Dr. Paul Manuel—2019
I. The priority of God is a supplication
for authorities (vv. 1-2).
Application: When you pray, do not make it all about you, but
make God’s priorities your priorities. (1 John 5:14)
II. The preference of God is a
salvation for everyone (vv. 3-4).
Application: While communicating the gospel is a sober
task, it is not something to dread, because it brings life to those who
are perishing (Rom 1:16).
III. The provision of God is a
savior for all (vv. 5-6).
Application: Whatever people think the reason Jesus came, the reason
Jesus gives is the most important: redemption from sin (Acts 4:12).
IV. The promotion of God is a spokesman for
gentiles (v. 7).
Application: No matter how indirect the route may seem at
the time, it will always be the most direct route in the end
to the destination He sends you (Isa 55:8-9).
1 Tim
2:1 I urge first of all, that
requests, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for everyone— 2 for
kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in
all godliness and holiness.
Paul lists the various
means God’s people in the church militant[1]
use when communicating with Him: “requests, prayers, intercession, and
thanksgiving” (v. 1).[2]
Then he recommends the ones who are to be the subjects of such interaction: “everyone
[especially] kings and all those in authority” (v. 2).[3]
Finally, he gives the intended outcome of such interaction for the supplicants:
“peaceful and quiet lives” in “godliness and holiness” (v. 2).[4]
One of these means of
communication is to express “thanksgiving” (v. 1). Ordinarily, “thank you” is a
response to someone who has done something favorable for you, but simply being
grateful is empty and unfocussed if you do not specify the person responsible
for your boon. At that point it is merely a vague and vacuous sentiment. In
contrast, a statement of gratitude should identify the responsible party, especially
when that party is God. Whenever God is the reason for your benefit, He should
be the expressed recipient of your gratitude, the clear object of your
appreciation (Manuel 2019).
Application: How is your prayer life? Does it regularly include
those in authority as well as stating the intended outcome (e.g., “peaceful and
quiet lives”)? If so, then you are praying according to Paul’s instructions. If
not, then you should not be surprised when God’s response is not what you
request. As James explains:
You
want something but don’t get it…because you do not ask God. [And even] when
you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives. (Jms 4:2-3)
When you pray, do not make it all about you, but make God’s priorities your priorities. “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us” (1 John 5:14). Whether or not God grants your request, there is comfort in knowing that He is not ignoring you or simply dismissing you out of hand. God pays attention to prayers that reflect His priorities. Whose priorities do your prayers reflect?
Having stated the
importance of praying according to God’s priorities, Paul explains what one of
those priorities is.
II. The preference of God is
a salvation for everyone (vv. 3-4).
1
Tim 2:3 This is good, and pleases God
our Savior, 4 who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the
truth.
Make your primary ambition
in life to please God, which you do by obeying Him. As Paul writes elsewhere:[5]
We
make it our goal to please him. (2 Cor 5:9)
—and—
Live in order to
please God. (1 Thess
4:1)
Paul goes on to explain more specifically how you can
please God: by advancing His agenda that “all men…come to a knowledge of the
truth” (v. 4). This, of course, presupposes that you have more than a passing
acquaintance with “the truth,” that you actually know it. So, “What is truth?” (John 18:38), as Pilate asks Jesus? Truth is not an opinion that
varies from person to person. There is no “my” truth and “your” truth, or what
is true for me and what is true for you. There is only the truth, which
is what God establishes. Moreover, truth is not some vague concept, hard to pin
down. Truth is propositional, something you can articulate and communicate to
others. Paul writes to the Corinthian church: “By setting forth the truth
plainly
we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. And…if our
gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.” (2 Cor 4:2-3). The apostle
equates this task of communicating the truth with promoting the good news of
Jesus,[6]
who is the “the truth” (John 14:6), “gospel,” which he recognizes can be a
challenging task, being something a person can accept or reject.[7]
Application: Does your attitude match God’s attitude? Do you
“want all men to be saved”? God has provided you with the instructions to make
that possible, not that you can save anyone but that you can direct a
person to the one who alone can save. That is a heady opportunity, which is how
you should view evangelism, rather than only as a weighty responsibility.[8]
While communicating the gospel is a sober task, it is not something to dread,
because it brings life to those who are perishing: “The gospel…is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has
faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Rom
1:16). Do you seize the opportunities to
promote the gospel that God places before you or do you seek to avoid them, perhaps
thinking that another opportunity will arise later if you miss this one or that
someone else will eventually step forward? As Mordecai said to Queen Esther, “Who knows but that you
have come to [this] position for such a time as this?” (Esth 4:14) Do not
underestimate God’s providential hand at work in your life.
