1 Timothy 2:1-2

‘I exhort therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings, be made for all men, for kings and all that are in high place; that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and gravity.’

‘Therefore.’ To what does this ‘therefore’ refer? The only answer is that it has in mind the spiritual warfare in which Timothy was to engage. Here is, as it were, the first bombardment of the war.

And Paul here brings out that the first essential in the present warfare is prayer. He thus exhorts ‘first of all’ that much spiritual effort be put into praying and giving thanks for all who are in high places, among all nations (this last is what ‘kings and all in high places’ has very much in mind). Note the accumulation and multiplication of the thoughts, ‘supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings’. The powers that be are needful of prayer of all kinds, and are, as it were, to be flooded with and surrounded by both prayers of all kinds and thanksgiving. If we are to distinguish them we may see supplications as referring to prayers for the physical and emotional needs of men, prayers as indicating prayers for the spiritual needs of men, intercessions as revealing that we come as subjects to a King on behalf of others because we have privileged access, and thanksgiving as revealing that we are grateful for all the He does, and has done, for us.

‘For all men’, that is, for all men at all levels of society, including all levels of authority. And the aim was so that Christians might be able to live in peace and tranquillity, and live godly and serious lives (compare Jeremiah 29:7). This does not mean that they should be humourless. The godliness was so that they might please their Father in Heaven by the purity of their lives and worship, the gravity was because they must take seriously their world responsibility described in the next verse. All Christians are to be very grave when they are considering the evangelising of their neighbourhood as part of world evangelisation.

‘Godliness.’ That is piety, Godly faith, genuineness towards God from a worshipful heart’. This is a word not used previously by Paul, but Paul is here writing to a prominent church leader, and therefore portraying things from a different angle than he does in his earlier letters. This is, in fact, the explanation for many of his new terms found in the Pastoral letters.

‘Gravity.’ Aristotle places the word halfway between complacency and wilfulness. It signifies concern about what is important and right. Thus the Christian’s concern is first to be towards God, and then concerning what is important and right.

But we must not overlook the important lesson here that Christians are not just to be tied up in themselves and their own little world. They are to have broad vision, and they must even have an effect on ‘kings’, and both Josephus and the inscriptions indicate that this title included Caesar himself. It thus referred to kings large and small. For the peace and tranquillity of the world matters to God. Peace is His aim, and indeed final peace and tranquillity in Heaven is His final aim. This is made clear in some of the earliest words of Jesus, ‘Blessed are the peace-makers, for theirs is the Kingly Rule of Heaven’ (Matthew 5:9).

This is the other side of the daily prayer, ‘bring us not into testing, but deliver us from evil’ (Matthew 6:13). While testing, trial and persecution is often the lot of the Christian, his prayers should be to avoid testing, not to be tried and to escape persecution, for he is aware of his own weakness and frailty. He is to look for peace and tranquillity. Then he knows that whatever comes to him comes from God, and he will be able to rejoice in it (James 1:2).