter, I would rather have the prayers of that little company gathered in your house to-day than I would have the wealth of the Soudan placed at my disposal. Pray for me that I may have humility and the guidance of God, and that all spirit of murmuring may be rebuked in me, When he reached London on his return from Brussels, and his destination was changed, the General sent the Canon another message, Offer thanks at your next prayer-meeting. When I was upborne on the hearts of those Christians I received from God the spiritual blessing that I wanted, and I am now calmly resting in the current of His will.
Pray for those in authority
When Abraham Lincoln was going from Springfield to Washington he stood upon the platform of the car, and his old friends and neighbours were gathered round him to wish him an affectionate God-speed in the course upon which he was entering. He had come to rule and reign in times of difficulty and trouble, and he said, Well, friends and neighbours, there is one thing you can do for me that I ask you to do, and that is--pray for me, and the train went off, bearing him to Washington. That is the spirit that one would desire to see amongst those who are in authority and influence, and it is the spirit that we well may cultivate towards those in authority over us.
Prayer for those in authority
Methodism in Ireland was, at the time of its union with England, looked upon with suspicion, and this was especially the case during the time of the rebellion. Lord Cornwallis happened to spend a few days with Speaker Foster. At that time Mr. Barber was stationed in that circuit as the minister. He and Mr. Fosters gardener, who was also a Methodist, were walking in Speaker Fosters grounds one day, when Barber, who was instant in season and out of season, asked the gardener to engage in prayer. They both knelt down, and Barber was praying aloud, when Lord Cornwallis and Speaker Foster, who were out walking, heard voices, drew near, and listened. Among the requests made to God were appeals for assistance to the Government, who were placed in such trying circumstances, and that God would bless and direct the counsels of the Lord-Lieutenant--Lord Cornwallis. Barber in his prayer breathed the deepest loyal devotion, and concluded by imploring a blessing upon the Methodists, and that they should be saved from the devil and Squire Ruxton of Ardee. Who is this squire? asked Lord Cornwallis, and Mr. Foster replied that he was a neighbouring squire, who persecuted the Methodists. And what does this praying mean? asked Lord Cornwallis. Oh, replied Mr. Foster, this gardener of mine is one of those Methodist fellows, and I must dismiss him. You will do no such thing, said the other. Did you hear how he prayed for me, for the Council, for the King, and for the Government? Indeed, these Methodists must be a loyal people; and as for Squire Ruxton, just take my compliments to him, and tell him that I think these Methodists are very good people, and that he must leave them alone. That prayer of poor Barbers put a stop to the worst persecution ever endured in that neighbourhood, and, while passes were required of others, free permission was given to the Methodist preacher to go where he liked and do what he liked.
Prayer for rulers
I. We ought to pray for those who are in authority more frequently and earnestly than for other men, because they more than other men need our prayers. In other words, they need a more than ordinary share of that wisdom and grace which God alone can bestow; and which He seldom or never bestows, except in answer to prayer.
1. This is evident from the fact that they have a more than ordinary share of duties to perform. All the duties which God requires of other men, considered as sinful, immortal, and accountable creatures, He requires of rulers. It is incumbent on them, as it is on other men, to possess personal religion; to exercise repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; to love and fear and serve their Creator; and to prepare for death and judgment. In addition to the various personal duties of a moral and religious nature which are required of them as men, they have many official duties which are peculiar to themselves--duties which it is by no means easy to perform in a manner acceptable to God and approved of men.
2. They are appointed and they are required to be ministers of God for good to those over whom they are placed. There is no power but of God; the powers that be are ordained of God. Since, then, legislators, rulers, and magistrates are the ministers and vicegerents of God for good, they are sacredly bound to imitate Him whom they represent; to be such on earth as He is in heaven; to fake care of His rights and see that they are not trampled upon with impunity; to be a terror to evil-doers and a praise and encouragement to such as do well.
3. As the influence of their example must be great, it is their indispensable duty to take care that this influence be ever exerted in favour of truth and goodness; and to remember that they are like a city set upon a hill which cannot be hid. Now consider a moment how exceedingly difficult it must be for a weak, short-sighted, imperfect creature like man to perform these various duties in a proper manner, and how large a share of prudence and wisdom and firmness and goodness is necessary to enable him to do it. Surely, then, they who are called to perform such duties in a peculiar manner need our prayers.
II. Those who are invested with authority need more than other men our prayers, because they are exposed more than other men to temptation and danger. While they have a more than ordinary share of duties to perform, they are urged by temptations more than ordinarily numerous and powerful to neglect their duty. They have, for instance, peculiarly strong temptations to neglect those personal, private duties which God requires of them as men, as immortal and accountable creatures; and a performance of which is indispensably necessary to their salvation. They are exposed to the innumerable temptations and dangers which ever attend prosperity. How powerfully, then, must they be tempted to irreligion, to pride, to ambition, to every form of what the Scriptures call worldly-mindedness? It can scarcely be necessary to add that persons who are exposed to temptations so numerous and powerful need our prayers.
III. This will appear still more evident if we consider that, should those who are clothed with authority yield to these temptations and neglect either their personal or official duties, the consequences will to thee be peculiarly dreadful. They will, like Jeroboam, make their people to sin. We are informed by an inspired writer that one sinner destroyeth much good. This remark is true of every sinner, but it is most emphatically true of sinners who are placed in authority.
IV. We ought to pray with peculiar earnestness for all who are in authority, because our own interest and the great interests of the community require it. This motive the apostle urges in our text. Pray, says he, for all in authority, that we may lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty. These expressions plainly intimate that if we wish to enjoy peace and quiet--if we wish godliness and honesty, or, in other words, religion and morality, to prevail among us, we must pray for our rulers. Farther, the peace and prosperity of a nation evidently depend much upon the measures which its rulers adopt in their intercourse with other nations. Once more, the peace and prosperity of a nation depends entirely on securing the favour of God. (E. Payson.)
Christians exhorted to pray for the Queen and Parliament
I. In the first place, with respect to the duty itself.
1. The nature of it stands very distinctly expressed and announced in the text. Observe, however, that you are not to suppose from this, that kings, princes and senators, and all that are in authority, are always to be considered as ungodly, unconverted men; not, it may be, a part of Gods Church themselves.
2. As to the external circumstances, in which the duty is contemplated as being discharged, I would just remark that the apostle is giving direction to Timothy for regulating the actings and order of the Church as a society; and is, therefore, in the text, more especially contemplating the Church as such.
3. The internal feeling and state of mind with which the duty is to be discharged. There is emphatically demanded from us, in this duty, earnestness and warmth, sincerity and faith. Try to call into exercise a calm, resolute, honest sentiment of hearty faith in this agency which you exercise.
4. And consider, again, that in relation to this duty, every heart and every lip has its importance. It is the sum and amount of faith in the mass of the people, which is represented in the Scripture as prevailing with God.
II. To mention some considerations, which should be felt to enforce and urge upon us its discharge.
1. In the first place, to go to the highest at once, we have the Divine command as it stands in the text, and as that text is corroborated and sustained by other passages of the Divine Word. The will of God is the supreme source of moral obligation.
2. A consideration enforcing the discharge of this duty on Christians arises from the fact, that the possession of any power whatever involves an obligation to its proper and efficient employment. If, therefore, it be true that Christian men are contemplated as having the privilege of offering intercession for others, if they are possessed of this amazing power of presenting supplications which shall actually exercise a real agency with God and a beneficial influence upon man, the very possession of that power, that spiritual function, involves an obligation to its conscientious exercise.
3. But we go on to observe that there are these special considerations. You may put them to yourselves in some such way as this. The important position and aspect which these parties sustain in relation to Gods government of the world. For kings and rulers, and men in authority, are represented as Gods ministers. Because of this, we are called upon, both for their sake and our own, to commend them to God, that they may indeed be His ministers, by intelligently falling in with His will, and seeking voluntarily to accomplish His purposes.
4. Another consideration is the influence which the character, conduct, and determinations of those in authority must have upon the rest of mankind for evil or for good.
5. Another consideration which specially commends persons in authority to the intercessions of Gods Church, is the view which Christians may perhaps feel themselves compelled to take of their condition and character. It may be, that Christians may be compelled to feel that a king is necessarily surrounded by circumstances dangerous to his religion, perilous to his soul. It may be, that Christians may think that the circumstances connected with distinguished rank are unfavourable to the proper exercise and culture of those principles and sentiments, which it becomes man as a sinner to entertain, and therefore to that state of mind which is a necessary preparation for the reception of the Gospel of God. It may be, that Christians may sometimes be compelled to think that persons in these high stations are not surrounded by the best, the most enlightened and scriptural, spiritual guides.
III. Concluding observations. I think this subject should be felt to present to us the primitive Church in an interesting aspect, and in various ways to illustrate the greatness of our religion. This little society of Christian men--despised, persecuted, contemned--they had prayers for their persecutors; they had love for them. Let me observe, that the important Christian duty which I have been enforcing upon you tonight, must not be made a substitute for all other duties, which as Christian Englishmen you are called to perform. By being Christians, you ceased not to be citizens; as citizens, all your political duties remain the same; the only thing is, that you are to discharge them under religious motives, and with a conscientious desire in them to be accepted of God, whether or not you are approved of men. (T. Binney.)
Prayer for kings
I. The apostle exhorteth christians to pray for kings with all sorts of prayer; with δεήσεις, or deprecations, for averting evils from them; with προσευχαὶ, or petitions, for obtaining good things to them; with προσευχαὶ, or occasional intercessions, for needful gifts and graces to be collated on them.
1. Common charity should dispose us to pray for kings.
2. To impress which consideration, we may reflect that commonly we have only this way granted us of exercising our charity toward princes; they being situated aloft above the reach of private beneficence.
