Book of 1 Timothy - Ch. 2, v. 2a

Two weeks ago was the last time I was with y 'all and if you recall, I don't want to rehash too much for the sake of time. But the last thing we discussed after looking at verse 1 of chapter 2 Was this little lesson that is so important for all of us to keep in mind as we read Scripture.

This is not set. This is not a quote-unquote rule. Unique to Bible scholars and Bible interpreters or pastors or Bible teachers. This is the the kind of thing that every believer Should remember as they read the Word of God and as they come across certain phrases sentences words That may pique their interest it may get their attention.

Maybe more so than others and you think huh? Well, how is this consistent with other things? I've read here there or anywhere else and So last week or a couple of weeks ago rather we finished by talking about this idea of Remembering that in every language, but certainly in the Greek language as well and the Hebrew there's this idea of words having a range of use y 'all remember that and The context that the author is using the word within is what defines the word.

It's so yes, every word has a definition and definitions are very important. I'm not certainly not Mitigating the importance of that in any way. But because of that range of use you have to take what you might call Authorial intent in other words the intention of the author Into the into consideration.

Otherwise, sometimes you can come up with a really weird interpretation. Based upon maybe a wooden definition of a word that the author would look at you with just kind of a weird. What are you doing there?

That's not at all what I said unfortunately that happens to scripture all the time and It's necessary to happen because Let me let me rephrase The word because the word is so consistent and so harmonious and in many cases so specific it requires false teachers to twist the scriptures or rest of the scriptures as the Apostle Peter puts it and do things like go in and like really harp on maybe a specific wooden definition of a word in Order to convince people that's what it means so that it can then fit within their framework.

Whether it be a cult or maybe maybe a more innocent false teaching. It's kind of it sounds like an oxymoron, but y 'all know what I mean. There are heretics. There are false teachers. There are false prophets there are cults and then there are guys that sometimes just go through it and kind of throw out what feels.

Like what it what it may feel right in the moment and it may not be correct. But it's not because their intentions were malicious. It was just you know, maybe they missed something initially. So there's a there's a wide range of different things that can happen there.

Because of all because of all that because all that is true for the diligent Bible student. Regardless of where they're at when they read scripture. They need to keep that in mind all words have a range of use and we determine what use the word is being used for.

Based upon the context that the Apostle gives it in so with that being said. That's all the refresher will do from last time. Look at 1st Timothy chapter 2. And we'll read the first two verses together, but we're going to be honing in on verse 2 today.

And maybe a little more we'll see he says I exhort therefore that first of all supplications prayers. Intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men. Now that was the specific reason why we brought all of that into play last week.

Or two weeks ago why we mentioned that at all because he uses the term all men there. And we need to we need to figure out. Okay, does he mean all men? Exhaustively to the point of every specific individual on planet earth or is he talking about the other use of that term in the Greek which would be.

The.

Sorts of a group or something like that. And if we look at verse 2 we can see how the Apostle Paul defines it. He says for Kings and for all that are in authority That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life and all godliness and honesty.

So here we have the Apostle Paul Defining what he has in mind with the use of all in verse 1 and in throughout this passage Which will be important to remember later. He wants the people of God praying for all men.

Without.

Discrimination as it relates to social status. He mentions Kings. He mentions all that are in authority. What we have to remember is That it was what we'll talk about this more in just a second. But it's important to remember the kind of political environment that these first century Christians found themselves in.

There are times in the United States where we might find it incredibly difficult to have the desire to pray for our leaders in Other times where we it may be all too easy. You know. We just we feel like they could do no wrong and and you know.

Their people can get really hyped up about their politician depending on if it's if he's in their corner or not. Well in the ancient world first century Christians It was it was like it would have been Alien to them to think about a politician that was in their corner.

They're living in the ancient Roman Empire. They're living in the arguably the most pagan Empire that the world had ever seen. Certainly at the scale that it was at and so It would again Paul is talking to them about an issue that would have been difficult for them to grasp with which is praying for These pagan rulers that are ruling over them with an iron fist.

We'll talk about this more in just a second. But before I do What I want one thing that I want to pull out of here. Another way that we can determine Consistently that the way the Apostle Paul is using this term all men in the way that we're saying it does.

