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Exhortation to supplication for all men, especially for those in authority
1Ti_2:1-7
1Ti_2:2. For kings, and for all that are in authority. After this general injunction, some are named who need a special place in public prayers. There is no designation of Antonine and his associate rulers (Baur)—which, certainly, would be internal evidence of the spuriousness of the Epistle—but a general designation of the class, including the Roman emperor then or afterward living, and all under him invested with high office (comp. Rom_13:1).—That we may; not a statement of the character of the prayer, but of its purpose; and this, too, not in the subjective, but objective view. The Apostle does not mean that the church should be influenced, through such petitions, to lead a quiet and peaceable life under authority; but he supposes that God, who guides the hearts of kings as the water-brooks (Pro_21:1), will, in answer to the prayer of the church, move the hearts of kings, and of all in authority, to leave Christians at rest.—A quiet and peaceable life. No immoderate striving after the crown of martyrdom, but a quiet life to the glory of God, is the highest ideal. According to Olshausen, ἤñåìïò denotes an inward, ἡóý÷éïò an outward rest; but others differ. It is most desirable that Christians should thus pass ( äéÜãåéí ) their lives in all godliness and honesty. [The word rendered honesty should be gravity, according to Alford, Conybeare, and others. It should be remembered, however, that honesty, at the time of our English Version, came nearer than now to the idea of honorable or respectable, which lies at the root of óåìíüôçò .—W.] These last two words mark the sphere of the Christian life. ÅὐóÝâåéᾳ , a word which, with Paul, occurs only in the Pastoral Epistles, and denotes our disposition toward God; óåìíüôçò , an expression also peculiar to the Pastoral Epistles, refers to the outward relation of the Christian toward his fellow-men. Wiesinger justly remarks, from a manuscript note of Olshausen, that a strong light is thrown on this whole exhortation, when we recal the conduct of the Jews shortly before the destruction of Jerusalem. It had been already enjoined in the Old Testament that the Jews should pray for their Gentile rulers (comp. Jer_29:7; Ezr_6:10). The custom remained among them. Augustus ordered that a lamb should be offered for him daily in the temple; and, until the destruction of Jerusalem, this usage lasted; but the Zealots regarded it as a Divine worship, and demanded that the offering should cease. Joseph., De Bello Jud.ii. 17. [This injunction of St. Paul became the rule of the early church; and it is interesting to trace it in the prayers for kings found in almost all the primitive liturgies. Liturgia Basilii, Goar, Rit. Græc., pp. 171, 178; Liturgia Marci, Renaudot, Lit. Orient., tom. 1, p. 133; Miss. Sarisb. Missa pro Rege, Lit. Gallic., Mabillon, p. 246. Chrysostom informs us that it was the custom, in his day, to offer daily prayers for kings and all in authority. Hom. 6 in 1 Tim. The prayers for the royal family, in the English Version, although they do not appear to have been translated from any very ancient offices, are yet, in substance and expression, conformed to the primitive. See Palmer, Orig. Liturg. We have here the true reverence of law which Christianity teaches. But we are never to confound this, or like maxims—e.g., Rom_13:1—with any theory of the divine right of kings, or with “passive obedience” to any tyranny, as has been done by some divines. The political duty of men in a Christian state cannot be the same with that of the primitive church under a Nero.—W.]
1Ti_2:3. For this is good and acceptable; ôïῦôï sc. ðáéåῖóèáé ἐíôåýî . The Apostle now adds various motives (1Ti_2:3-7) toward obeying the exhortation given in 1Ti_2:1-2. The first is, that every such prayer is good in and for itself, êáëüí ; it shows the true Christian spirit which marks the professor of the gospel; it yields us the enjoyment of that privilege named in 1Ti_2:2. It is again, as a second motive, ἀðüäåêôïí ἐíþðéïí ôïῦ óùôῆñïò ἡìῶí Èåïῦ . This is God’s will; it befits His desire and purpose; it is already expressed in the name óùôÞñ , and this appears clearly from the following (1Ti_2:4-5). Our Saviour wills that all should be saved; and thus we pray for all, as the objects of His gracious will.