3. We are bound to pray for kings out of charity to the public; because their good is a general good, and the communities of men (both Church and State) are greatly concerned in the blessings by prayer derived on them. The prosperity of a prince is inseparable from the prosperity of his people; they ever partaking of his fortunes, and thriving or suffering with him. For as when the sun shineth brightly, there is a clear day, and fair weather over the world; so when a prince is not overclouded with adversity or disastrous occurrences, the public state must be serene, and a pleasant state of things will appear. Then is the ship in a good condition when, the pilot in open sea, with full sails and a brisk gale, cheerfully steereth on toward his designed port. Especially the piety and goodness of a prince is of vast consequence, and yieldeth infinite benefit to his country. So, for instance, how did piety flourish in the times of David, who loved, favoured, and practised it! and what abundance of prosperity did attend it! What showers of blessings (what peace, what wealth, what credit and glory) did God then pour down on Israel! How did the goodness of that prince transmit favours and mercies on his country till a long time after his decease! How often did God profess for His servant Davids sake to preserve Judah from destruction; so that even in the days of Hezekiah, when the king of Assyria did invade that country, God by the mouth of Isaiah declared, I will defend this city to save it for Mine own sake, and for My servant Davids sake. We may indeed observe that, according to the representation of things in Holy Scripture, there is a kind of moral connection, or a communication of merit and guilt, between prince and people; so that mutually each of them is rewarded for the virtues, each is punished for the vices of the other.
4. Wherefore consequently our own interest and charity to ourselves should dispose us to pray for our prince. We being nearly concerned in his welfare, as parts of the public, and as enjoying many private advantages thereby; we cannot but partake of His good, we cannot but suffer with him. We cannot live quietly if our prince is disturbed; we cannot live happily if he be unfortunate; we can hardly live virtuously if Divine grace do not incline him to favour us therein, or at least restrain him from hindering us.
5. Let us consider that subjects are obliged in gratitude and ingenuity, yea in equity and justice, to pray for their princes. They are most nearly related to us, and allied by the most sacred bands; being constituted by God, in his own room, the parents and guardians of their country. To their industry and vigilancy under God we owe the fair administration of justice, the protection of right and innocence, the preservation of order and peace, the encouragement of goodness, and correction of wickedness.
6. Whereas we are by Divine command frequently enjoined to fear and reverence, to honour, to obey kings; we should look on prayer for them as a principal branch, and the neglect thereof as a notable breach of those duties.
7. The praying for princes is a service peculiarly honourable, and very acceptable to God; which He will interpret as a great respect done to Himself; for that thereby we honour His image and character in them, yielding in His presence this special respect to them as His representatives.
8. Let us consider that whereas wisdom, guiding our piety and charity, will especially incline us to place our devotion there where it will be most needful and useful; we therefore chiefly must pray for kings because they do most need our prayers.
II. The other (thanksgiving) i shall but touch, and need not perhaps to do more. For--
1. As to general inducements, they are the same, or very like to those which are for prayer; it being plain that whatever we are concerned to pray for, when we want it, that we are bound to thank God for, when He vouchsafeth to bestow it.
2. As for particular motives, suiting the present occasion, you cannot be ignorant or insensible of the grand benefits by the Divine goodness bestowed on our king, and on ourselves, which this day we are bound with all grateful acknowledgment to commemorate. (I. Barrow.)
The duty of public intercession and thanksgiving for princes
I. It recommends a great duty to us, the duty of making supplications, prayers, and intercessions, and of giving thanks for kings, and all that are in authority.
II. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour.
1. Our applications to God in behalf of the princes and rulers of this world are highly reasonable, as they are proper expressions of our good-will to mankind, whose fate is in their hands, and whose welfare in great measure depends upon their actions and conduct.
2. As the virtues and vices of those who govern, operate on all inferior ranks of men in the way of natural causes, so have they another and a more extraordinary effect; inasmuch as God doth often take occasion to reward or punish a people, not only by the means of good or ill princes, but even for the sake of them.
3. The cares of empire are great, and the burthen which lies upon the shoulders of princes very weighty; and on this account, therefore, they challenge, because they particularly want our prayers, that they may have an understanding heart to discern between good and bad, and to go out and in before a great people. With what difficulties is their administration often clogged by the perverseness, folly, or wickedness of those they govern! How hard a thing do they find it to inform themselves truly of the state of affairs; where fraud and flattery surround and take such pains to mislead them!
4. That the providence of God doth, in a very particular manner, interpose towards swaying the will and affections, directing, or overruling the intentions of those who sit at the helm; for the kings heart is in the hand of God, as the rivers of waters; He turneth it whithersoever He listeth (Pro_21:1). He gives a bent to it this way or that, which it takes as certainly and easily as a stream is derived into the channels, which the hand of the workman prepares for it. These prayers are never so becomingly and forcibly addressed to God as in the great congregation. Blessings of a public nature and influence require as public and solemn acknowledgments; and the proper way of obtaining mercies, which affect many, is by pouring out the joint requests of many in behalf of them; for in the spiritual, as well as the carnal warfare, numbers are most likely to prevail.
III. I proceed to consider the special motive there proposed, to quicken us into the exercise of it, that so we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. I shall briefly show in what respects the devotions recommended by the apostle contribute to this end; and how far, therefore, our own ease, advantage, and happiness are concerned in paying them. And--
1. They have a plain tendency this way, as they are a prevailing argument with God so to dispose and incline the minds of princes that they may study to promote the quiet, good, and prosperity of their kingdoms.
2. Such prayers facilitate our leading a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty; inasmuch as they express, in the most significant manner, our love, and zeal, and reverence towards the persons of princes; and by such instances of duty invite them to make us suitable returns. They effectually prevent those jealousies, which men clothed with sovereign power are too apt to entertain of their inferiors, and promote that good understanding between them, which is the common interest, and should be the common aim of both, and wherein the security and happiness of all well-ordered states chiefly consist.
3. A quiet and peaceable life is the fruit of these public devotions, as we ourselves derive from thence a spirit of meekness, submission, and respect to our superiors, and are led into an habitual love and practice of those mild graces and virtues which we, at such times, solemnly exercise and pray God to inspire us with; and which, when generally practised, make crowns sit easy on the heads of princes, and render them and their subjects equally a blessing to each other.
IV. Press on Christians this duty.
1. The princes for whom the apostle pleads were infidels, without Christ, aliens from His commonwealth and strangers from the covenants of His promise (Eph_2:12); and such also they were, by the permission of God, to continue for three hundred years after the coming of our Saviour, that so His gospel might not owe its first establishment, in any degree, to the secular powers, but might spread and fix itself everywhere without their help and against their will, and manifest to all the world its Divine original by the miraculous manner in which it should be propagated. If then the tribute of supplications and thanksgivings was due to those heathen princes, is it not much more due to those who are Christians, who are ingrafted as principal members into that mystical body, of which Jesus Christ is the head?
2. That the Roman emperors, for whom the apostle here directs that prayers should be made, were usurpers and tyrants, who acquired dominion by invading the liberties of a free people, and were arbitrary and lawless in the exercise of it. Their will and pleasure was the sole standard of justice; fear was the foundation of their government, and their throne was upheld only by the legions which surrounded it. Even for such rulers the first Christians were exhorted to supplicate and give thanks. How much more reasonably and cheerfully do we, who are met here this day, now offer up that sacrifice for a Queen, who wears the crown of her forefathers, to which she is entitled by blood, and which was placed on her royal head, not only with the free consent but with the universal joy and acclamations of her subjects.
3. Those who governed the world at or near the time of St. Pauls writing this epistle, had no personal merits or virtues to recommend them to the prayers of the faithful. Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero, under whom the Christian faith was disseminated, and for all whom, we may presume, the faithful equally made their supplications were not only bad princes but bad men, infamous for their lust, cruelty, and other vices; but they were in authority, and that gave them a right to be mentioned in the sacred offices of the Church. How different from their case is ours, whose eyes behold on the throne a Queen who deserves to sit there, as well by her virtue as by her birth.
4. The emperors of Rome, for whom the primitive Christians were obliged to pray and to give thanks, were their avowed enemies and persecutors, who did what they could to hinder the establishment of the Church of Christ, and to suppress those very assemblies wherein these devotions were offered up to God in their behalf. Whereas she, for whom we now adore and bless the good providence of God, is, by her office and by her inclination the defender and friend, the patroness and nursing-mother of His Church established among us. (F. Atterbury, D. D.)
Prayer for others
This stands out in the history of Paul more eminently than in that of any of the other apostles. He ceases not to make mention of others in his prayers. We may well suppose that that which was manifest in the example of the Lord, and that which the disciples, doubtless, took from His example, was eminently acceptable before God.
1. A habit of praying for others, keeps our minds on a higher plane than does always thinking about our own selves. Praying for others increases in you those compassions and kindnesses toward men which society needs in every part. There is yet much rude and savage nature left among men. There is much of the forest and the wilderness left in society. We speak of them as the mass, the rabble, or the common people. We think of them as we do of flocks of birds, without individualizing them; without specializing their wants, and temptations, and trials; without bringing ourselves into personal relations with them. They are mere animated facts before us. It is a bad thing for men to live, and grow up, and call themselves Christians, and form the habit of looking at the great mass of men and seeing nothing in them but their physical constitution and external relations. And the habit of praying for men brings back the manhood to your thought, and sympathy, and heart in such a way as to lead you to imagine their history, and to feel for them with a true-hearted interest. As we look at men without individualizing them, we are apt to think of them as so many forces without attributes. We see them working, delving, earning, achieving. They are to us very much like rains, like winds, like laws of nature. And the sight is a bad one because it hardens the heart. It is dangerous to look upon the weak side of men. Anything is dangerous to your manhood which takes your sympathy away from your fellow-men, and makes your heart hard toward them. What we need is to have such sympathy with men that every day we shall carry their cases before God, and look at their vulgarities in the light of Gods pity, and not in the light of our own contempt and cynical criticism.