Which is with relation to people groups not necessarily about individuals is because when you take that particular reading which is a Contextual reading it all of the sudden brings perfect consistency between what Paul's exhortation is here in verse 2.

And.

The inspired curses that we have of David in the Old Testament There were prayers to God. But in the form of a curse over certain specific enemies of God. So In the in the Psalms and I mentioned this two weeks ago.

You have a category of Psalms that we refer to now as in precatory Psalms that David would pray At times and they were they were curses upon the enemies of God. But here we have Paul's exhortation to pray for quote-unquote all men.

Well.

How how can you reconcile that how can you harmonize the two was David if you see us. Lewis was an amazing man but one thing that he Fumbled on was more of a face plant was his interpretation of the Psalms.

A very very odd commentary on the Psalms CS Lewis had and he believed and bless his heart. I love him. But he believed that David was in sin when he pinned the imprecatory Psalms. The the ones where he was bringing judgment and curses down upon the enemies of God now, obviously, that's just ludicrous.

But you know sometimes any man can get a little too philosophical sometimes and that was one case of it. They he was not in sin. They were inspired. He was in the Spirit as he as he wrote those Psalms as the book of Acts tells us.

It was the Spirit speaking through David and it included those Psalms as well and so if it's true that we have the certain instances where a prayer of Curse is being made upon the enemies of God. How can we harmonize that with Paul over here telling us to pray what he says are supplications and prayers and intercessions?

These are positive Connotations here. We pray these giving thanks for all men. Well, if you mean all men on an individual basis then you would have perhaps an issue of Trying to figure out how it was possible for David to pray these curses upon some men in the Spirit and now Paul Quote-unquote undoing that but he's not undoing it because what Paul is talking about are people groups not individuals.

Because David was in here's a way you can remember what David was doing was he was cursing Individuals and Paul here is talking about groups. So you have category you have two different categories here David cursing individuals specific enemies of God.

Paul talking about people groups now I just want to show you guys this for a second and I and I want it to stick in your mind turn to Psalm rather Psalm 35. I want y 'all to remember this because when Talking with some people in the future, you know, this particular passage at some point may come up with regard to like I mentioned two weeks ago this debate between Universal atonement versus limited atonement or particular redemption.

You know all of these types of things again for 400 plus years. You've had the debate the Calvinistic and Arminian debate and oftentimes sadly this particular passage of first Timothy 2 is brought into the equation and The reason it said to me is because when it is brought into that specific debate you lose what Paul is really talking about because you're so hung up on a couple of words that he chose to use and Again making the decision that oh, well, this is obviously talking about universal atonement on one hand or the Calvinist over here.

We'll say no look at the context this sort of thing over here. Forget the debate for a second. But if you remember this when that debate comes up, it will help you Bring it back to what's really happening here.

And if you can remember the distinction between Individuals and people groups you can bring up this harmonization issue. By saying well was David in violation of Paul's exhortation and Set in in chapter 2 verses 1 and 2 in an example like this and look at Psalm 35.

I'm just gonna read a few verses just to give you a taste of it the whole Psalm Falls into this category again of an imprecatory Psalm a psalm of curse psalm of judgment. Plead my cause O Lord with them that strive with me fight against them that fight against me.

Take hold of shield and buckler and stand up for mine help. Draw out also the spear and stop the way against them that persecute me saying to my soul. I am thy salvation. Let them be confounded and put to shame.

That seek after my soul. Let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devised my hurt. Let them be as chaff before the wind and let the angel of the Lord chase them. Let their way be dark and slippery and let the angel of the Lord persecute them.

For without cause have they hid for me their net in a pit which without cause they have digged for my soul. Let destruction come upon them at unawares and let his net that he have hid. Catch himself into that very destruction let him fall and I'll just I'll end there but you've got to get the picture.

That is one of a great number of examples we could look at throughout the Psalms. And so it begs the question was David under inspiration of the Holy Spirit in violation of Paul's exhortation. At the beginning of 1st Timothy chapter 2 and the answer is no.

Why is that? It doesn't violate the law of non-contradiction because you have two categories in view. One is individuals specific enemies of God. The other are people groups that Paul is talking about.

