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." 1:18-19), Paul begins with the first order of business:  public worship.  Paul urges Timothy to instruct the church at Ephesus to engage in public prayer; lifting up everyone, especially those in authority.

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 America are greatly blessed because of the religious freedom that is allowed by our constitution.  We can meet publicly as often as we want and practice our faith without fear of government persecution.  However, this isn't the case worldwide.  There are many places where Christians cannot overtly practice their faith for fear of execution (this is especially the case in some Muslim countries).  Christians also had to go underground in the old Soviet Union.  So the reason we pray for our leaders is because they are the ones who control whether we can worship publicly or not.  So we pray for them, not only to thank God for our ability to worship publicly, but also for our leaders to make wise decisions for the public good.  Paul wanted Timothy to make public prayer a priority in Ephesus, and we are to do likewise.

 

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