1Ti_2:4. Who will have all men to be saved. Paul teaches not only here, but in other places (comp. Rom_8:32; Rom_11:32; Tit_2:11), that the desire of God to bless all sinners is unlimited, yet it can be only in the ordained way of faith. And here, perhaps, he affirms it, in order to maintain this doctrine plainly against every Gnostic limitation of salvation, as well as to give a fit motive for prayer. For, had God willed the contrary of what is here revealed, it would be foolish and fruitless to pray for the welfare of others, when perhaps his or that person might be shut out from the plan of salvation. Yet more, the Apostle speaks here of the èÝëåéí of God in general, not of the âïýëçìá , which regards believers (Eph_1:11). It is therefore entirely needless, by any exegetical gloss, to limit the expression, all men, or to understand ðÜíôáò ἀíèñ . in the sense of all classes of men (which would make 1Ti_2:1 an absurdity).—Unto the knowledge of the truth; properly, not all truth, not even all religious truth in general, but Christian truth. This added clause explains through what means the óùèῆíáé of all men must be wrought.
1Ti_2:5. For there is one God the man Christ Jesus. The ground of the general redemptive plan of God is here so shown ( ãÜñ ) as to give a third motive in justification of Christian intercessions; the unity of person whence the plan of universal salvation has gone forth, and through whom it is completed. The unity of God, which the Apostle clearly declares in other places (Rom_3:29-30; 1Co_8:4; Eph_4:6), is here placed distinctly in the foreground, to show how arbitrary is any limit of Christian intercession; the unity of the Mediator, to prove that the Jew has not the least advantage over the heathen, since both must be saved in one and the same way. Ìåóßôçò , He who stands between God and man, in order to effect a new union (comp. Gal_3:20): “inter Deum atque homines medius constitutus;” Tertullianus. When Paul calls Him, finally, with special emphasis, the man Christ Jesus, it is not absolutely necessary to infer that he was opposing the heresy of Docetism (Huther), although such a purpose is quite possible and probable, when we think how early the real manhood of the Lord was doubted (1Jn_4:3), and what high dignity the first Gnostics ascribed to Æons and to angels. The thought, too, is genuinely Pauline (see Rom_5:15; 1Co_15:31; Php_2:7-8; Heb_2:16-17), and it is most fitting in this place, since the Lord, had He not been real man, could not have been also ìåóßôçò ; while, again, the ἀíèñþðùí just before called out almost involuntarily this emphatic ἄíèñùðïò .
1Ti_2:6. Who gave himself. This expresses the mode in which the Mediator has fulfilled His office, and the universality of the redemptive plan. Has given, äïýò , comp. Gal_1:4; Tit_2:14. The voluntary character of the offering of the Lord is here, as often before, set forth by the Apostle; and although he does not speak in express words of this sacrifice in his death, yet it follows from the very purpose of the Mediator to give a ransom for all; since the price of redemption could be nothing less than Himself, His blood, and life. Ἀíôßëõôñïí , somewhat stronger yet than the usual ëýôñïí (Mat_20:28), since the idea of an exchange, which lies in the substantive itself, gains special force from the preposition (Matthies). In connection with ἀíôßëõôñïí , ὑðÝñ is not, in this place at least, simply to be understood in commodum (Huther), but here the idea of substitution must be firmly held. This one ransom weighs more than all the souls in whose place it is reckoned; and here, too, these souls are spoken of as ðÜíôåò . See further under Doctrinal and Ethical thoughts. [It appears by no means just, either on exegetical or doctrinal grounds, to draw the idea of substitution from this passage. The phrase ἀíôßëõôñïí simply includes the meaning of satisfaction, freedom purchased by a sufficient ransom. Undoubtedly the truth of a vicarious sacrifice in its living sense, Christ in us and we in Him, is the blessed truth of the word of God. But it has been the vice of theology always to lower this holy mystery of a Divine love and sacrifice to a commercial contract. The cur Deus homo of Anselm cannot explain that mystery so truly to the Christian reason or heart, as the few words of St. John the Divine: “God is love. God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son.” And it may be well for any who read this image of St. Paul, to weigh the following profound sentence of Coleridge. “Forgiveness of sin, the abolition of guilt, through the redemptive power of Christ’s love, and of His perfect obedience, is expressed, on account of the resemblance of the consequence in both cases, by the payment of a debt for another, which debt the payer had not himself incurred. Now the impropriation of this metaphor (i. e., the taking it literally), by transferring the sameness from the consequents to the antecedents, or inferring the identity of the causes from a resemblance in the effects, this view or scheme of redemption, grounded on this confession, I believe to be altogether unscriptural;” “Aids to Reflection, Aphor. 19, on Spirit. Relig.”—W.]—To be testified in due time; ôὸ ìáñôýñéïí êáéñïῖò ἰäßïéò . Luther: “That it should be preached in his own time;” Vulgata: “cujus testimonium temporibus suis confirmatum est.” Chrysostom, and other Church fathers, incorrectly understand the suffering and death of the Lord as itself the ìáñôýñéïí . But the idea (Huther) that the reference is to the preaching of the gospel, which has now been sent at a fitting time, seems alike arbitrary, since in this case the beginning of 1Ti_2:7 sinks almost to fiat tautology. We think, rather, that ìáñôýñéïí should here be held in apposition to ἀíôßëõôñïí ; to wit, that the Apostle calls this sacrifice of the Lord in death for our ransom the great ìáñôýñéïí ; the witness of the truth stated in 1Ti_2:4, which is raised above all doubt through this blessed revelation of grace. Since this offering is made, there cannot be any further question whether God wills the salvation of all. The Apostle does not speak of a testimony which he is the first to affirm, but one to which God has given witness already in His Son; and in 1Ti_2:7 he first alludes to his own personal connection with it. “Innuitur testimonium redemtionis universalis;” Bengel.—In due time, êáéñïῖò ἰäßïéò ; that is, in the time foreordained by God, and for this reason most fitting; in other words, in the ðëÞñùìá ô . êáéñïῦ (Gal_4:4); comp. 1Ti_6:15; Act_17:26; Tit_1:2.