2. The habit of praying for men tends, also, to increase our patience and our tender helpfulness towards them, and prepares us for just thoughts concerning them. There is many a man who would not smite his neighbour with his fist, but who smites him unmercifully with his thoughts. There is many a man who would not pierce a fellow man with an instrument in his hand for all the world, but who does not hesitate to pierce him and wound him to the very quick with his thoughts. In the court-room of our own secret souls, we condemn men unheard. We argue their case, and they have no chance to make plea in return. And if we are Christian men, we shall see to it that that inside, silent hall of judgment, the soul, is regulated according to the most scrupulous honour, and conscience, and manhood, and sympathy.
Nor do I know of any other way in which this can be so well done as by the habit of praying for others. Having, then, considered the duty, more particularly, of praying for all men, let us specialize.
1. We naturally pray for our children first. We remember them in our family prayer. And how much better it is, in praying for them, to follow out the line of their disposition, and, as it were, to bathe our affection for them in the heavenly atmosphere! How much more beautiful they will be to us!
2. Then I think we ought to pray for our associates and our friends, not in the general way alone. General good wishes are not without their use; but special prayers are needful. I do not think that we sufficiently search out and know our friends. We are to pray for all that are despised. It is wholesome that from day to day we should send our mercies out, as it were. It is wholesome that we should have something to compare our lot with. As sweet is better to our taste when we have taken something sour, so joy is better for having the touch of sorrow near to it.
3. We are to pray for all those who are in peril and distress; for all those who are shut up in various ways. Prayer for such people keeps alive pity. It deepens humanity.
4. Then we are to pray for our enemies. That duty is made special. It is made one of the fundamental evidences of the relationship of God Himself. Once more.
5. We cannot fulfil the spirit nor the letter of this command if we pray only for our own sect. (H. W. Beecher.)
Praying for others
The ties which bind Christians to one another are at once so subtle and so real, that it is impossible for one Christian to remain unaffected by the progress or retrogression of any other. Therefore, not only does the law of Christian charity require us to aid all our fellow-Christians by praying for them, but the law of self-interest leads us to do so also; for their advance will assuredly help us forward, and their relapse will assuredly keep us back. (A. Plummer, D. D.)
Aspects of the times; or, what the Church has to say of earthly governments
I. Government is of God. It has its germ and root in the fatherly relationship. The early patriarch was monarch of his own house, lord of his own castle and flocks, and of the keeper thereof.
II. Government as of God is to be obeyed. Conscience, which binds us by direct ties to the throne of God, must, of course, always be obeyed.
III. Government as of God is to occupy a foremost place in our petitions. First of all--too often, indeed, it is last of all, and sometimes seldom at all.
IV. Government blessed by God will thus ensure the weal of man. (W. M. Statham.)
Intercessory prayer
Prayer is a first necessity of the Christian life. Without it we are like soldiers in the arid desert, who grow more and more weary as they think of distant wells separated from them by relentless foes, and we are ready to exclaim, My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God. As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God. When we pray we become conscious of the reality of unseen things until they completely outweigh in importance worldly affairs, and then it becomes possible to us, and even natural to us, to live as strangers and pilgrims. The connection with what precedes is tolerably clear. Timothy had been exhorted to wage a good warfare on behalf of the truth, but prayer for himself and others was essential to victory, because it alone would bring into the field of conflict the unseen powers of heaven. Even the Pagan Greeks were said to be inspired in their fight against the Trojans by the thought that the gods were with them; but theirs was only dim and superstitious remembrance of the truth that heaven fights for those who pray--as Elisha found when the Syrians encircled the city. Prayer offered by the church in Ephesus in Rome, in Jerusalem, received answers in the spiritual victories of believers, and in the effects produced through their witness-bearing upon the hearts of the people.
I. The variety of prayer is indicated by the use of these differing phrases, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks. We may think of these phrases separately in order to get a clearer notion of the meaning of each; but one shades off into another; and you can no more exactly define each than you can say of the colours of a sea at sunset, the blue begins just here, and the glow of crimson and the sheen of the gold just there. The more you pray the more you will discover the variety of soul-utterances to God; the calm contemplation; the agonizing supplication; the childlike talk with the heavenly. Father; and the seraphic praisefulness. These are only known through experience. When the untaught, unmusical lad takes up a violin, it is as much as he can do to produce one steady tone, but in the trained hands of the accomplished musician that same instrument wails, and pleads, and sings. Much more varied are the utterances of the human soul, when a full answer is given to the prayer of the disciples, Lord, teach us to pray.
II. The subjects of prayer specially referred to in this passage are not the necessities of the saints themselves, but the wants of other men, and especially of all those who had authority and who exercised influence over society. Listen to what Tertullian says in his apology respecting the practice of these early Christians. We Christians, looking up to heaven with outspread hands, because they are free from stain; with uncovered heads, because there is nothing to make us blush; without a prompter, because we pray from our hearts; do intercede for all emperors, that their lives may be prolonged, their government be secured to them, that their families may be preserved in safety, their senates faithful to them, their armies brave, the people honest, and the whole empire at peace, and for whatever other things are desired by the people or the Caesar. If that was the custom under heathen rule, how much more is it our duty under a Christian government! Therefore let us pray that our national affairs may be guided with wisdom; that amidst the tortuous channels of foreign policy, where so many cross currents and hidden rocks abound, the ship of state may be firmly anal safely steered; that questions likely to provoke anger and suspicion may be settled on fair principles of justice; and that in all home legislation inequalities and injustices of every kind may be swept away, the needs of a chronic pauperism met, temptations to drunkenness and profligacy lessened where they cannot be removed; and thus God, even our own God, will bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him. We may fairly widen the application of these words still further. Some of our truest kings are uncrowned. A man who directs and rules the thought of a nation has more power than one who gives expression to it; and we have seen instances in which a man has lost far more than he has gained by exchanging the position of an editor for that of a legislator.
III. The issue of such prayers is thus described--That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, in all godliness and honesty, or rather in all godliness and gravity, as those who are not perturbed by earthly strifes, but see in the state of society around them the germs of the righteousness and peace which are of heaven.
IV. The acceptability of such prayers in the sight of God is expressly asserted. (A. Rowland, LL. B.)
Kings over-ruled by God
And how many instances do we find in Scripture history, and in ancient and modern history, in which God has over-ruled the counsels of kings for the welfare of his Church! See how the heart of one Pharaoh was turned towards Joseph; how the madness and stoutheartedness of another issued in his own ruin and in the glory of God how Nebuchadnezzar and Darius, and even the wicked Belshazzar, all advanced the holy Daniel in the kingdom; how Cyrus and other Persian monarchs assisted in rearing the temple of the God of Israel; how Constantine was brought to acknowledge the true God; and how, in the days of our own glorious Reformation a wicked and ungodly king was yet made an instrument in Gods hand of conferring the most unspeakable blessings on our land and on the world. (H. W. Sheppard.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain Chapter 8
Chapter 8
ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP; INTERCESSORY PRAYER AND THANKSGIVING-THE SOLIDARITY OF CHRISTENDOM AND OF THE HUMAN RACE. - 1Ti_2:1
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THE first chapter of the Epistle is more or less introductory. It repeats what St. Paul had already said to his beloved disciple by word of mouth, on the subject of Christian doctrine, and the necessity of keeping it pure. It makes a digression respecting the Apostles own conversion. It reminds Timothy of the hopeful prophecies uttered over him at his ordination; and it points out the terrible consequences of driving conscience from the helm and placing oneself in antagonism to the Almighty. In this second chapter St. Paul goes on to mention in order the subjects which led to the writing of the letter; and the very first exhortation which he has to give is that respecting Christian worship and the duty of intercessory prayer and thanksgiving.
There are two things very worthy of remark in the treatment of the subject of worship in the Pastoral Epistles. First, these letters bring before us a more developed form of worship than we find indicated in the earlier writings of St. Paul. It is still very primitive, but it has grown. And this is exactly what we ought to expect, especially when we remember how rapidly the Christian Church developed its powers during the first century and a half. Secondly, the indications of this more developed form of worship occur only in the letters to Timothy, which deal with the condition of things in the Church of Ephesus, a Church which had already been founded for a considerable time, and was in a comparatively advanced stage of organization. Hence we are not surprised to find in these two Epistles fragments of what appear to be primitive liturgical forms. In the first Epistle we have two grand doxologies, which may be the outcome of the Apostles devotion at the moment, but are quite as likely to be quotations of formulas well known to Timothy. {1Ti_1:17; 1Ti_6:15-16} Between these two we have what looks like a portion of a hymn in praise of Jesus Christ, suitable for singing antiphonally (1Ti_3:16; comp. Pliny, "Epp." 10:96): and also what may be a baptismal exhortation. {1Ti_6:12} In the Second Epistle we have traces of another liturgical formula. {2Ti_2:11-13}
St. Paul of course does not mean, as the A.V. might lead us to suppose, that in all Christian worship intercession ought to come first; still less that intercession is the first duty of a Christian. But he does place it first among those subjects about which he has to give directions in this Epistle. He makes sure that it shall not be forgotten by himself in writing to his delegate at Ephesus; and he wishes to make sure that it shall not be forgotten by Timothy in his ministration. To offer prayers and thanksgivings on behalf of all men is a duty of such high importance that the Apostle places it first among the topics of his pastoral charge.