Paul then explains how
God makes allowance for man’s future, both in what man can know and in what man
can experience.
III. The provision of God is a
savior for all (vv. 5-6).
1
Tim 2:5 For there is one God and one
mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a
ransom for all men—the testimony given in its proper time.[9]
Some people think God
should be ecumenical, open to alternative means of approach, like the options other
religions propose. But in this regard, He is narrow-minded, even closed-minded
(Manuel 2012a). There is only “one God and one mediator between God and man”
(v. 5). Early, God makes clear to people that their options for expressing
devotion are limited: “You shall have no other gods before me. (Exod 20:3). It is a
position He reiterates, as He does several times through Isaiah alone:
I
am the LORD, and there is no
other; apart from me there is no God. (Isa 45:5)
Turn
to me and be saved…for I am God, and there is no other. (Isa 45:22)
I am
God, and there is none like me. (Isa 46:9)
Later, He makes clear to people that their options for receiving
salvation are limited. This is also a position He reiterates:
She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name
Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. (Matt 1:21)
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name
[i.e., means] under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)
All
the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives
forgiveness of sins through his name. (Acts 10:43)
There is only one sovereign, and there is only one savior. There
are no other options. Miss this train and you miss out (Manuel 2009).
The Lord is a big God.
As such, He has big plans, including wanting “all men to be saved” (v. 4). That
is a tall order, but it should not be a problem, especially for an omnipotent deity
who provides an all sufficient means of atonement for their sin, “a ransom for
all men (v. 6), not just some men. The problem is that “all men” are not
cooperative. Some men, the vast majority, in fact, reject His grace. Hence,
Jesus’ exhortation:
Enter
through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that
leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to
life, and only a few find it. (Matt 7:13-14)
As an all-powerful being, could He not simply overrule men’s
rejection and save them despite themselves? Yes, He could, but He chooses not
to do so, because He respects men’s free will and prefers people who will serve
Him of their own volition.[10]
God provides the means
to approach Him but, as the prophet Joel states, it is then man’s
responsibility to reciprocate, to reach out to God: “Everyone who calls on the
name of the LORD will be saved” (2:32). All men are within the scope of
God’s redemption. Jesus himself says, “Whoever wishes, let
him take the free gift of the water of life” (Rev 22:17). In other words, God
offers salvation to man, but He does not force salvation on man. As Samuel Porter Jones (1847-1906), an American
Methodist Evangelist, titled his famous sermon: “Whosoever will may come.”
The Son of Man came
to seek and to save what was lost. (Luke 19:10)
God
[sent] his Son…to save the world. (John 3:17)
I did not come to
judge the world, but to save it. (John 12:47)
Jesus is the only one through whom God makes salvation
available.[12]
John states that “Jesus…purifies us from all sin” and that “Jesus…is the [propitiation] for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 1:7;
2:1-2).
Whatever people think the reason Jesus came, the reason Jesus gives is
the most important: redemption from sin.
Although God has a
long-held specific concern for His people Israel, He also has concern for people
in general, and He called one individual in particular to meet that need.
IV. The promotion of God is a spokesman for
gentiles (v. 7).
1
Tim 2:7 And for this purpose I was
appointed a herald and an apostle—I am telling the truth, I am not lying[13]—and
a teacher of the true faith to the Gentiles.
