Pray for all people, for everyone who is important in my world

Paul told Timothy to pray for "all people." He said to pray for them--not against them--so that we may live in peace. He emphasized that he meant to pray for everybody by including "kings," by implication including the Roman Emperor, who at that time was the despicable Nero. If I am thinking about you, I should be praying for you.

Links: This post read as a YouTube video. Playlist for the Prayers for Folks who Don’t Want My Prayers series.

Today’s scripture is very straightforward.  There can be no doubt what it means:

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.  This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

1 Timothy 2:1-4 (ESV)

Many others have written volumes on what “supplications, prayers [and] intercessions” are, see this good brief example, and I won’t add any more.  They all refer to forms of prayer.  “Giving of thanks” is self-explanatory.

My point in this installment is that Paul tells me I should offer all these kinds of prayers “for everyone.” He doesn’t say just my friends and family, or just my fellow believers.  He doesn’t exclude my enemies, my accusers, or those who persecute me.  He doesn’t even exclude people who have told me to forget them and told me not to pray for them.  He says “all people”—everyone who is consciously present in my life, certainly including everyone who is important in my life.  If I am thinking about you, I should be praying for you.

And I should be praying for you, not against you.  I should be praying for you, for God’s constructive work in your life, so that “we”—you, I and the rest of us  in the Church—” may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.”

It’s interesting that Paul tells us first of all to pray for peace, for the ability to live peaceful lives, to live at peace both within and among ourselves.  He does not tell us to pray for power, or for triumph.  He tells us to pray for everyone, so that we may live in peace and at peace.

He then explains that God is pleased with this, because God wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.  The two are connected.  The world sees God’s truth in our peace.  “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  John 13:35 (ESV). 

Paul then emphasizes that he means “everyone” by specifically including “for kings and all who are in authority.”  Historically, kings and other people in positions of political, social or economic authority have been almost uniformly hostile to Christians.  That was certainly true at the time Paul wrote 1 Timothy.  At that time, Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (reigned 54-68 C.E.) was the Emperor of Rome, the highest of the kings in the area in which Paul ministered.  Nero is reputed to have had the bad habit of using Christians, wrapped in pitch and set on fire, as torches in his palace garden.  By the end of his reign, Nero was so nice that his own Praetorian Guard assassinated him, after which the Roman Senate promptly voted to execrate his name.  Nero is someone I’d be sorely tempted to pray against, to pray that God would kill him quickly. 

Yet Paul told Timothy to lift up prayers for everyone, including praying for kings and all who are in authority.  Including THAT Emperor Nero.

There is no one in my life anywhere near as despicable as Nero.  So I have no excuse.  I should pray for everyone in my life.  If I am thinking about you, I should be praying for you.

Write me: Ian Johnson