Was it a duty which Timothy and the congregation committed to his care had been neglecting, or were in serious danger of neglecting? It may well have been so. In the difficulties of the overseers own personal position, and in the varied dangers to which his little flock were so unceasingly exposed, the claims of others upon their united prayer and praise may sometimes have been forgotten. When the Apostle had left Timothy to take his place for a time in Ephesus he had hoped to return very soon, and consequently had given him only brief and somewhat hasty directions as to his course of action during his absence. He had been prevented from returning; and there was a probability that Timothy would have to be his representative for an indefinite period. Meanwhile the difficulties of Timothys position had not diminished. Many of his flock were much older men than himself, and some of them had been elders in the Church of Ephesus long before the Apostles beloved disciple was placed in charge of them. Some of the leaders in the congregation had become tainted with the Gnostic errors with which the intellectual atmosphere of Ephesus was charged, and were endeavoring to make compromise and confusion between heathen lawlessness and Christian liberty. Besides which, there was the bitter hostility of the Jews, who regarded both Paul and Timothy as renegades from the faith of their ancestors, and who never lost an opportunity of thwarting and reviling them. Above all there was the ever-present danger of heathenism, which confronted the Christians every time they left the shelter of their own houses. In the city which counted it as its chief glory that it was the "Temple-keeper of the great Artemis," {Act_19:35} every street through which the Christians walked, and every heathen house which they entered, was full of pagan abominations; to say nothing of the magnificent temples, beautiful groves, and seductive idolatrous rites, which were among the main features that attracted such motley crowds to Ephesus. Amid difficulties and perils such as these, it would not be wonderful if Timothy and those committed to his care had been somewhat oblivious of the fact that "behind the mountains also there are people"; that beyond the narrow limits of their contracted horizon there were interests as weighty as their own-Christians who were as dear to God as themselves, whose needs were as great as their own, and to whom the Lord had been equally gracious; and moreover countless hosts of heathen, who also were Gods children, needing His help and receiving His blessings; for all of whom, as well as for themselves, the Church in Ephesus was bound to offer prayer and thanksgiving.
But there is no need to assume that Timothy, and those committed to his care, had been specially neglectful of this duty. To keep clearly in view our responsibilities towards the whole human race, or even towards the whole Church, is so difficult a thing for all of us, that the prominent place which St. Paul gives to the obligation to offer prayers and thanksgivings for all men is quite intelligible, without the supposition that the disciple whom he addresses was more in need of such a charge than other ministers in the Churches under St. Pauls care.
The Apostle uses three different words for prayer, the second of which is a general term and covers all kinds of prayer to God and the first a still more general term, including petitions addressed to man. Either of the first two would embrace the third, which indicates a bold and earnest approach to the Almighty to implore some great benefit. None of the three words necessarily means intercession in the sense of prayer on behalf of others. This idea comes from the context. St. Paul says plainly that it is prayers and thanksgivings "for all men" that he desires to have made: and in all probability he did not carefully distinguish in his mind the shades of meaning which are proper to the three terms which he uses. Whatever various kinds of supplication there may be which are offered by man at the throne of grace, he urges that the whole human race are to have the benefit of them. Obviously, as Chrysostom long ago pointed out, we cannot limit the Apostles "all men" to all believers. Directly he enters into detail he mentions "kings and all that are in high place"; and in St. Pauls day not a single king, and we may almost say not a single person in high place, was a believer. The scope of a Christians desires and gratitude, when he appears before the Lord, must have no narrower limit than that which embraces the whole human race. This important principle, the Apostle charges his representative, must be exhibited in the public worship of the Church in Ephesus.
The solidarity of the whole body of Christians, however distant from one another in space and time, however different from one another in nationality, in discipline, and even in creed, is a magnificent fact, of which we all of us need from time to time to be reminded, and which, even when we are reminded of it, we find it somewhat difficult to grasp. Members of sects that we never heard of, dwelling in remote regions of which we do not even know the names, are nevertheless united to us by the eternal ties of a common baptism and a common belief in God and in Jesus Christ. The eastern sectarian in the wilds of Asia, and the western sectarian in the backwoods of North America, are members of Christ and our brethren; and as such have spiritual interests identical with our own, for which it is not only our duty, but our advantage to pray. "Whether one member suffereth, all the members suffer with it; or one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it." The ties which bind Christians to one another are at once so subtle and so real, that it is impossible for one Christian to remain unaffected by the progress or retrogression of any other. Therefore, not only does the law of Christian charity require us to aid all our fellow-Christians by praying for them, but the law of self-interest leads us to do so also; for their advance will assuredly help us forward, and their relapse will assuredly keep us back. All this is plain matter of fact, revealed to us by Christ and His apostles, and confirmed by our own experience, so far as our feeble powers of observation are able to supply a test. Nevertheless, it is a fact of such enormous proportions (even without taking into account our close relationship with those who have passed away from this world), that even with our best efforts we fail to realize it in its immensity.
What shall we say, then, about the difficulty of realizing the solidarity of the whole human race? For they also are Gods offspring, and as such are of one family with ourselves. If it is hard to remember that the welfare of the humblest member of a remote and obscure community in Christendom intimately concerns ourselves, how shall we keep in view the fact that we have both interests and obligations in reference to the wildest and most degraded heathens in the heart of Africa or in the islands of the Pacific? Here is a fact on a far more stupendous scale; for in the population of the globe, those who are not even in name Christians, outnumber us by at least three to one. And yet let us never forget that our interest in these countless multitudes, whom we have never seen and never shall see in this life, is not a mere graceful sentiment or empty flourish of rhetoric, but a sober and solid fact. The hackneyed phrase, "a man and a brother," represents a vital truth. Every human being is one of our brethren, and, whether we like the responsibility or not, we are still our "brothers keeper." In our keeping, to a very real extent, lie the supreme issues of his spiritual life, and we have to look to it that we discharge our trust faithfully. We read with horror, and it may be with compassion, of the monstrous outrages committed by savage chiefs upon their subjects, their wives, or their enemies. We forget that the guilt of these things may lie partly at our door, because we have not done our part in helping forward civilizing influences which would have prevented such horrors, above all because we have not prayed as we ought for those who commit them. There are few of us who have not some opportunities of giving assistance in various ways to missionary enterprise and humanizing efforts. But all of us can at least pray for Gods blessing upon such things, and for His mercy upon those who are in need of it. Of those who, having nothing else to give, give their struggles after holiness and their prayers for their fellow-men, the blessed commendation stands written, "They have done what they could."
"For kings and all that are in high place." It is quite a mistake to suppose that "kings" here means the Roman Emperors. This has been asserted, and from this misinterpretation has been deduced the erroneous conclusion that the letter must have been written at a time when it was customary for the Emperor to associate another prince with him in the empire, with a view to securing the succession. As Hadrian was the first to do this, and that near to the close of his reign, this letter (it is urged) cannot be earlier than A.D. 138. But this interpretation is impossible, for "kings" in the Greek has no article. Had the writer meant the two reigning Emperors, whether Hadrian and Antoninus, or M. Aurelius and Verus, he would inevitably have written "for the kings and for all in high place." The expression "for kings," obviously means "for monarchs of all descriptions." including the Roman Emperor, but including many other potentates also. Such persons, as having the heaviest responsibilities and the greatest power of doing good and evil, have an especial claim upon the prayers of Christians. It gives us a striking illustration of the transforming powers of Christianity when we think of St. Paul giving urgent directions that among the persons to be remembered first in the intercessions of the Church are Nero and the men whom he put "in high place," such as Otho and Vitellius, who afterwards became Emperor: and this, too, after Neros peculiarly cruel and wanton persecution of the Christians A.D. 64. How firmly this beautiful practice became established among Christians is shown from their writings in the second and third centuries. Tertullian, who lived through the reigns of such monsters as Cornmodus and Elagabalus, who remembered the persecution under M. Aurelius, and witnessed that under Septimius Severus, can nevertheless write thus of the Emperor of Rome: "A Christian is the enemy of no one, least of all of the Emperor, whom he knows to have been appointed by his God, and whom he therefore of necessity loves, and reverences, and honors, and desires his well-being, with that of the whole Roman Empire, so long as the world shall stand; for it shall last as long. To the Emperor, therefore, we render such homage as is lawful for us. and good for him, as the human being who comes next to God, and is what he is by Gods decree, and to God alone is inferior."
And so we sacrifice also for the well-being of the Emperor; but to our God and his; but in the way that God has ordained, with a prayer that is pure. "For God, the Creator of the universe, has no need of odors or of blood." In another passage Tertullian anticipates the objection that: Christians pray for the Emperor, m order to curry favor with the Roman government and thus escape persecution. He says that the heathen have only to look into the Scriptures, which to Christians are the voice of God, and see that to pray for their enemies and to pray for those in authority is a fundamental rule with Christians. And he quotes the passage before us. But he appears to misunderstand the concluding words of the Apostles injunction, - "that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and gravity." Tertullian understands this as a reason for praying for kings and rulers; because they are the preservers of the public peace, and any disturbance in the empire will necessarily affect the Christians as well as other subjects, - which is giving a rather narrow and selfish motive for this great duty. "That we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and gravity," is the object and consequence, not of our praying for kings and rulers in particular, but of our offering prayers and thanksgivings on behalf of all men.
