First Timothy, part 2
"I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers,
intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone--for kings and all those in
authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and
holiness." (1 Timothy 2:1-2, NIV)
After
greeting Timothy and revealing the purpose of writing to him ("Timothy,
my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made
about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, holding on to
faith and a good conscience."
The word
"urge" is interesting (Gk. parakaleo). The word can mean to beg, plead, exhort, or
urge. The word can also mean to comfort
or encourage, and is used in John 14 to speak of the Holy Spirit ("But
the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will
teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you"
John 14:26). The Holy Spirit is
the Comforter, the Encourager (Gk. Parakletos). Paul's use of this strong word reveals the
importance of the instruction he gives to Timothy.
The
instruction, as noted above, is to pray for all people, especially those in
authority. Paul uses four distinct words
for prayer in this passage: requests,
prayers, intercession and thanksgiving.
The primary concern in the public worship service is to make our
requests known to God through public prayer and intercession and to offer
thanksgiving to God for all He has done in our lives. This echoes what the early church considered
important. In Acts 2:42, Luke tells his
readers what the early church met to do:
"They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the
fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." Later, in Acts 6:3, Luke recounts the story
of a dispute within the church regarding food distribution. The Apostles instructed the church to appoint
faithful men to handle this issue so they could devote themselves to prayer and
the ministry of the word ("Brothers, choose seven men from among you
who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this
responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the
ministry of the word.").
Prayer was a very important part of public worship.
Furthermore,
Paul urged Timothy to pray for public leaders:
kings and all those in authority. Our public prayers in the worship service
should include our government leaders.
What is really interesting about this command is that Paul wrote it
during the reign of Nero. Nero was
definitely no friend to Christianity.
Paul doesn't qualify the instruction to pray for our civic leaders. He doesn't say, "pray for those in
authority, but only those who are nice."
We are to pray for our leaders regardless of who they are or what
they've done. Why? That we may live peaceful and quiet
lives in all godliness and holiness.
If we have good leaders, then we thank God for blessing us with wise and
just leaders. If we have evil leaders,
then we pray to God to forgive them and to bless them and wisdom to see the
error of their ways. Stephen, in Acts 7,
prayed to God to forgive the Jewish Sanhedrin even while they were stoning him.
Our
ability to even meet publicly is based on the government. We in