We pray for all men without Discrimination with regard to social status. That includes your politicians. That includes those that are in the poorer class. Some out of all of these groups. We don't pray based upon social status and remember.

Why is it important for him to even bring that up? We can understand it even in our modern context, but it was especially potent for Christians at the particular time. All of this was happening because it was very tough to desire to pray for the Emperor.

It was essentially persecuting you now not all Emperor's persecuted in the same way.

But.

There were still. It was still tough regardless of the level. So that's the first thing that we have to establish here In ensuring that we pull out the proper sense the proper Intent that Paul had out of this text rather than shoving anything out anything else into it.

Oh, yeah, go ahead Kate. When to pray in precatory prayers.

Yeah, well.

I'll give you an example of that here in just a moment with regard to an Emperor specifically. But here I'll get you Robert. I'm not gonna ignore you because I want your thoughts, but let me just throw this out there really quick.

One thing that can help people remember. When you are righteously angry toward a particular individual in praying a Curse or judgment or something like that toward them which by the way We very much still have situations to in the moment where we can righteously do that.

We could we could pop off a number of names where it would be good and righteous for the people of God to pray judgment. Pray for the judgment of God to come upon their head right now. So this is this is a universal principle throughout time.

It wasn't unique to David. The answer Katie is to remember this. When a Christian is praying in the will of God and by that I mean it the way the Apostle John meant it in 1st John when we pray within the will of God and when we have a righteous desire To write the offenses against God and not ourselves.

Then all of the sudden that prayer of judgment can do one of two things. It will it can and will crush that person in one of two ways. It will either by God's grace crush them by the gospel. Because if you think about it for a second when a person is living in rebellion when they're living in sin and.

The.

The regeneration of the Spirit comes upon them in the way that it came upon murderous Paul. It is a crushing experience. Think about Paul's conversion. It was not it wasn't just butterflies. It was it was it was absolutely epic.

And so it will crush them in one of two ways you either it will transform that Transform them to such a degree that it leaves them shook for maybe a good number of days good number of weeks months. However, it may be it'll crush them by the gospel of saving grace or it will crush them by that judgment.

And so we don't know which of the two are coming but we can pray Lord let it come. Let them be crushed in one way or other because they are violating your word. They are persecuting your people. They are killing the unborn.

They are Persecuting the innocence over here. They are doing all of these violent crimes over here. We can't let that happen. Because you are a God of justice and we are a people of justice and we want your justice to prevail and it will Not always on our timetable, but it will and so I don't know if that answers your question or not Katie.

But let me put it this way when you see an individual That is engaging in such egregious crime and sin. That it is good and righteous for a Christian to be disgusted by it to be repudiated by and to pray for God's judgment on that wicked behavior quick and swiftly and that particular prayer Can come in a number of levels a number of forms and you know We have David just displayed for all of us to learn from and if you are ever worried or ever wonder How do I know if I'm praying the right way?

I I Have these feelings I have this pent-up emotion I have this anger this righteous anger and this disgust toward the wickedness that I see that I know is happening. But I'm worried and I'm concerned that I may cross a line.

When it comes to my prayers, you know something that we can do that We're allowed to do that the Apostles themselves tell us we can do In in different ways is We can pray the scriptures. So if you're ever concerned and you just feel like you don't even know what to say in a moment.

But you need to I'm just gonna use a modern term. We need to vent to the Lord we need to let all of this pent-up anger and emotion and Disgust toward the wickedness around us. We need to throw all that upon the Lord open up an imprecatory Psalm Psalm 35 Psalm 59 Psalm 69 and just read it, but don't just read it pray it.

Repeat the words as a prayer as you that this is me saying these words to the Lord. And I want this to happen to this particular individual or this group of people over here that are absolutely ravaging the innocence and things like that, so I don't know if that helps Kate's but Again at any point where we need a little bit of clarity on how we can do this.

We can just go to the scripture and pray the scripture as our own words to God. And he will hear it and in there you go. Was that helpful? Robert sorry, go ahead. Sure, yeah, so.

Right.

So there can.

33 verses.

