The Geopolitics of Prayer Text: 1 Timothy 2:1-8
Introduction: The Church's Foreign Policy
We live in a frantic and politicized age. Christians are constantly being tempted to place their hope in political solutions, in the next election, in a particular candidate, or in a legislative victory. We are tempted to rage, to fret, and to despair over the headlines. We are tempted to think that the primary battle is in Washington D.C., or in the statehouse, or on the cable news networks. But the Apostle Paul, writing to a young pastor in the wicked and pagan city of Ephesus, under the shadow of the godless Roman empire, redirects our gaze entirely. He tells us that the first order of business for the church, the thing of primary importance, is not protest, or political maneuvering, or cultural critique, but rather, prayer.
And not just any kind of prayer. He commands a specific kind of prayer that is global in its scope and governmental in its focus. The church of Jesus Christ has a foreign policy, and it is conducted on its knees. We are citizens of a heavenly kingdom, and as such, we are ambassadors to the kingdoms of this world. Our primary diplomatic tool, our chief instrument of statecraft, is supplication to the King of all kings. What happens in the prayer closet on a Tuesday morning has more long term significance for the direction of a nation than what happens in the Oval Office. This is because the heart of the king is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He will (Proverbs 21:1).
This passage is a profound disruption to our modern political anxieties. It is a call to order, a summons to our primary duty. Paul is instructing Timothy on how public worship is to be conducted, and he begins with the church's global prayer initiative. This is not a suggestion for a special emphasis week. This is "first of all." This is the ground floor of the church's public life. Our relationship to the civil magistrate, our desire for a quiet and peaceable life, our evangelistic mission, and our understanding of God's character are all tied up in this fundamental duty of prayer. To neglect this is to neglect the very engine of Christian influence in the world.
Furthermore, Paul grounds this command in the deepest truths of the gospel: the nature of God our Savior, the universal offer of the gospel, the unique mediation of Jesus Christ, and His substitutionary atonement. Our prayers for kings and presidents are not pragmatic political calculations; they are gospel-fueled acts of faith in the God who desires all kinds of men to be saved. And finally, he concludes this section with a specific directive for the men in the congregation, tying their leadership in public prayer to their personal holiness and relational integrity. This is a dense and potent passage, full of tactical instruction for the church militant.
The Text
First of all, then, I exhort that petitions and prayers, requests and thanksgivings, be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the full knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the witness for this proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying) as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension.
(1 Timothy 2:1-8 LSB)
The Priority and Scope of Prayer (vv. 1-2)
We begin with the charge itself.
"First of all, then, I exhort that petitions and prayers, requests and thanksgivings, be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity." (1 Timothy 2:1-2)
Paul's phrase "First of all" establishes the supreme importance of this activity in the corporate life of the church. Before the sermon, before the singing, before the sacraments, the church is to be a house of prayer for all nations. He uses four different words for prayer, covering the full spectrum of what it means to approach God. We are to bring our specific needs (petitions), our general worship (prayers), our intercessions on behalf of others (requests), and our gratitude (thanksgivings). This is to be a rich, varied, and constant enterprise.
And for whom are we to pray? "For all men." The scope is universal. The church's prayer is not to be tribal or sectarian. We are not just to pray for our own. This immediately confronts the elitist heresy that was creeping into Ephesus, which sought to limit salvation to a select few with secret knowledge. The gospel is for the world, and so our prayers must be for the world. Paul then immediately specifies a particular category within "all men" that must receive special attention: "for kings and all who are in authority."
Think of who was "king" when Paul wrote this. The emperor was Nero, a depraved, godless tyrant who would eventually have Paul executed. Yet the command stands. We are to pray for them. This is not a suggestion to pray for them if they are godly, or if they are from our preferred political party. We are to pray for them, period. We are to pray for their salvation, for their wisdom, and for them to govern in such a way that promotes public order. This is a profoundly counter-cultural and subversive act. The world rages against its rulers. The church prays for them.
The goal of these prayers is explicitly stated: "so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity." This is not a prayer for comfortable escapism. It is a prayer for the advancement of the gospel. A tranquil and quiet life is the best social soil for the gospel to spread. Persecution can and does purify the church, but peace and order allow for the public proclamation, the establishment of Christian institutions, and the quiet discipleship of nations. We pray for good government because good government, whether it knows it or not, creates the conditions for the Great Commission to flourish. We are praying for a stable platform from which to launch our evangelistic mission. Godliness refers to our vertical piety, our right worship of God. Dignity refers to our horizontal conduct, our sober, respectable, and honorable lives before a watching world. We are praying that the civil government would leave us alone to be the church.