When this most pressing obligation is duly discharged, then, and only then, can we hope with tranquil consciences to be able to live Christian lives in retirement from the rivalries and jealousies and squabbles of the world. Only in the attitude of mind which makes us pray and give thanks for our fellowmen is the tranquility of a godly life possible. The enemies of Christian peace and quietness are anxiety and strife. Are we anxious about the well-being of those near and dear to us, or of those whose interests are bound up with our own? Let us pray for them. Have we grave misgivings respecting the coarse which events are taking in Church, or in State, or in any of the smaller societies to which we belong? Let us offer supplications and intercessions on behalf of all concerned in them. Prayer offered in faith to the throne of grace will calm our anxiety, because it will assure us that all is in Gods hand, and that in His own good time He will bring good out of the evil. Are we at strife with our neighbors, and is this a constant source of disturbance? Let us pray for them. Fervent and frequent prayers for those who are hostile to us will certainly secure this much, -that we ourselves become more wary about giving provocation; and this will go a long way towards bringing the attainment of our desire for the entire cessation of the strife.
Is there any one to whom we have taken a strong aversion, whose very presence is a trial to us, whose every gesture and every tone irritates us, and the sight of whose handwriting makes us shiver, because of its disturbing associations? Let us pray for him. Sooner or later dislike must give way to prayer. It is impossible to go on taking a real interest in the welfare of another, and at the same time to go on detesting him. And if our prayers for his welfare are genuine, a real interest in it there must be. Is there any one of whom we are jealous? Of whose popularity, so dangerous to our own, we are envious? Whose success-quite undeserved success, as it seems to us-disgusts and frightens us? Whose mishaps and failures, nay even whose faults and misdeeds, give us pleasure and satisfaction? Let us thank God for the favor which He bestows upon this man. Let us praise our heavenly Father for having in His wisdom and His justice given to another of His children what He denies to us; and let us pray Him to keep this other from abusing His gifts.
Yes, let us never forget that not only prayers, but thanksgivings, are to be offered for all men. He who is so good to the whole Church, of which we are members, and to the great human family to which we belong, certainly has a claim upon the gratitude of every human being, and especially of every Christian. His bounty is not given by measure or by merit. He maketh His sun to shine upon the evil and the good, and sendeth His rain upon the just and the unjust: and shall we pick and choose as to what we will thank Him for, and what not? The sister who loves her erring or her half-witted brother is grateful to her father for the care which he bestows upon his graceless and his useless son. And shall we not give thanks to our heavenly Father for the benefits which He bestows on the countless multitudes whose interests are so closely interwoven with our own? Benefits bestowed upon any human being are an answer to our prayers, and as such we are bound to give thanks for them. How much more grateful shall we be, when we are able to look on them as benefits bestowed upon those whom we love!
This is the cause of so much of our failure in prayer. We do not couple our prayers with thanksgiving; or at any rate our thanksgivings are far less hearty than our prayers. We give thanks for benefits received by ourselves: we forget to give thanks "for all men." Above all, we forget that the truest gratitude is shown, not in words or feelings, but in conduct. We should send good deeds after good words to heaven. Not that our ingratitude provokes God to withhold His gifts; but that it does render us less capable of receiving them. For the sake of others no less than for ourselves let us remember the Apostles charge that "thanksgivings be made for all men." We cannot give plenty and prosperity to the nations of the earth. We cannot bestow on them peace and tranquility. We cannot bring them out of darkness to Gods glorious light. We cannot raise them from impurity to holiness. We can only do a little, a very little towards these great ends. But one thing we can do. We can at least thank Him who has already bestowed some, and is preparing to bestow others, of these blessings. We can praise Him for the end towards which he will have all things work. - "He willeth that all men should be saved" (ver. 4), "that God may be all in all."
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 1, 2. I exhort, first of all. This chapter…
1, 2. I exhort, first of all. This chapter contains some directions concerning public worship. Paul probably means that, first in order, prayers should be offered for all men, etc. So says Conybeare and Howson, and many others. Thus should the worship open. Supplications, prayers, intercessions. It is difficult to distinguish between these three words. “Perhaps the idea in 'supplication' is that of want; in 'prayers' that of solemn devotion, and in 'intercessions' that of individual petitions to God.”—Plumptree.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain 1Ti_2:1. Supplications, prayers, intercessions.—The first is a special form…
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
1Ti_2:1. Supplications, prayers, intercessions.—The first is a special form of the second. Intercession is prayer in its most individual and urgent form—prayer in which God is sought in audience and personally approached (Ellicott). Thanksgivings are always to accompany prayers.
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1Ti_2:2. For kings, and all that are in authority.—It is very noticeable that the neglect of this duty on the part of the Jews led to the commencement of their war with the Romans. That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life.—A life that is free from the rude shocks consequent on political strife, and equally free from participation in intrigue or sedition. In all godliness and honesty.—R.V. “in all godliness and gravity.” The former word describes the direction of our reverence to whatever is truly worthy of it. “Honesty denotes the decency and propriety of deportment which befits the chaste, the young, and the earnest, and is as it were the appropriate setting of higher graces and virtues” (Ellicott).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—1Ti_2:1-3
Prayer a Universal Duty.
I. Should be offered for all classes.—“I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and all that are in authority” (1Ti_2:1-2). There is very little difference of meaning in the terms here used for prayer. “And yet this heaping up of words,” says Calvin, “is not superfluous; but Paul appears purposely to join together three terms for the same purpose in order to recommend more warmly and urge more strongly earnest and constant prayer. We know how sluggish we are in this religious duty, and therefore we need not wonder if for the purpose of rousing us to it the Holy Spirit employs various excitements.” While we are to pray for all men, “kings and all that are in authority” are mentioned as especially needing our prayers: their exalted position and great responsibilities needing help from heaven that their duties may be discharged with impartiality and justice. Though public authorities may be opposed to the gospel, as was the case in the apostle’s days, they are not to be neglected in our prayers. “The scope of a Christian’s desires and gratitude, when he appears before the Lord, must have no narrower limit than that which embraces the whole human race. The solidarity of the whole body of Christians, however distant from one another in space and time, however different from one another in nationality, in discipline, and even in creed, is a magnificent fact of which we all of us need from time to time to be reminded, and which, when we are reminded of it, it is difficult to grasp. Members of sects that we never heard of, dwelling in remote regions of which we do not even know the names, are nevertheless united to us by the eternal ties of a common baptism and a common belief in God and in Jesus Christ. The Eastern sectarian in the wilds of Asia, and the Western sectarian in the backwoods of North America, are members of Christ and our brethren, and as such have spiritual interests identical with our own, for which it is not only our duty but our advantage to pray. What shall we say, then, about the difficulty of realising the solidarity of the whole human race? The population of the globe, those who are not even in name Christian, outnumber us by at least three to one” (Plummer). For these we should not fail to pray, and give all the assistance we can to missionary enterprise and humanising efforts.
II. Should be accompanied with thanksgiving.—“And giving of thanks” (1Ti_2:1). Prayer is cold and meaningless unless it is interfused with a thankful spirit. Gratitude prompts prayer, and in the answers God is continually giving, finds new themes for supplication. A Maryland planter was riding to one of his plantations under a state of religious awakening. He heard the voice of prayer and praise in a cabin, and, listening, discovered that a negro from a neighbouring estate was leading the devotion of his own slaves, and offering fervent thanksgiving for the blessing of their depressed lot. His heart was touched, and with emotion he exclaimed, “Alas! O Lord, I have my thousands and tens of thousands, and yet, ungrateful wretch that I am, I never thank Thee as this poor slave does, who has scarcely clothes to put on, or food to satisfy his hunger!
III. Should be offered in order to secure real progress in the Christian life.—“That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty” (1Ti_2:2). Here is a reason for praying for kings and magistrates—that they may use their power in the maintenance of peace and good order and in defending the interests of true religion, that while restraining the violence of wicked man they may not recklessly plunge the nation into war. The Christian has a reverence for law, and the maintenance of law and order is helpful to growth and progress in religion. “I have been benefited by riding alone a long journey in giving that time to prayer. Making an errand to God for others, I have gotten something for myself. I have been really confirmed in many particulars that God heareth prayers, and therefore I pray for anything, of how little importance soever. He enables me to make no question that this way, which is mocked and nicknamed, is the only way to heaven” (S. Rutherford).
IV. Prayer for all classes has the Divine approval.—“For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour” (1Ti_2:3). God is willing that all should be saved; therefore we should meet the will of God in behalf of others by praying for the salvation of all men. More would be saved if we prayed more. “Since God wishes that all should be saved, do you also wish it, and if you wish it pray for it. For prayer is the instrument of effecting such things” (Chrysostom).
Lessons.—
1. True prayer is ever unselfish.
2. Prayer is the vital element of religious progress.
3. Acceptable prayer is answered prayer.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
1Ti_2:1-3. Forms of Prayer in Public Worship.
I. Are useful and necessary to obviate and prevent all extravagant levities or worse impieties in public worship.
II. That ministers less learned may have provision of devotions made for them.
III. That all the members of the Church may know the condition of public communion and understand beforehand what prayers they are to join in.
IV. To secure the established doctrine and faith of the Church.—Bishop Bull.
1Ti_2:1-2. Prayer for Kings and Governors.