God used His people to tell others about
Him or about some aspect of His plan (Manuel 2005):
• God used an Israelite slave girl to inform Naaman,
the Aramean general, about Elisha’s
ability to treat his malady:
“If only my master would see the
prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.” (2 Kgs 5:3)
• God used Daniel, a former
captive, to interpret a dream the Babylonian ruler Nebuchadnezzar had
about the disposition of his
empire:
“The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is
true and the interpretation is trustworthy.” (Dan
2:45)
• God used a former
persecutor of the church to inform many others about Jesus:
“This
man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and
their kings and before the people of Israel.”
(Acts 9:15)
Paul was not
self-appointed to the ministry of the gospel. When Jesus confronted Saul on
road to Damascus, he gave him an assignment the Pharisee was not at all
expecting. Saul was coming to arrest and extradite dangerous religious insurgents.
Instead, Paul became one of those insurgents and an outspoken advocate
of their cause. He began as an enemy agent of the earthly high priest[14]
but ended as a friendly agent of the heavenly high priest.
Although Paul’s audience
was to include both Jews and gentiles, animosity from Jews sometimes caused him
to redirect his efforts:
[In Antioch] Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly:
“We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not
consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the gentiles. (Acts
13:46-47)
[In Macedonia]
when the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in
protest and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clear of my
responsibility. From now on I will go to the gentiles.” (Acts 18:6)
Paul’s regular practice upon entering a new area was to visit
the local synagogue first, because that is where he would find the most likely
receptive audience.[15]
Still, he yearned to break fresh ground, to bring his message to a new group.
As he writes to the Roman church, “It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel
where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s
foundation” (Rom 15:20).[16]
Paul hoped to reach
previously unreached people, but he always returned to his roots. When he was imprisoned
in Rome, he initially met with members of the Jewish community there:
Paul
said to them: “My brothers…I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the
Romans…. For this reason I have asked to see you and talk with you. It is
because of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain.” … Some were
convinced by what he said, but others would not believe…. For two whole years
Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him.
Boldly and without hindrance he preached the kingdom of God and taught about
the Lord Jesus Christ. (Acts 28:17, 20, 24, 30-31)
Paul
understood that God’s concern was “first for the Jew, then for the Gentile”
(Rom 1:16). Still, he who began as a persecutor of the church became a promoter
of the church, and what started as a reform movement within Judaism soon grew
to include a greater number of gentiles.
Application: You may start a task with one goal in mind only to
find the goal change before you reach the end.[17]
That does not mean God has moved the goal posts, but He often provides a
clearer view as you make your way down the field of life. The Archimedes
axiom—The shortest distance between two points is a straight line—is as true in
theology as it is in geometry, but only when you realize that appearances can
be tricky (like the warning on a passenger’s sideview mirror: “objects are
closer than they appear”). God has a very different view of how things should
be. Therefore, when you follow His guidance, no matter how indirect the
route may seem at the time, it will always be the most direct
route in the end to the destination He sends you, which is the best destination.
Also, keep in mind that He may not reveal the destination before you arrive
lest you be tempted to take a shortcut.[18]
As He says through Isaiah,
“My thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your
thoughts. (Isa 55:8-9)
God takes a long view of life,[19]
and so should you. Jesus said, “He who stands firm to the end
will be saved”
(Matt 10:22; 24:13).[20]
Conclusion: God has a specific agenda that He will see through
to completion. Paul is part of that agenda and wants Timothy to be as well. It
is an agenda that is inclusive, even of all men, and answers the question, “What Does God Want?”.
Bibliography
a Kempis, Thomas
1958 The Imitation of
Christ. Chicago: Moody Press.
Bernard, J.H.
1980 The Pastoral Epistles. Grand Rapids:
Baker Book House, reprint ed.
Manuel, Paul http://paulwmanuel.blogspot.com
2005 “What About
Gentiles in the Theocratic Ideal?”
2007 “An
Equal-Accessibility Deity.” Soteriology Excursus 3 in A Reader’s Digest Approach to Theology.
2009 “The Fate of the
Unevangelized.” Soteriology Excursus 4 in A
Reader’s Digest Approach to Theology.
2012a “Inadequate Means of
Salvation.” Soteriology Excursus 8 in A
Reader’s Digest Approach to Theology.