The Theological Foundation for Prayer (vv. 3-6)
Paul does not just give a command; he provides the profound theological rationale that undergirds it. Why pray for all men, even pagan rulers?
"This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the full knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the witness for this proper time." (1 Timothy 2:3-6)
First, this kind of expansive prayer is "good and acceptable" to God. It pleases Him because it reflects His own heart. And what is His heart? He is "God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved." This verse has been a battleground, but it shouldn't be. From a Reformed perspective, we must distinguish between God's will of decree (what He secretly ordains) and His will of desire or command (what He publicly reveals as pleasing to Him). God does not decree that every single individual will be saved. Scripture is clear on that. But He does command and desire the salvation of all kinds of men, without distinction of race, class, or station. The "all men" here clearly means "all kinds of men," as the context of praying for "kings" (a specific kind of man) demonstrates. God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He commands all men everywhere to repent. Our prayers are to be as broad as God's own gracious offer in the gospel. We pray for the salvation of kings because God saves kings. We pray for the salvation of Gentiles because God saves Gentiles.
This universal offer is grounded in two bedrock facts of reality. First, "For there is one God." Monotheism is the foundation of global missions. If there were many gods, then each nation could have its own. But because there is only one God, He is the God of everyone, whether they acknowledge Him or not. There is no other God for the emperor of Rome to appeal to. Yahweh is his God too, and he will answer to Him. Therefore, the gospel must go to him.
Second, "and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus." Not only is there one God to get to, there is only one way to get to Him. There is one bridge over the infinite chasm that our sin has created between us and a holy God. That bridge is the man, Christ Jesus. Notice his humanity is emphasized. He can mediate between God and man because He is both God and man in one person. He can represent God to us and us to God perfectly. There is no other mediator. Not Mary, not the saints, not the state, not a priest, and not our own good works. This is the scandal of the gospel's exclusivity, and it is the engine of our prayers. We pray for all men because they all have the same problem (sin) and there is only one solution (Christ).
And what did this one mediator do? He "gave Himself as a ransom for all." A ransom is a payment made to secure the release of a captive. We were captives to sin, death, and the righteous wrath of God. Christ's death was the payment. He was our substitute. He took our place. And this ransom was "for all." Again, this means it is sufficient for all, and it is offered to all kinds of people. The value of Christ's death is infinite. There is enough in the blood of Christ to save every person who has ever lived, if they would but repent and believe. The gospel is not a limited offer. It is a universal proclamation of a sufficient atonement. This is the "witness" that the church is to bear at the "proper time," which is this entire age between Christ's first and second comings.
The Apostolic Authority and the Posture of Prayer (vv. 7-8)
Paul concludes this section by anchoring his instruction in his own apostolic authority and then giving a final, practical command to the men.
"For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying) as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension." (1 Timothy 2:7-8)
Paul's authority to command this is not his own. He was "appointed" to this work. He is a preacher, a herald of the good news. He is an apostle, a sent one with the authority of the sender. And his specific mission field is the Gentiles. This is why he is so insistent on praying for "all men" and for pagan "kings." His entire ministry is a testament to the fact that the gospel has broken the banks of ethnic Israel and is flooding out to the nations. He adds the parenthetical "I am telling the truth, I am not lying" because his apostleship was often challenged, and he wants Timothy and the Ephesian church to understand that these instructions come with the full weight of Christ's authority.
Based on all this theology, he issues a concluding command that begins with "Therefore." "Therefore I want the men in every place to pray." The "men" here is specific (aner, not anthropos). In the context of public worship ("in every place"), the men are to take the lead in this crucial ministry of prayer. This is part of the created order of male headship that Paul will expound upon in the following verses. Leadership in the church is a male responsibility, and it begins with leading in prayer.
And how are they to pray? By "lifting up holy hands." The posture of lifting hands was a common one for prayer, signifying surrender, dependence, and reaching up to God. But the emphasis is not on the posture, but on the "holy." The hands that are lifted must be attached to a life that is consecrated. They must be hands that are not engaged in wickedness. This is the same principle as in the Old Testament: "Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart" (Psalm 24:3-4). Public prayer is not a performance; it is the overflow of a holy life.
Finally, this prayer must be offered "without wrath and dissension." The men leading the church in prayer must not be quarrelsome, angry, or argumentative men. They must be at peace with their brothers. You cannot lift holy hands to God in vertical worship if you are clenching your fists at your brother in horizontal relationships. Unresolved anger and division short-circuit the prayers of a church. The leadership of men in prayer requires both personal holiness before God and relational peace with their brethren. This is a high and holy calling, and it is, as Paul says, "first of all."