1Ti_2:7. Whereunto I am ordained. Åἴò ὁ , ad quod (testimonium, sc. annunciandum); another remembrance of his apostolic calling and dignity, as 1Ti_1:12. Paul points to the universal character of his calling, as proof of the universality of Divine grace; and this again as the great motive to pray for all.—A preacher; this general design of his calling is denoted by a name suited to all messengers of the gospel, and precedes the specific official title, ἀðüóôïëïò .—I speak the truth, &c. (comp. Rom_9:1). A solemn adjuration, which, in view of so weighty a matter, and the many personal misjudgments concerning Paul, is quite appropriate here, and may well awaken confidence, not distrust. Although this digression has no logical force, it agrees well with a friendly, confiding letter like this, where his heart speaks in the most artless manner.—A teacher of the Gentiles. A more exact statement of the special sphere in which he is called to the work of his apostolic office. This mention of his peculiar gift lends new force to his exhortation to pray for all men.—In faith and in verity. Not only in true faith (Heydenreich, Mack, De Wette), but both conceptions are to be closely distinguished. Faith (a noteworthy variation, ἐí ðíåýìáôé ), means faith in Christ, which is the great personal motive in the life of the Apostle; truth, that objective Christian truth itself, which is known and received by faith. The preposition ἐí seems, as often, to denote the means whereby the Apostle sought to reach the appointed end. That the words are to be taken as a formal assertion, like ἀëÞè . ëÝãù (1Ti_2:6), is not probable.
2. According to the express teaching of the Apostle, Christianity is the great instrument of salvation for all men. If the word ἐêêëçóßá is rightly understood, the saying, extra ecclesiam nulla salus, has a sound sense. The right of Christian missionary work is grounded in this faith. The universality of God’s plan of redemption is the mightiest spur of that Christian humanity which embraces all men. It is impossible, therefore, to be truly human, if one is not truly Christian; and it is alike contradictory to profess ourselves truly Christian, without being human.
3. “God wills that all men should be saved.” It is a sorry dogmatism which would weaken the proof given in this passage for the universality of the plan of redemption, by exegetical arts; e.g., when any seek to explain will in the absurd sense of desire; or all men in the sense of all classes—as Calvin and others have here done. Exegetical honesty forbids us to find in this place less than what is said, in other words, in 1Ti_4:10 and 2Pe_3:9. The inevitable necessity of an ἀðïêáôÜóôáóéò ðÜíôùí , from the fact that at some time, sooner or later, what God wills must be fulfilled, does not follow, however, from this position. The will of God here spoken of is not absolute, but conditional; i. e., God wills that all men be saved by means of faith; but as faith, on the one side, is a gift of grace, so, on the other, it is a duty, whose neglect deserves punishment, and unbelief is a guilt that must have its reckoning. Against such views of Universalism we urge also, in their full force, the many positive expressions which set forth the eternal blessedness of believers, as grounded in the free decisions of God, and His grace in Christ. True wisdom lies not in sacrificing one series of these conceptions to the other, but in holding both with equal strength, since the unity of the seeming contradictions must be always a problem for Christian philosophy. These apostolic expressions, finally, give the fullest right to the freest, most unlimited, and powerful announcement of the gospel, while it must be left to God to show us the perfection of His purposes, and to justify them before our eyes. [It is the error of every theological system like that here alluded to, that it does not take its starting point from the moral facts of the Christian consciousness, but from the abstract idea of the Divine will. The iron chain of its logic must therefore end in a fatalism, which excludes all moral conditions based on the free choice of man. Such a premise may end in the dogma of absolute decrees and limited atonement; or it may equally lead to Universalism. If the will of God be irrespective of human action, there can be no limit to His grace. Or, again, if it be a logic within the circle of purely speculative ideas, it will end in the Pantheism of Spinoza; in an impersonal substance, of which all human actions are only phenomena, without any moral quality of good or evil. All these are forms of the same ground error. A Christian theology begins with the facts of our personal being, of sin and responsibility, and thence reasons to the character of God. The sentence of Hooker, B. 1, c. 2, is profound: “They err, who think that of the will of God to do this or that, there is no reason besides His will.” And this of Cudworth, Serm. I., breathes the heart of the gospel: “It is the sweetest flower in all the garland of His attributes, that He is mighty to save; and this is far more magnificent for Him than to be styled mighty to destroy. For that, except it be in a way of justice, speaks no power at all, but mere impotency; for the root of all power is goodness.”—W.]