Yeah, and there is there is a New Testament equivalent as well somewhere I can't think of it off the top of my head where that same principle is applied but think about it this way one of the reasons why we don't only have imprecatory Psalms is because David would set would would pray it and then He would be done with it He would move on and then and we there we have all these other Categories of beautiful Psalms of praise and all of the in thankfulness and gratitude and all these types of things as well.

And so yes, there comes a point where the wickedness is so great on a in specific cases where A number one perhaps the prayers of Lord bless them has ended way back in the rearview mirror perhaps you have prayed for the Lord to bring judgment upon them and then You leave it to the Lord at that point and you put your your crosshairs so to speak on all of the things that are related to you in your life if we There is so much evil in the world That if we keep our focus on that which is outside of our sphere of influence too much all of a sudden we might Accidentally begin to abdicate our duty to keep our focus in the home front.

You know what I'm saying? So there are times where to dwell upon the evil around us so much even in the form of just going to God with it Over and over and over again that it could begin to affect our attitude toward those were supposed to steward right here at home.

Which might be a perfectly delightful place in this point in time.

And.

So there is a balance for sure in the way you find that balance in your personal life as you go to the scriptures you look at all of the examples where Christians throughout time dealt with these issues and it's at that point really truly a between you and the Lord your relationship with him and And taking your burdens to him in those types of things.

Yes, ma 'am.

Wasn't.

Sure and your point is Like there are there's a time and a place for these types of prayers. There are times where the specificity comes into play. In times where it is it is a more broad principle so like for example in obedience to this opening couple of verses of first Timothy 2.

Like pop pop is so good at doing as well as brother Ron and and by there by following them I feel like we as a group do well at praying for our leaders praying for our country that is broad and That's okay.

And that's and that is a good thing. In fact, we'll see here in verse 3 when we get to it. It is pleasing in the sight of God. It is a morally good thing to do. But that again doesn't negate the times where there are specific specific individuals that That are worthy of praying for God's judgment to come upon so that yeah, it's just a very interesting dynamic that we have Throughout scripture there and oh, did you ever thought Jim?

Right.

I.

That's exactly right.

I.

Forgot when it was a number of weeks ago. We talked about the you know, where's the line between? Oh, it was Jared was here and We were talking about getting the point where you you mark and avoid. But before you mark and avoid there are some things you can do to possibly restore Fellowship and so there's you know, there's that same kind of dynamic there as well.

Now that is more like personal relationship type of thing. We're in this context. We're talking about prayer for people that don't even know we exist. But we still have a duty to pray for them that sort of thing.

And so yeah, Jim don't fret of the evildoers. What it is what that is is that is faith on full display if we have faith that Vengeance is the Lord's and that he will meet a perfect judgment perfect righteousness perfect justice.

Then we can pray what we need to pray in the moment and move on without it totally bringing us down.

Yeah.

Exactly. He's saying look you're falling for my trap. Here it is. I'm gonna make a little worse I'm gonna throw this out there that out there and we're gonna make you feel like the world is over and that there's nothing to Have faith in anymore.

It's very true. And so David. David dealt with this battle. Did you ever thought dad?

Yeah.

Well, it's just a modern translation.

Absolutely You.

You you know. When it presents itself to take the higher ground and forgive the person who doesn't know. He doesn't know God. He doesn't know these things. And it's best to try to forgive him if you can rather than to strike him down.

Well.

You can be honest with me the Holy Spirit will come back and correct you if you're praying incorrectly.

Right.

Can definitely put that in your thoughts and mind and heart so that you pray correctly. Your first impulse might be to say, Warden, you know, you need to take care of that person. Well, that's an okay prayer because he's going to take care of that person.

So, yes. So here's where I feel like often the key lies, and not to oversimplify anything, but you kind of have to speak generally, and then on an individual basis, we apply all these principles. We have to remember the difference between our enemies and God's enemies.

And there are times when you turning the other cheek is necessary because you don't necessarily have the right to bring down a righteous indignation on your personal enemy because you don't know who they are and you don't know what the Lord is doing for them.

But that's different than an enemy of God. For example, just to use an eminently practical application of this idea of imprecation and of, you know, praying against the enemies of God, you just have the death of the Ayatollah Khomeini.

So was it unjust for Christians for the last four decades to pray for God's judgment to come upon his head as he conducts persecution, and in some cases, physical slaughter of faithful and Christian people?