I. Common charity should dispose us to pray for kings.
II. We are bound to pray for kings out of charity for the public.
III. Subjects are bound in gratitude, equity, and justice to pray for their princes.
IV. Princes need our prayers.
V. Prayer is the only allowable method for redressing our case if we suffer by princes.—Barrow.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain 1. “First of all, I exhort you that prayers,…
ARGUMENT 4
PRAYER
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1. “First of all, I exhort you that prayers, supplications, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men.” We do not pray enough. We do not hold on long enough to get in touch with God and prevail. James v says: “Elijah prayed with prayer;” i.e., with the prayer which God gave him. He lived so close to God as to receive his prayers from him. In that case God always answers them. The English translators, evidently not knowing the spiritual meaning, do not render it literally but prayed earnestly instead of “prayed with prayer;” i.e., the prayer which God gave him The Greek also says the inward-working prayer availeth much: by the prayer wrought in you by the Holy Ghost. Here Paul enjoins upon us four distinct species of prayers; i.e., prayers in the ordinary sense—supplications; i.e., the importunate holding on to God, like wrestling Jacob, all night;
intercessions, like Moses when descending from the mount of God, and finding Israel fallen and gone back to Egyptian idolatry. God proposing to cut them all off, and verify the Abrahamic covenant with Moses, he throws himself into the breach, and pleads, “Lord, blot me out of thy book, but save this people.” Thus all Israel is saved by the intercessory prayers of Moses. God help us, like Jesus, to intercede for our lost loved ones! Thanksgiving is another species of prayer here commanded. We do not thank God enough. Get a brokenhearted, despairing penitent seeking at the altar to break out in thanks to God for convicting him, and soon he will be up shouting aloud.
3. In answer to our prayers God puts his hand on the kings of the earth, and turns them as he turns the rivers of water. How wonderfully he turned about Ahasuerus in the case of Mordecai and Esther!
4. “—Who wishes all men to be saved, and come to a perfect knowledge of the truth.” God is so anxious to save all men, he gives his Son to make it
lawful to save them. He also comes in the loving person of the Holy Ghost, warns and entreats every one to come and let him save them. What more could he do than he has done, and is doing? Yet the wicked blame him for their damnation. You go to hell because the devil takes you there, which he is certain to do if you die in his kingdom. God wills that all be saved, and come to a perfect knowledge of the truth—i.e., get sanctified; i.e., reach experimental certainty.
5. There is only one God revealed in three persons. I am a preacher, a book editor, and a teacher. Hence, a human trinity in your humble servant.
7. “—A teacher of the Gentiles in faith and in truth;” i.e., faithfully and truly.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain 1Ti 2:5
1Ti 2:5
"The man Christ Jesus." The very absence of all qualifying epithets makes the designation unique and solemn. There is a majesty about it which inspires awe. There is a grace in it which wins love and trust. It is not the holy man, the righteous man, the gracious man. It is simply "the man Christ Jesus."
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I. He is the man all through; out and out the man. In soul, body, spirit; in look, voice, carriage, walk; in mind, heart, feeling, affection; He is out and out, through and through, the man.
II. He is simply man throughout; in every exigency, in every trial, simply man—the man Christ Jesus. In all His earthly and human experiences you never find Him other than man, you never find Him less than man, and you never find Him more than man. That He is more than man you believe and are sure, for you see His Divine works of charity and power; you see how He saves others. But from the manner in which He fulfils His own obligations, meets His own temptations, and bears His own sufferings, you would never gather this.
III. He is the man exclusively, preeminently, par excellence, to the absolute exclusion of all others; He is the man, complete and perfect. Not a man made up of the most select remains of manhood, among men as they have lived since the Fall. He is the man as God originally made man, perfect, absolutely and indivisibly one and perfect—the man Christ Jesus.
IV. He is the man to mediate between God and man.
V. He is the man to give Himself a ransom for all.
VI. He is the man to be testified in due time. Whatever the time, whatever the season, it is a due time, a fitting season, for His being testified to thee by the Spirit as being present with thee. As thou walkest the streets, or journeyest along the road, He talks with thee by the way, and opens to thee the Scriptures concerning Himself; the man Christ Jesus, who taught this of old in Galilee and Jewry, speaking as never man spoke.
R. S. Candlish, Sermons, p. 24.
References: 1Ti 2:5.—F. Wagstaff, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xv., p. 407. 1Ti 2:5, 1Ti 2:6.—Church of England Pulpit, vol. ii., p. 243; Preacher’s Monthly, vol. viii., p. 197.
1Ti 2:8
The Prayer of Faith.
I. God is infinite, and the laws of nature, like nature itself, are finite. These methods of working, therefore—which correspond to the physical element in us—do not exhaust His agency. There is a boundless residue of disengaged faculty beyond. As yet, you have but reached the precinct of His being. Behind and amid all the punctualities of law, abides in infinite remainder, the living and unpledged spirit of God; the traces which he prints on nature are but as the waving water-line with which the breakers meet the beach; but horizon after horizon beyond, the same tide sweeps alone, and there is the play of ten thousand waves with neither reef nor shore to bring them to account; so is it with the deep mind of God, out beyond the limit of contact with nature, its energy is not bound to take any given shape, thrown up and determined by its previous force, but is free to rise and play and lapse into itself again. Here, he has made no rule but the everlasting rule of holiness, and gives no pledge but the pledge of inexhaustible love.
II. In man there are two elements, the physical and the spiritual; in God there are two agencies, also physical and spiritual. It follows of itself that what is physical in us is subjected to what comes physically from Him; while that which is spiritual in us is open to communication from what lives spiritually in Him. We must accommodate ourselves to the stern mechanism of God’s natural laws, and then He will succour us, not by altering them, but by inspiring us—by lifting us to bear their burden—by throwing open to us the almightiness of His companionship, and the shelter of His love. Wherever elements of character enter the result, so that it will differ according to the moral agent’s attitude of mind, it is plainly not beyond the reach of a purely spiritual influence to modify a temporal event. The prayer of Cromwell’s soldiers kneeling on the field could not lessen the numbers, or blunt the weapons of the Cavaliers, but might give such fire of zeal and coolness of thought, as to turn each man into an organ of almighty justice, and carry the victory which he implored. Wherever the living contact between the human spirit and the Divine, can set in operation our very considerable control over the combinations and processes of the natural world, there is still left a scope, practically indefinite, for prayer that the bitter cup of outward suffering may pass away; only never without that trustful relapse, "Not My will, but Thine, be done."
J. Martineau, Hours of Thought, vol. ii., p. 220.
References: 1Ti 2:8.—A. Blomfield, Sermons in Town and Country, p. 286. 1Ti 2:9-15.—Expositor, 1st series, vol. ii., p. 317. 1Ti 2:13, 1Ti 2:14.—T. Gasquoine, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xiii., p. 182. 1Ti 2:15.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. ii., p. 13. 1Ti 3:1-7.—Expositor, 1st series, vol. ii., p. 396. 1Ti 3:8-15.—Ibid., p. 465.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain Division 2. (1Ti 2:1-15.)
Division 2. (1Ti 2:1-15.)
Prayer.
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We now have, insisted on in the strongest way, the necessity of prayer. As already said, the house of God is necessarily, by the fact that this God is the God of all, "a house of prayer for all nations." Prayer is the recognition of the creature place as such, -of the need of God; while at the same time it testifies, if it be true prayer, of the faith that counts upon Him. It is striking that it comes into so much prominence in this epistle. It is important that the very grace of Christianity, the positiveness of salvation and of the working of all things together for good to them that love God, should not be permitted practically to set aside the need of prayer. God is all-mighty, all-wise, all-good; spite of all opposition, He will accomplish His will, and His will is that which should be accomplished. God is the only one who in that sense is entitled to have a will. But here there is the need, as is evident, of looking at things all around. Prayer is, no doubt, in one sense a necessity on our side, rather than on God’s. We did not pray Christ down from heaven, but God sent Him for the lost. All through He is the First in this way, the One who works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure. While that is true, it must not for a moment be used in contradiction to the truth that "the fervent, effectual prayer of the righteous man availeth much," and that God would have us "always to pray and not to faint." We must take this almightiness, this wisdom and love of God, to energize us, therefore, to prayer, and not to hinder us. It should act as plain encouragement, and in no other way. We are not in heaven, but only on our way to it, and prayer is just that which in the answers which we find to it keeps us in constant remembrance of the living God whom we need, and whose grace towards us becomes in this way so much more consciously such. For how much are we indebted to the needs which we thus have, and which it is plain God permits us to be reminded of in so many and often very painful ways! Love acts also in prayer, gives voice to its desires, as we see here; and thus we are permitted to have our place with God Himself, and our communion with Him who is the Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.
1. In the first place, in fact, we have the insistence here upon prayer, not for ourselves, but for others. The natural order, perhaps, with us would be first of all for ourselves, and then for others. The apostle reverses this: "I exhort, therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings, be made for all men; for kings, and all that are in pre-eminence," all those who stand out, evidently, from the mass as influential, in one way or another, for good or for evil, with regard to those amongst whom they move. It is true that there is a reference here to ourselves also, the result of the blessing of these, in our being able ourselves to lead a quiet and peaceable life in all piety and gravity; but we are not to think of that as if it were the whole of it; for we are immediately reminded that "this is good and acceptable before God our Saviour; who would have all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth."
Here, also, the quietness and peace in general is not, of course, and never could be, the great thought, but the work of the gospel amongst them; the life eternal is, of course, that which is the all-important consideration, and the trials and sorrows of this life are ever being used of God to awaken men to the reality of the life to come; but that the gospel should go forth in peace is the mercy sought. God "would have all men to be saved, and to come to a knowledge of the truth." Let us notice how these things are put together. There is no thought of people being saved without the knowledge of the truth. There is no thought, according to the fashion of the day, that a man simply crying in his need to God will be answered, and we need not trouble ourselves too much, therefore, about the gospel. God is surely ready to hear the cry, but His way of salvation is by the truth, and there is no other that Scripture recognizes; but the testimony now has the widest possible range. There is not only one God, as the Jew rightly contended, but one Mediator between God and men;" not between God and the Jew, and not with any distinction amongst men in this respect. "The Man Christ Jesus," "the Son of Man," as He continually called Himself, is the expression of God’s heart, not to a certain class amongst men merely, but to all. He has given "Himself a ransom for all." He has made a provision, from the good of which none are excepted except those who voluntarily set themselves apart from blessing. The times are come in which God having fully demonstrated man’s condition, He can speak out what is according to His own nature. Individually people have, no doubt, still to be tested, as through the ages men have been tested, and to be made to find their way to the place of those "without strength" and "ungodly," where Christ has met men; but God has nevertheless demonstrated man’s condition as a whole, and He is not now hindered or limited in the testimony which He is giving. It is a testimony world-wide. To this the apostle was appointed "a herald" and "teacher of the nations in faith and truth." This testimony then is to characterize the Church as a whole, -not that all are, as we may say, officially evangelists, but, nevertheless, evangelization is the privilege and duty of all who themselves have received the gospel.
