1 Timothy 2:1-4 English Standard Version

Pray for All People

2 First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

I will admit I pray more often for those I care about than anyone else. I’d call that human. Here we see an instruction to pray for all people, the just and unjust alike.

It is good and pleasing to God that we should do this. Isn’t that reason enough or do we need to be persuaded to obey? Perhaps it would be easier to obey if we were to know just how those prayers could make a difference. If it became apparent how our prayers might lead to peace in this troubled world, it would be worth praying for those we deem unworthy.

That sentiment is exactly why God asks us to pray for everyone. Judge not lest ye be judged. Our judgment of others interferes with God’s will more often that we could possibly know. We tend not to pray for those we deem unworthy. 

At the core of withholding prayer is a feeling of desperate vanity. We do not believe our prayers will do any good. Faithfulness to our God does not require our agreement, only our obedience.

God desires that all mankind could be saved and they could but we know that some will never come to a saving grace knowledge of Jesus Christ. Our problem is that we have no direct knowledge of which ones will surrender. If we did we would only pray for those souls. What value is there in praying only for things we are absolutely sure about? Faith has no part in those kinds of prayers.

Matthew 21:22 And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

2 Corinthians 1:10-12 English Standard Version

10 He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. 11 You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many. 12 For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you.

I have reservations about using the word must. I do not have the right to tell anyone what they must do. But then again I am not Paul and I have not established multiple churches throughout the known world. He has a relationship with these people that is well established.

What is hidden within verses 11 and 12 is the gracious blessings that come from the use of many prayers from many people. It is a mystery that is not often revealed because remote prayers are now so widespread that the blessings that come are only seen by a few in places that few visit. The world was smaller then.

It is difficult to bear witness to the supremacy of grace in our midst when others that need it never recognize His authority. People the world over believe without submitting themselves to our Lord’s authority. Some do not feel they have been saved from deadly peril because they did not feel the danger. Maybe they feel the love and the love is enough to believe. Hope needs to believe but if they do not understand the promises correctly, they hope for the wrong things.

Paul’s prayer speaks to a people and a time in which God’s blessings were experienced under different circumstances than we live in today. Poverty still exists but it is a different kind of poverty. There is a spiritual poverty that few feed and even fewer hunger for today.

The world was simple in the 1st century church. The world is larger and much more complex. As large as it is, we feel the dangers that source themselves in cruelties unimaginable because the media shows us how ugly the world is in real time. Focus on that and we fail to address the real danger, sin.

The only danger to our eternal salvation is sin. People don’t want to talk about that. There are far too many interesting and important things going on today. Children stare into the void of their phones and entertain themselves in the distractions of the day and ignore the pain of the person beside them that just needs a word of compassion and communion.  Ignoring the need for compassion in those lives allows sin to fester and express itself in sudden and violent outbursts.

Some just need an ear to listen, understand, and offer a hand of friendship. It is not the whole truth but at least in that way you have found someone to listen where grace is given by the Lord that lives. Proverbs 15:23 A man has joy by the answer of his mouth, And a word spoken in due season, how good it is!