4. If the death of the Saviour is revealed as a ransom for all, it is most important to distinguish between the power of His death, which is great enough to effect the redemption of all, and the fruit of His death, which is shared only by the believing and regenerate. As to the first point, the words of Augustin are weighty; Sermo 114, de tempore: “Unâ morte universum mundum, sicut omnium conditor, ita omnium reparator, absolvit: indubitanter enim credimus, quod totum mundum redemit, qui plus dedit, quam totus mundus valeret.” The other point is met by the words of the Saviour: “The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep;” and again: “I pray not for the world, but for those whom thou hast given me;” John 10, 17.
5. According to the express doctrine of our Apostle, the mediatorial office of the man Christ Jesus is not only the cardinal truth of Christianity, but the conditio sine quâ non of the eternal salvation of man. The existence of the only God would be, indeed, no glad message for fallen man, did he not hear also of a Mediator between God and man. In contrast to this soteriological doctrine of the Apostle, the boldness of many at this day is strange indeed, who assert that they need no Mediator, but that man can go directly to the Father without the Son. Such men lack above all the living knowledge of the desert of sin, and the holiness of God. The God whom they approach is not the God revealed in the Scriptures, but rather the idol of their own darkened understanding.
[We may fitly append here a passage from Archbishop Trench’s “Sermons,” which sets forth the living view of the mediatorial sacrifice, as it is distinguished alike from any forensic theory of imputation, and any denial of it on moral grounds. “Could God be well-pleased with the sufferings of the innocent and holy? What satisfaction could He find in these? Assuredly not: but be could have pleasure—nay, according to the moral necessities of His own being, he must have the highest joy, satisfaction, and delight—in the love, the patience, the obedience, which those sufferings gave Him the opportunity of displaying. Nor was it, as some among the schoolmen taught, that God arbitrarily ascribed and imputed to Christ’s obedience unto death a value which made it equal to the needs and sins of the whole world. We affirm rather with the deeper theologians of those and all times, who crave to deal with realities, not ascriptions and imputations, that His offering had in itself this intrinsic value. Christ satisfied herein, not the Divine anger, but the Divine craving after a perfect holiness, righteousness, and obedience in man.”—W.]
6. Against all Docetist tendencies which now and then appear in the church, the Apostle’s assertion of the real manhood of Christ has always the deepest significance. There is among the strong defenders of the divinity of the Son far more Crypto-Docetism, far more fear of allowing the full and undiminished truth of Christ’s humanity, than they themselves know. On the other side, it is much to be wished that all who rightly hold the ἄíèñùðïò Ἰ . ×ñ ., could as readily accept what the Apostle further says in the Pastoral Epistles, in respect to the divinity of the Lord; see 1Ti_3:16; Tit_2:13. The very Docetism so early visible in the apostolic age, is an indirect proof of the superhuman character of the Saviour. His appearance was so wonderful, that men could not at first believe Him to be real man.
7. “Christianity knits the ties by which natural religion binds men to one God still more closely, through the one only Mediator; for He points to the one centre of all. Christ is the bond of the God-head and manhood;” Heubner.
8. The apostolic command to pray for all men has been often interpreted as allowing prayers for the dead. The words of Luther are noteworthy on this subject, Kirchenpostille, Dom. I., Post Trin.: “We have no command from God to pray for the dead, therefore no one can sin who does not pray for them. For, in what God has neither commanded nor forbidden, no man can sin. Yet, because God has not granted us to know the state of the soul, and we must be uncertain whether it has not met already its final doom, and therefore cannot tell if the soul be condemned, it is no sin that thou prayest for the dead; but in such wise, that thou leave it in doubt, and say thus: ‘Dear God, if this soul be in that state that Thou yet mayest help it, I pray Thee to Le gracious unto it.’ For God has promised to hear us in what we ask. Therefore, if thou hast prayed once, or thrice, thou shouldest believe that thou art heard, and pray no more, lest thou tempt God.”