2. He turns to prayer in general as that which is to characterize men everywhere. In the public place it is still the men who are to pray, lifting up pious hands. The apostle maintains throughout, in the most consistent manner, the doctrine that the woman’s place is not the public one. Nature teaches the same thing, however little we may listen to its voice. This, of course, no more cuts off the women from evangelizing, nor even from instructing in the truth which they have learned, than it cuts them off from prayer. The apostle is thinking of the house of God as the "house of prayer for all nations," and it is public prayer of which he is speaking. This is where the men as such find their place. Here there is no question, of course, of office; there is no one who is exempted really from the duty of praying in every place. The hands that they lift up must be indeed pious hands. No one who cannot lift up such has title to pray in public. Do not men, in fact, shrink often from public prayer really in consequence of the responsibility which it is felt to entail? The people who do not pray are not obliged to have their hands so scrupulously clean! If we "lift them up," they will be noticed; but what a safeguard there is in this, and how needful that everywhere Christians should be found in the place which God. has accorded them, with "pious hands" lifted up, "without wrath or disputation!"
In like manner, also, he points out the moral character which the women necessarily, equally with the men, are to exemplify. They are to be adorned with fitting apparel. The seeking of adornment is natural to them, but let this then, says the apostle, be it, -in fact, the sweetest and most real adornment that can any where be found, -not the adornment of the outside, not costly or even so much external adornment, as the adornment of the spirit which is to be seen in them, and of the works which will speak for them; while at the same time the apparel is, no doubt, to be fitting, not slovenly, not such as would cause remark upon the other side, but suited to the quiet modesty which belongs to them. As to the place of the woman as a teacher, the apostle carries us back to the beginning of all. It is, indeed, the constant way with him to uphold, along with the peculiar place which God has given us as Christians, where it is no question of sex at all, the creation-place, which is not really interfered with by this. It is not for eternity, nor meant to be put as if of equal value with the place in Christ. Nevertheless, there are lessons to be learned here which are wholesome to receive, and which cannot without danger be set aside. We shall find, in fact, as we go on, that one great feature of the apostasy, so soon to set in, will be the disregard of that which God instituted when He created man. The woman then is not to teach -that is, in such a way clearly as to exercise authority over the man. That is not a question of the fall, although the apostle brings in the fall in order to illustrate his point. It inheres, however, in the very character of woman, who is the heart of humanity, as Adam is the head. But in the fall itself Adam was not deceived. It is not that that excuses Adam in the least. It would rather be the opposite of this, but it certainly illustrates the fact that with man intelligence is prominent. The woman ought to have been kept, no doubt, by a heart which realized what God was to them, and the love which He had manifested towards them in the Paradise prepared. She was not ill-guarded against the tempter, but she was guarded in a different way. Alas, the temptation broke through both these guards, and head and heart were alike involved in the ruin that came in. Still, the woman’s way of being in the transgression was as one deceived, and the man was not deceived. It is not a difference with regard to the measure of the sin itself, but it is a difference which shows the man and the woman in the characteristic features of each. The apostle closes here with the comforting assurance that where the fall had brought the woman into suffering and sorrow, which was the needed reminder of that which no child of man is ever intended to forget, God nevertheless would assuredly come in to deliver those who continued "in faith and love and holiness, with sobriety." The thought of a reference here to Christ as the child born seems to have no justification in the language nor in the context.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain Concerning Prayer, Thanksgiving, and the Place of Women
Concerning Prayer, Thanksgiving, and the Place of Women
1-8. The second charge to Timothy—to teach those over whom he was set to use public prayer and intercession.
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1. Therefore] in the sense of 'well then.'
First of all] His first exhortation as to Christian men is that they should pray. Supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings] The duty of the Christian Church in the matter of intercession is to offer prayers for others, and to give thanks for good things happening to others, and for events relating to others which may be a blessing to herself.
For all men] Christian charity and good-will excludes none.
2. For kings] Nero was at this time emperor. The Apostle's instruction, therefore, shows that the prayers of the Church are to be offered for bad rulers as well as good. For all that are in authority] that they may be so directed as to further the peace and prosperity of Christ's Church.
That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness] cp. the Prayer for the Church Militant, 'that under him we may be godly and quietly governed.'
3. This is good] that is, the public offering of intercessory prayers.
God our Saviour] see 1Ti_1:1.
4. Will have, etc.] RV 'willeth that all men should.'
5-7. A summary statement of the gospel which St. Paul preached. It is introduced in connexion with the doctrine of God's will that all men should be saved. Surely that is His will, is the Apostle's argument, for He is the God of all (there is no other), and Christ, Himself Man, is the Mediator of all (there is no other), and He is the Redeemer of all, as was shown to be the case, when the due time came, by the means appointed by God, one of which means was St. Paul's own preaching and his apostleship of the Gentiles.
7. I speak the truth] St. Paul does not forget that his apostleship had been denied, and takes occasion to reaffirm it: see 1Co_9:1; 2Co_12:12.
Teacher of the Gentiles] Gal_2:9. In faith and verity] The faith, which was also the truth, was the subject of his teaching to the Gentiles.
8. As to men (contrasted with women, about whom he is about to give a different charge), they are not to quarrel and dispute, but, wherever they are, they are to pray. Men] RV 'the men,' that is, the male members of the Church. Doubting] RV 'disputing.' Lifting up holy hands] the gesture of the early Christians, and perhaps the most natural gesture in very earnest prayer.
9-15. The third charge to Timothy, as to the comely behaviour of women, and their place in the Church.
9, 10. In like manner] rather, 'so also'; there is no likeness in the conduct enjoined on women to what has gone before. The first rule is, that their ornament is not to be braiding of hair or wearing of jewels or fine dresses, but good works and modesty and serenity of life. There is no prohibition of women wearing jewels and head-dresses and handsome gowns here, but they are not to regard them as their real ornaments in comparison with good life.
11, 12. The second rule is, that they are not to teach in the congregation, and are to be submissive.
13, 14. Two reasons which show, not cause, inferiority on the part of the woman. Man was created before woman, who was formed to be a helpmeet for him; and woman was the first transgressor, showing that her weakness more readily yielded to temptation.
15. In childbearing] i.e. by keeping faithfully and simply to her allotted sphere as wife and mother.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain Hymenaeus and Alexander
Hymenaeus and Alexander
It is significant as bearing upon the seriousness of all false teaching, and particularly as related to resurrection, that Paul calls it blasphemy to teach that "the resurrection is past already" 2Ti 2:17; 2Ti 2:18.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain 1. Prayer for all men and for those in…
II. CONCERNING PRAYER
CHAPTER 2
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1. Prayer for all men and for those in authority (1Ti 2:1-7)
2. The place for the man and the woman (1Ti 2:8-15)
1Ti 2:1-7
Instructions are now given by the apostle. The first concerns prayer. “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 (literally, gravity). For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who will have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” The God who is our Father is also the Saviour-God, who acts in the gospel of His grace with love and compassion towards all men. As such He manifests a gracious willingness to have all men come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved. We must, therefore, knowing Him and the exceeding abundant grace towards us, act in love towards those who are without. God acts in grace and the household of faith must do likewise.
As the gospel of grace goeth forth to all men, and God wants all men to be saved, so are we to pray for all men. Especially are kings and all who are in authority to be mentioned in the prayers of intercession. This is the true grace-spirit; the Jewish law-spirit knew nothing of love towards all men. Gentiles and Gentile kings were looked upon as outside, and not considered to be the objects of divine love. The dispensation of the grace of God having come, salvation by grace is offered to the whole world. And how this exhortation has been neglected! How little true prayer for the salvation of all men is made! (1Ti 2:4 disposes completely of the unscriptural idea that God has predestined a part of the human race to be lost.) We must also remember that cruel Nero was on the throne of the Roman Empire when this exhortation was written.
The house of God is to be a house of prayer for all nations, and to exercise the priestly function of intercession. Well has it been said, “Nothing but the strong sense of the infinite blessing of the place that grace has given us could lead to, or keep up, such prayer.” But often we are apt to settle down in the enjoyment of grace, without reflecting on our responsibility towards those who are unreached by that grace, which is also at their disposal. Through preoccupation within, how often we forget those without! How needful today when thrones totter, when democracies arise, when all forms of government break down and the shadow of the coming lawless one lengthens, to be obedient to this divinely given instruction, so that even in these days of confusion God’s people may lead “a quiet and peaceable life”!
“For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave Himself a ransom for all, the testimony to be rendered in due time.” Judaism was the revelation and testimony of the one God. Christianity reveals also the true God, but brings forth the equally great truth that there is but one mediator, as there is but one God. And this one mediator is the Man Christ Jesus, who came into the world and who gave Himself a ransom for all.
