First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:1-4)
Here Paul instructs Timothy and his church on how to pray and how to live so that the gospel would go out to the lost world. Their prayers were to be expansive—“for all people”—including kings and all those in high positions. Why the mention of kings and rulers? So that their rule might create a peaceful context conducive to these believers living “godly and dignified” lives, thus preparing the unbelieving world to hear the claims of the gospel. Clearly, expansive prayer and personal godliness are integral to sound preaching of the gospel.
Paul memorably asserts that the church’s prayers for all people are consonant with God’s evangelistic desire. “God our Savior . . . desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”
The term “God our Savior” (cf. 4:10) locates the source of the gospel in the very heart of God the Father. This is God’s eternal disposition. This is who God is. He does not delight in the destruction of the wicked. By articulating this, Paul was assaulting the exclusivism that was being taught by some of the false teachers in Ephesus (the city where Timothy ministered). Of course, the Scriptures explicitly teach divine election (e.g., Matt. 11:25–27; John 6:37–44; Acts 13:48; Eph. 1:4–5; Rom. 8:30; 2 Thess. 2:13; 1 Pet. 1:1–2). But Scripture also teaches the complementary truth, clearly stated in our text, that God “desires all people to be saved” (1 Tim. 2:4). Some interpret this phrase simply to mean that God desires “all kinds of people” to be saved, or that Paul is abbreviating the Abrahamic promise, referencing God’s blessings upon “all nations [i.e., people]” through the Messiah (e.g., Gen. 26:4). But such interpretations seem strained and designed more to maintain a theological perspective than to capture the apostle’s immediate thought (cf. the “all people” for whom we are to pray; 1 Tim. 2:1–2). Paul seems to want us to understand that God retains love for all whom he has made, despite their rejection of him (cf. Ps. 145:9, 13, 17; John 3:19).
This does not mean that God ultimately wills everyone to be finally saved. If he did, all would be saved, because no one can resist God’s will (Rom. 9:19). Yet, in the divine mysteries of salvation in which a sovereign God does no violence to the will of his creatures, there remains a merciful inclination toward all even as God allows the unrepentant to have their way (Rom. 1:24), while simultaneously using the consequences of their waywardness to direct the elect to his blessings (Rom. 9:22–23).
We have here in 1 Timothy an expression of the expansiveness of the divine desire that brought about Christ’s incarnation and death on the cross—which was to be preached to the whole world (Matt. 24:14). “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). This divine desire and the universal offer are meant to inform our world evangelism. It is not our responsibility or capability to solve the problem of divine sovereignty versus human responsibility. It is our task simply to preach the gospel to all the world.
Gospel Transformation Bible
No comments:
Post a Comment