9. If we have, according to the doctrine of the Apostle, only one Mediator between God and man, then the invocation of saints, and Mariolatry especially, as practiced in the Roman Church in recent times, is already condemned in its very principle.
Starke: Osiander: Christians ought not only to pray for those who, like them, profess some sort of religion, but for all men, that God will guide their hearts to the gospel of Christ.—Lange’s Opp.: There is in intercession for others the purest exercise of love for others.—One of the best and most valuable kinds of tax which we owe and may pay to our rulers, is to pray for them, and to thank God heartily for the good we receive through them.—Anton: Prayer is a real Noah’s ark, in which we may shut ourselves amidst threatening floods.—We cannot else pass through the tossing world (Luke) Luk_18:7-8).—Bibl. Würt.: If God is minded to bring all men to the knowledge of the truth, who do not wilfully shut their eyes to it; if Christ has given Himself in death for all, that they may be kept from eternal ruin, we ought also, as holy children, to follow this example of God and Christ, gladly encourage all to seek their eternal health and salvation, and omit nothing which may aid toward it (Rom_10:1).—Lange’s Opp.: How can the Christian religion be other than true, since it leads to the knowledge of saving truths, while all other truths are only phantoms?—If it be the earnest will of God to save all men, none can excuse himself who remains godless and unbelieving.—Since the satisfaction of Christ is the masterwork and centre of the gospel, it must be chiefly urged by all teachers, and most fully embraced and believingly applied by all hearers (1Co_1:23; Gal_2:20).—Osiander: The gospel of Christ belongs to the Gentiles also (Isa_49:6).—Heubner: Common prayer is a means of uniting hearts, a true bond of the Church.—Where the best Christians are, there are the best citizens.—Polytheism severs nations; Christianity binds all in one.—An angel could not be the Reconciler of the world.—All perfect virtue is self-sacrifice, a denial of my personal self, just as every ungodly life is egoism.—Christian integrity speaks truth.—Lisco: The duty of common prayer.—Intercession a work of love.—The greatest thought, the noblest deed, and the holiest decision.
1Ti_2:1-6. Epistle for Rogation day, in the Grand Duchy of Hesse and elsewhere.—Beck: Intercession, the consecration of a life of prayer.—Intercession the crown of prayer.—Knippenberg: On the right spirit of Christian intercession.—Dräseke: Christian intercession considered, (1) In its nature; (2) in its dignity; (3) in its effects.—Dietzsch: The wish of a Christian people for the welfare of its rulers.—W. Hofacker: Of the right priestly spirit, as the need of our time.
Footnotes:
1Ti_2:1.—[ ðáñáêáëῶ ; ðáñáêÜëåé , G.—evidently, as Huther says, a conjecture for the sake of giving to the Apostle’s address to Timothy the form of a command.—E. H.]
1Ti_2:1.—[ ðñῶôïí ðÜíô .; not, at the beginning or opening of public service (C. and H. after Chrysostom), but “before all things”—as the author, who follows Huther, observes, the words are to be connected with ðáñáêáëῶ .—E. H.]
1Ti_2:2.—[ óåìíüôçôé . If the English word respectability had not lost its meaning, it would perhaps be the proper word to express the sense of the Apostle here. Dignity is too stately. Vulgate: “castitate.” Calvin: “honestate.” C. and H.: “gravity.” German Version: “Ehrbarkeit.” The word means on estate or condition of honor, &c., founded upon the possession of the corresponding moral quality, honesty.—E. H.]
1Ti_2:6.—[ ôὸ ìáñôýñéïí ; omitted by A., and rejected by Lachmann. It stands in the Sinaiticus without the article. In some MSS. ïὗ was written before ôὸ ìáñ . The omission from A. is certainly singular. The sense is much better with than without the words. Tischendorf retains them. Huther says that Lachmann did; but this is a mistake—at least, they are not in the large edition of 1850.—E. H.]
1Ti_2:7.—The words of the Recepta, ἐí ×ñéóôῷ , are wanting in A. D.1 F. G., and others, and for this reason have been left out by Griesbach, Scholz, Lachmann, Tischendorf, and others. Perhaps they were introduced from Rom_9:1. The Sinaiticus has retained them. [They are not in Murdock’s Syriac Translation.—E. H.]