“Precious truth! We are in weakness, we are guilty, we could not bring ourselves near to God. We needed a mediator, who, while maintaining the glory of God, should put us into such a position that He could present us to God in righteousness according to that glory. Christ gave Himself as a ransom. But He must be a man in order to suffer for men, and to represent men. And this He was. But this is not all. We are weak--here, where we are to receive the revelation of God; and weak, with regard to the use of our resources in God and our communion with Him--even when our guilt is blotted out. And, in our weakness to receive the revelation of God, Christ has revealed God, and all that He is in His own person, in all the circumstances written wherein man could have need either in body or in soul. He came down into the lowest depths in order that there should be none, even of the most wretched, who could not feel that God in His goodness was near him and was entirely accessible to him--come down to Him--His love finding its occasion in misery; and that there was no need to which He was not present, which He could not meet.
“He came down, took part in all the sorrows of humanity, and entered into all the circumstances in which the human heart could be, and was wounded, oppressed, and discouraged, bowing down under the evil. No tenderness, no power, no sympathy, no humanity, like His; no human heart that can so understand, so feel with us, whatever the burden may be that oppresses the heart of man. It is the Man, the Christ Jesus, who is our mediator; none so near, none who has come down so low, and entered with divine power into the need, and all the need, of man. The conscience is purified by His work, the heart relieved by that which He was, and which He is for ever.
“There is but One: to think of another would be to snatch from Him His glory, and from us our perfect consolation. His coming from on high, His divine nature, His death, His life as man in heaven, all point Him out as the one and only mediator” (Synopsis of the Bible).
“A ransom for all, the testimony to be rendered in due time.” This statement has been perverted by some, who handle the Word of God deceitfully, to mean that the whole human race will ultimately be saved including all the wicked dead. And more than that, some of these teachers have made the astonishing statement that the testimony of their unscriptural invention was to be reserved for a certain time, and that “due time” came when they preached their “larger hope” and universal salvation. He has given Himself a ransom for all, which means that provision is made by His propitiatory sacrifice for the salvation of the whole race, but faith is necessary for the appropriation of this salvation.
All who do not accept Christ by personal faith are not covered by His substitutionary sacrifice. If they die in their sins the great ransom cannot deliver them (Job 36:18). The due time, or, its own time, when that testimony of all this was to be rendered came when the work was finished on the cross. Ever since the one mediator between God and man gave Himself a ransom for all, the message of God’s love and grace has been preached. And Paul to whom the gospel of the glory of the blessed God was specially committed could therefore say, “Whereunto I was appointed a preacher (literally “herald”; also used in 2Ti 1:11; and of Noah in 2Pe 2:5) and an apostle (I speak the truth, I lie not) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.”
1Ti 2:8-15
“I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.” This refers to praying in public. Audible prayer in the congregation is to be made by men, and not by women. This is apostolic teaching. (There are sects in existence today which claim to have returned to apostolic doctrines and practices, yet they ignore the apostolic commandment as to the place of women in the church. In fact in many of these sects women are the leaders.) The hands which are lifted up in public prayer must be holy hands (Jas 4:8). True piety and a separated walk are to characterize the man who lifts up his hands in public prayer. And it must be “without wrath,” angry feeling against a brother, and without disputing or “reasoning.” To harbor an ill feeling against another while praying or to introduce a dispute, a reasoning argument (as done quite often) makes prayer noneffective.
And now in regard to women he gives the charge that they “adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array.” She is to give her testimony in this way and show that she is not following the world, but is above these things. Immodest dress, bordering on indecency, to gratify the lust of the flesh and of the eyes, is a noticeable thing among the women of the world.
The Christian woman must bear a testimony in an outward manner that she is separated from these things. Then he gives the charge about the teaching authority of women. “Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.” This is and belongs to the wholesome, sound doctrine. Woman has her sphere of service, of laboring in the gospel and also teaching the truth, among her own sex and children. But the place of authority does not belong to her; she is not to usurp authority, nor to exercise it. This is the divine order, that the authority to teach is vested in the man. (See 1Co 11:1-34; 1Co 14:1-40). “For Adam was first formed, then Eve.” This is creation’s order, which must be maintained on the ground of redemption.
And the fall teaches another lesson. “And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.” The able expositor Bengel wrote on this: “More easily deceived, she more easily deceives.” When she leaves the place given her according to this apostolic charge, she is easily deceived, and then in turn easily deceives others. The second epistle speaks of “silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts.” Women rejecting sound doctrine, usurping authority, have become instruments of the enemy, by inventing Satanic doctrines and perverting the truth of God.
(Seventh Day Adventism had Mrs. White as prophetess; Theosophy-Mrs. Blavatsky and Annie Besant; Spiritism--the Fox sisters and the thousands of wicked and often immoral women-mediums; Christian Science--Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy and the thousands of women healers; the Irvingite movement--demon-possessed prophetess, who spoke in strange tongues; New Thoughtism has its women leaders, etc. How this bears out the divine truth stated here.)
1Ti 2:15 refers to Gen 3:16. She shall be preserved in child-bearing, delivered in the hour of trial and labor, if they continue in faith and love. and holiness with sobriety.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain An Admonition to Pray for All Men on the…
An Admonition to Pray for All Men on the Basis of Christ’s Atoning Death
For whom Christians should pray and why:
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v. 1. I exhort, therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men,
v. 2. for kings, and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
v. 3. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior,
v. 4. who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the Truth.
Having laid the basis of sound doctrinal teaching in, the first chapter, as Timothy was to observe it in his work in the congregation, the apostle now speaks of the order of services as it then obtained in the congregations, referring particularly to the custom of public prayer: I exhort, then, that, first of all, be made supplications, worshipings, intercessions, thanksgivings for all men, for kings and all that are in authority, that a tranquil and quiet life we may lead in all piety and honesty. The duty of making prayer prominent in the Christian life is here enjoined with emphasis, as among those obligations incumbent first of all. Prayerful intercourse between the Lord and the believers is not observed nearly so carefully and dutifully as the Lord’s will requires it. The exhortation of the apostle, therefore, is altogether in order to this day. He names supplications, the prayers that flow from the consciousness of need and misery; worshipings, in which the ideas of adoration and supplication are combined; intercessions, prayers made in behalf of someone else, Rom 8:27-34; and thanksgivings, since it is self-evident that Christians always acknowledge the gifts of the Lord with grateful hearts. Since the feature of intercession is prominent even in the names of prayers as here given, it is not surprising that the apostle now mentions some of the persons that are to enjoy the benefit of this labor of love. In general, all men are here included; all men without exception are objects of the Christians’ prayers, whether converted or unconverted, whether friends or enemies, Mat 5:45-46. But from this great mass the apostle separates certain classes by mentioning them by name: kings and all that are in authority, all that occupy a position of power in the world, especially the persons that constitute the civil government. Christians that pray for the needs of all men cannot overlook the special needs of the government, no matter what form this government may have; they pray to the Lord for the peace of the city and country of which they are citizens, knowing that in the peace thereof they shall have peace, Jer 29:7. If the government makes proper use of the various functions entrusted to it by God, as the prayer of the Christians asks, then the result will be that they can lead a quiet, tranquil, peaceable life, in all godliness, in the right worshiping of God, and in all honesty, in good conduct toward all men. The Christian religion, which, the believers confess and profess, must find its expression in daily life.
Lest Timothy and all other readers of the letter overlook the emphasis of the passage, the apostle calls attention to it in stating the reason for demanding such general prayer: This is fine and acceptable before our Savior, God, who will have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Prayer for all men is enjoined by God, and it is this prayer that is good, approved of God; it meets with His pleased appreciation when Christians give evidence of the spirit of love toward all men, living in them. God the Father is here again called the Savior of men, for in this capacity His love extends to all human beings without exception. Deliberately and in the face of all modern opposition Paul here explains the term "Savior" as applied to God, saying that God will have all men to be saved. God’s gracious will is universal, it has in mind all men without exception, Rom 8:32; Tit 2:11. It is not merely a pious wish which He holds, but it is His earnest, will that all men should be partakers of the salvation earned by the atoning work of Christ. And the manner in which they receive this salvation which is prepared before all people is this, that they come to the knowledge of the truth. All men should not only know about the message of perfect redemption as contained in the Gospel, but it is God’s will that they also should accept the saving grace, apply its glorious assurance to themselves, and thus become the owners of the bliss pledged therein, Joh 3:16.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Paul encourages Timothy to pray for all people.
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first of all
"most important" or "before anything else"
I urge that requests, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made
This can be stated in active form. AT: "I urge all believers to make requests, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving to God" (See: Active or Passive)
I urge
"I plead" or "I ask"
a peaceful and quiet life
Here "peaceful" and "quiet" mean the same thing. Paul wants all believers to be able to live calm lives without trouble from the authorities. (See: Doublet)
in all godliness and dignity
"that honors God and that other people will respect"
He desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth
This can be stated in active form. AT: "God desires to save all people and for them to come to the knowledge of the truth" (See: Active or Passive)
to come to the knowledge of the truth
Paul speaks of learning the truth about God as if it were a place to which people could be brought. AT: "to know and accept what is true" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
pray
intercede
king
authority
peace
godly
God
Savior
save
know
true
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 2:1–3:13 Paul moves to the areas of conduct in…
2:1–3:13 Paul moves to the areas of conduct in God’s household that were affected by the false teachers (3:15). Community life had been corrupted in worship and gender roles (2:1-15) and leadership (3:1-13).
2:1-15 This unit deals first with prayer (2:1-7) and with the deportment of men and women (2:8-10). It closes with the question of women and teaching (2:11-15).
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2:1-7 Here, prayer focuses on the church’s mission, which suggests that the false teachers had brought the church into disrepute in the wider society (cp. 3:6-7; 6:1; Titus 2:5) and hampered its mission to the Gentiles.
2:1 all people: The prayers of the false teachers and their disciples were evidently not consonant with God’s will to save all kinds of people (2:3-4).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.