“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,”
1 Timothy 2:1-3 ESV
The Christian life is a prayerful and thankful one. If the “meditations of our heart” (Psalm 19:14) aren’t inclined toward prayers of thanksgiving we may rightly diagnose a backsliding faith. We walk and move through a sinful world, torn by sin’s conflicts and curses. Everyday we encounter those captive to sin and the consequences of the fall. Thus, everyday we will pass through frustrations and difficulties to which we aren’t to be complacent. Nor are we to be bitter. Instead, fixed on our secure status in Christ, saved by grace alone, through faith alone, our hearts should incline toward prayers of intercession and supplication to Him who saves. We are to both abhor what is evil (Romans 12:9) and yet overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21). This is the heart of zeal. And yet that zeal must not make the us quarrelsome or bitter (2 Timothy 2:24). This verse tells us much about ourselves, providing a perfect mirror in which we can see the state of our hearts.
When we see things around us that are vexing, do we raise up prayers to Him? Are we praying constantly for others or are we grumbling and complaining against them? Do we curse out politicians and those in authority over us or do we pray for them, asking that God deliver them from error and save them? In all, is our heart full of prayers or bitterness?
The issue at hand is the pleasure of God. We generally tend, in the flesh, toward self-focus and self-glory. The root of sin is the desire to be as god, to be one’s own final standard and authority so the action of seeking God’s pleasure is alien to us in sin. I personally struggle with the idea that praying for enemies of God is pleasing to Him. It’s much easier to sit back and excoriate those who champion abortion, sexual sin, and so on. Proverbs 24:21-22 reads:
“My son, fear the Lord and the king; Do not associate with those who are given to change (are revolutionary), for their calamity will rise suddenly, and who knows the ruin that comes from both of them?”
To fear the Lord and yet to despise authority is a contradiction in terms since it is God who has given us the commandment. We live in His world so we live in a created place that has many sub-authorities all running back to His ultimate authority. The heart of the commandment to obey one’s parents is to understand that God has established lesser magistrates and authorities throughout life. One’s family, one’s conscience, church, and the civil magistrate all form fences around the sinner’s desire for complete autonomy. Thus, the desire to throw off these bonds is the attempt to be free from God’s rule.
To fear the king in the Lord is to desire the blessings of peace. A land with no king or functioning government is a land of anarchy (Judges 21:25) – a land of raw power and abuse of the weak. Anarchy is not God’s will for man. And yet a land with a government who believes it is its own king, not the Lord, is one of tyranny. Scripture commands us to pray for leaders and authorities to come to Christ in faith and then so execute their offices that there is peace. Man struggles, outside of Christ, against both the riptide and the crashing waves of anarchy and tyranny. In sin, he covets a world where there is no power over him, no responsibility or accountability. In sin, man wrongly thinks that freedom means not God’s law but self-rule. Sin lies to us and says that self-indulgence and autonomy are freedom. The truth is that sin brings calamity and conflict. Sin always promises pleasure and freedom but delivers shame and slavery.
Over against this, the peaceful and quiet life of service of the Lord is the desire of the Christian soul. The soul that’s set on self is obsessed with “getting ahead” or “making its mark” or the love of money. Assumed in this text is that the highest good in life is the pleasure of the Lord, not self. A love of self sets off constant power struggles. Is Washington, D.C. carrying on with endless acrimony? It’s because man outside of God lusts for power.
We won’t pray for authorities and rulers unless we understand that the earth is the Lord’s and that there are no authorities outside of Him. Every structure and authority is His. Our prayer is, therefore, that all will come to recognize this and act accordingly. Peace will not come to earth unless and until man loves the Lord and not self. There can’t be love and peace in man’s phony kingdoms, only in God’s because the former is anti-reality and peace can no more come in sin than a bird or a dog can build a city. To pray for our enemies means to pray for their salvation for this is exactly how we are to overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21).
All attempts to have peace and joy outside of God’s will and word are suicidal missions of folly (Proverbs 8:36). The peaceful and quiet life, or the co-existence that many claim to desire, can only be found in Christ because only He vanquishes sin. Mankind simply cannot keep his sin and find peace too anymore than a man can close his eyes and see. This is why an effectual and sincere prayer for peace must include the petition that our rulers know and obey Him who saves. For this reason the church should be praying for all people – all types without discrimination or distinction. The gospel is for everyone. Rich or poor. Foreigners and aliens. All people.
And lastly, Paul’s charge to us means that we don’t only pray vaguely for the world but also for those whom we specifically know. We should pray for our governors and mayors. Our teachers and principals. The police chief and the officers we encounter. Or the lady we working at the store. The Christian heart is a praying heart. If we’re moving through our day in a critical spirit we have no peace. God is pleased when we’re going about with a spirit of thanksgiving, resting on the foundation of grace and all that love poured into our hearts. And all this gratitude overflows into a prayerful heart.
This and only this is our path to peace.
And it’s pleasing to God, which is our highest goal and privilege.
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