The answer is no. You can do that. Dispensation, see, this is what I meant earlier with regard to this being a universal principle, is it transcends the dispensations. So what David did is something that we can do now.

And here's one example of it. In Psalm 5, verse 5, he says, The foolish shall not stand in thy sight. Thou hatest all workers of iniquity. That's a universal principle. That's not unique to the law. That is David bringing out something that is true about God himself.

And so when we find ourselves in similar situations where we have, again, an egregious enemy of God, and in a second, I'll talk about one specific Roman emperor where the Christians had very much the desire and I would say right to pray judgment upon this particular emperor, and it came upon him in a very gruesome fashion.

That was good for them to do. But they also had other civil magistrates above them that wasn't the emperor. And maybe for them, they should have been praying in this more normative way that Paul has in view at the beginning of chapter 2 here.

Timothy, yes, sir?

Well, you're right. There are universal principles that apply through all the disciplines.

Sure.

But the difference between David and Jesus is he's a dog.

Oh, there's an obvious difference.

Yes.

Jesus is a dog, therefore... Oh, absolutely. If he were to pray for God to kill someone, it would be perfectly appropriate.

Of course.

If he prayed for God to give these, for example, we know that one of the men, the soldiers that drove the nails, maybe, or at least knelt around the nails, got saved later.

Drew it, did the spear in his side.

The person he was praying for, he said, forgive them.

Absolutely.

What they're doing. Whereas we might have said, just kill them all, Lord. I mean, if we were watching.

Yeah.

If we were John out there watching, we might have prayed just...

Well, okay, so remember what I said earlier. When you pray, Lord bring justice upon a person. It can come in one of two ways. It can either be the crushing gospel or the crushing judgment. For the case of that one centurion, it was saving grace that crushed him.

And then he had to live for the rest of his life knowing he took part in the crucifixion of his Messiah. But for the other centurions, the ones that were haughty, the ones that were casting lots for his garments and things like that, it may very well be the judgment.

So you're right, Dad. Notwithstanding the son of man himself who had perfect knowledge of the individuals he was talking about, we absolutely have to ensure... That's Dave talking. We have to ensure that we're praying consistent with scripture.

So that's good stuff. Let me, in our last about five minutes here, let me... That was all fantastic. What's funny about it is that was merely an illustration to show how we can deduce, or I would say induce, Paul's meaning of the term all because it harmonizes perfectly with all other examples of prayer that we have throughout scripture, including the imprecatory prayers, like I said a second ago.

And so that's one example of that. Now, another thing that you have to put yourself... That you have to do is to put yourself in the shoes of Christians that are reading this letter for the first time.

I've already alluded to this a few times, but we can flesh this out just a little bit more. Why is it that Paul is bringing this to the spotlight on behalf of these believers? And of course, all believers throughout time from that point forward.

Why is he saying you need to pray intercessions and prayer supplications for all men? And then he specifies for kings and all that are in authority. Why does he do that? Well, the types of magistrates that would have been holding literally the iron fist over them as citizens in the first century would have been very easy to hate.

And this kind of goes back to Dad's principle a second ago, is we don't need to be so quick to hate. One of the points of Paul's exhortation here is to act as a buffer to control our emotions so that it...

Just like I said a minute ago, why is it that not all of David's psalms were prayers of imprecation? Well, it's because the Spirit brings that balance where you are praying thanksgiving and gratitude over here.

You're praying for the blessings of a person over here. It's very diverse. And so Paul is bringing this exhortation to bear upon the Christians so that they aren't just indiscriminately hating every civil magistrate, whether it was just or unjust.

So that's one of the reasons why he is doing that. And they were easy to hate simply for the sake of hating those that were in power because they were all pagan. They were all against Christianity. They all put Caesar above Christ.

It would have been very easy to get emotional about these particular civil leaders at this time. These are leaders who would not have been carrying out justice in the way that Christians knew God would want them to carry it out.

In some cases, including the persecution of God's people themselves, like the polar opposite of the just wielding of the sword that government is supposed to be doing. And so Paul, by using this very broad term, pray like this for all men, what he's doing is he is putting this very natural proclivity of those that were under the rule of a pagan king or a pagan emperor to pray for them and for all of our leaders anyway, because it's what is right in the eyes of God.