2012b “Who Did Evangelism
in the Early Church?” Ecclesiology Excursus 2 in A Reader’s Digest Approach to Theology.
2013 “The Task of
Evangelism.” Ecclesiology Excursus 1 in A
Reader’s Digest Approach to Theology.
[1]This theological term distinguishes the church
on earth from the church in heaven (“church triumphant”), composed of all
glorified members.
[2]“The four words are not to be too sharply
distinguished, inasmuch as they point to different moods of the supplicant rather
than to the different forms into which public prayer may be cast” (Bernard
1980:38).
[3]Concern for government officials was especially
important for early Christians “when their attitude to the state religion
exposed them to the suspicion of disloyalty” (Bernard 1980:39).
[4]Whereas here Paul advocates praying for those
in authority, elsewhere he advocates obeying them:
Rom 13:1
Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no
authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist
have been established by God.
[5]John writes similarly:
1 John 3:22
We obey his commands and do what pleases him.
[6]Jesus himself is the embodiment of truth:
John 14:6 I am the way and the truth and
the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
[7]Complicating matters is resistance from the
opposition:
2 Cor 4:3 Even
if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. 4
In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers,
to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God.
[8]Contrary to popular belief, communicating the gospel is also
not for all believers all the time (Manuel 2012b, 2013).
[9]Timing is everything, an opinion with which God
agrees:
Gal 4:4 When
the time had fully come, God sent his Son.
[10]“That this Divine intention may be thwarted by
man’s misuse of his free will, is part of the great mystery of evil” (Bernard
1980:41).
[11]Others recognized the same reason for Jesus’
advent:
Matt 1:21 Jesus…will save his people from their sins.
1
Tim 1:15
Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. ()
[12]Not everyone has the advantage of knowing
Jesus, which is why faith is properly and ultimately in God the Father (Manuel
2007).
[13]Paul asserts his veracity on two other
occasions:
Rom
9:1 I speak
the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience
confirms it in the Holy Spirit.
2 Cor 11:31
The God and Father of the Lord Jesus, who is to
be praised forever, knows that I am not lying.
[14]By sending Paul to Damascus, was the high
priest trying to get rid of a troublemaker, was he really addressing a problem
in that city, or did Paul have another reason to go there?
[15]Paul assessed his audience as to their
openness:
Acts 17:22
Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that in
every way you are very religious.”
[16]Although Paul wants his ministry to be a new
work, it still depends on his predecessors, and someone else will follow him:
1 Cor 3:10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an
expert builder, and someone else is building on it.
[17]I had my sights set on teaching Hebrew and
prepared for it with that in mind but ended in the pastoral ministry instead:
“Man proposes but God disposes” (a Kempis 1958:40), a translation of the Latin
phrase Homo proponit, sed Deus disponit, and I would not want it
otherwise.
Prov 16:9 In his heart
a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.
Prov 19:21 Many are the plans
in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’S purpose that prevails.
Jer 10:23 I know, O
LORD, that a man’s life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps.
[18]Had I known early that my final destination
would be the pastoral ministry, I might have abbreviated my education (M.Div.
versus Ph.D.). That I did not have such information was probably necessary for
what God wanted me to accomplish, lest I take a less academically rigorous
route.
[19]The psalmists mention God’s long view:
Ps 48:14 This God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide
even to the end.
Ps
119:33
Teach me, O LORD, to follow your decrees; then I will keep them to the end.
[20]Endurance and perseverance are common NT themes:
1 Tim 4:16 Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because
if you do, you will save both yourself and your
hearers.
2
Tim 2:3
Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ
Jesus.
2
Tim 2:12 If
we endure, we will also reign with him.
Heb
10:36 You
need to persevere so that when you have done the
will of God, you will receive what he has promised.
Heb 12:1
Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses… let us run with perseverance the
race marked out for us…. 7 Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons.
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Relevant and civil comments are welcome. Whether there will be any response depends on whether Dr. Manuel notices them and has the time and inclination to respond or, if not, whether I feel competent to do so.
Jim Skaggs