And not only that, not only is it morally right in the eyes of God, but it even yields blessings for God's people. And we don't want to lose sight of that either. You know, it's not that it's just so that we can have blessings, but that is very much still a part of it and a very real part of it too.

And so no doubt, you know, there would arise and this is important. So listen to this for a second. You have Paul's general exhortation, the normative thing that Christians should do for their leaders to pray for them, pray intercessory prayers, pray supplications.

That is the normative thing for us to do. And you should do that even living in pagan Rome. But no doubt there would still at times arise individual leaders who would have justly received those same types of imprecatory prayers by Christians in their time, like Nero, like Galerius, who was the devil incarnate at the very end of the kind of string of emperors leading right up into Constantine when, of course, everything changed.

And in the case of Galerius, by the way, Jen, just to give you an example that we were talking about earlier, the prayers of imprecation toward him certainly worked. They certainly worked because what happened to him is he died an absolutely horrifyingly slow death that began with an ulcer in his private parts, as it is recorded in the old records of the emperors and things like that, that began to eat away at him from the inside out, kind of like gangrene.

It just began to slowly spread. And Christian literature that we have from that time describes it as a maggot-ridden death. So even before he was dead, he literally had maggots that were eating his rotten flesh as he was trying his best to just fall over dead and have it over with.

I'm surprised that he didn't commit suicide. That's what happened to Nero, by the way, as he killed himself. But Galerius, it slowly ate away from him, starting in his private parts all the way out until his entire body rotted away.

And so there's an example of the judgment of God falling upon him. And what's unique about Galerius? Well, you know, it was a Dionysian that was, I think, preceded him. Dionysian and Galerius were the two emperors right before Constantine.

There was a two-year span where the persecution of Christians was so bad that if it weren't for the fact that Christianity is true and that there is a God and that he actually preserved a remnant, it should have, from the human viewpoint, by all means been totally wiped out.

We're talking about slaughter by the tens of thousands. And that's where we have many of the pictures of the Colosseum and the brutality of additional crucifixions and torture that makes your stomach turn and all these types of things.

That was under the authority of Diocletian first, but Galerius was particularly bad. And he was the one that literally was eaten away from the inside out. So there is your imprecatory prayer coming to effect in that particular instance there.

But in general, even though you would have individual instances of such a wicked, again, Satan incarnate-type individual, they thought these men were the Antichrist, by the way. That's how bad they were.

And they were, in a sense. They were a Antichrist. Notwithstanding certain individual instances like that, there were other civil magistrates where this particular exhortation would absolutely come into play because in your certain region, in your division, if you will, your district, rather, you could very well have a local civil magistrate that could actually be a blessing to the Christians in that area.

That would happen back then. That happens today in America. Certain districts that you live in, you will find your Christian freedom to be more emphasized and have a better, kind of a better environmental dynamic going on than if you lived in Oregon or somewhere like that where maybe it would be like, you know, well, it's just you're not going to be able to publicly display your Christianity as the true religion like you can somewhere else in other states.

And so that's where you can find this dynamic happening. So in general, Paul wants the prayers of the saints to be lifted up on behalf of these leaders so that they might... We'll have to end here because we're out of time.

Why is it that Paul wants them to do this? Yes, it's good in the eyes of God. We'll see that in verse 3. But there's another reason. It's for their own benefit. Remember, Paul's instructions here, they are the instructions of Christ.

This isn't just Paul throwing out his ideas of how things might, you know, this is a nice way of thinking and a nice moral ethic here and there. It's not arbitrary. It's all specific. It's all... It all comes back to the general well-being of God's people.

And so look at the end of verse 2. We pray like this for kings and for all that are in authority that we may, what? Lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. In all godliness and honesty.

And we'll have to pick it up there next time. There's a lot of really, really good stuff in this final phrase here that we can take from this and have a better understanding of why we need to be obedient to this passage.

Because it's for our own good. It's for the benefit of God's people all throughout a nation. And so we have to be careful about getting too haughty too fast and neglecting prayer even for the leaders that are advocating for a completely different worldview from our own.