1 Timothy 2:1-4, Amplified Bible,
1. FIRST OF all, then, I admonish and urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be offered on behalf of all men,
2. For kings and all who are in positions of authority or high responsibility, that [outwardly] we may pass a quiet and undisturbed life [and inwardly] a peaceable one in all godliness and reverence and seriousness in every way.
3. For such [praying] is good and right, and [it is] pleasing and acceptable to God our Savior,
4. Who wishes all men to be saved and [increasingly] to perceive and recognize and discern and know precisely and correctly the [divine] Truth.
Recently I have been thinking about this Scripture, one reason is because of the election. I know whom I want to President, but I also need to pray for those whom I don’t want in office, not necessarily against them, but for God’s will to be accomplished. As all percipients are in authority, in a government capacity one way or another, “they are in authority.”
I just want to speak about American now. How do I pray for those in authority, what do I pray? Yes I know I am to pray God’s Will, 1 John 5:14, 15.
Here are some comments on verse 2 from scholars of years gone by;
As it is a positive maxim (a general rule of truth) of Christianity to pray for all secular persons, so it has ever been the practice of Christians. When St. Cyprian defended himself before the Roman proconsul, he said: "We pray to God, not only for ourselves, but for all mankind, and particularly for the emperors."
Tertullian, in his Apology, is more particular: "We pray for all the emperors, that God may grant them long life, a secure government, a prosperous family, vigorous troops, a faithful senate (boy don’t this one ring true for today), an obedient people; that the whole world may be in peace; and that God may grant, both to Caesar and to every man, the accomplishment of their just desires."
Origen: "We pray for kings and rulers, that with their royal authority they may be found possessing a wise and prudent mind." Indeed they prayed even for those who persecuted them.
If the state of our government is not “in safety”, we as individuals cannot be secure. Self-preservation, therefore, should lead us to pray for the government under which we live. Rebellions and insurrections seldom end even in political good; and even where the government is radically bad, revolutions themselves are most precarious and hazardous. Regardless, if our government seems to be “in peace” or turmoil we have to pray for our leaders.
“That we may lead a quiet and peaceable life.” So we pray for government that the public peace may be preserved. Good rulers have power to do much good; we pray that their authority may be ever preserved and well directed. Of course bad rulers have power to do much evil; we pray that they be prevented from using their powering such a way. So that, whether the ruler be good or bad, prayer for them is the duty of all Christians; and the answer to their prayers, in either case, will be the means of their being enabled to lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
So we should pray for those in authority over us if we wish to reap the benefits of good government, which is a prized gift from God for the church’s welfare and advancement of the gospel.
Verse 3 and 4 tell us “That this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, who wants all men saved.”
Verse 3. “This is good and acceptable.” Prayer for all in authority is good in itself, because it is useful to us (church) and to the public at large, and it is acceptable in the sight of God; and this is its highest sanction and its highest character: it is good; it is well pleasing to God.
Verse 4. “Who will have all men to be saved.” Because he wills the salvation of all men; therefore, he wills that all men should be prayed for. I have often said “that if each of us would pray for our family members to be saved”, then would not the Gospel spread a lot faster, especially in America?
“And to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” The truth - the Gospel of Christ, should be proclaimed to them; and it is the duty of all who know it, to spread it throughout the world, and when it is made known, then it is up to them who hear it to acknowledge and receive it. This is the proper import of the original word, that they may come to the acknowledgment of the truth - that they may receive it as the truth, and make it the rule of their faith, the model and director of their life and actions.
Kenneth Copeland used to have some good prayers for “government” on his website. I do pray for our leaders to be surrounded with godly people.
I copied this from the Believer's Voice of Victory, August issue. David Barton has been on the BVOV TV show at least a couple times.
As a nation, Americans have grown accustomed to hearing that we are a democracy. But did you know that such was never the intent of our founding fathers? Our founders had an opportunity to establish a democracy in America and chose not to. In fact, the founders made it clear that we were not, and were never to become, a democracy. The form of government entrusted to us by our founders was a republic, not a democracy.
Many Americans today seem to be unable to define the difference between the two, but there is a difference—a big difference. That difference rests in the source of authority.
A pure democracy operates by the direct majority vote of the people. When an issue is to be decided, the entire population votes on it and the majority wins and rules.
A republic differs in that the general population elects representatives who then pass laws to govern the nation. A democracy is the rule by majority feeling, what the founders described as a mobocracy, rule of the mob. A republic is rule by law.
If the source of law for a democracy is the popular feeling of the people, then what is the source of law for the American republic? According to Founder Noah Webster: “Our citizens should early understand that the genuine source of correct republican principles is the Bible, particularly the New Testament, or the Christian religion.”
The transcendent values of biblical natural law were the foundation of the American republic. Consider the stability this provides: In our republic, murder will always be a crime, for it is always a crime according to the Word of God. However, in a democracy, if a majority of the people decide that murder is no longer a crime, murder will no longer be a crime.
Benjamin Rush similarly observed: “Where there is no law, there is no liberty; and nothing deserves the name of law but that which is certain and universal in its operation upon all the members of the community.”
In the American republic, the “principles which did not change” and which were “certain and universal in their operation upon all the members of the community” were the principles of biblical natural law. In fact, so firmly were these principles secured in the American republic that early law books taught that government was free to set its own policy only if God had not ruled in an area. The founders understood that biblical values formed the basis of the republic and that the republic would be destroyed if the people’s knowledge of those values should ever be lost.
A republic is the highest form of government devised by man, but it also requires the greatest amount of human care and maintenance. If neglected, it can deteriorate into a variety of lesser forms, including a democracy (a government conducted by popular feeling); anarchy (a system in which each person
determines his own rules and standards); oligarchy (a government run by a small council or a group of elite individuals); or dictatorship (a government run by a single individual). As John Adams explained:
Democracy will soon degenerate into an anarchy; such an anarchy that every man will do what is right in his own eyes and no man’s life or property or reputation or liberty will be secure, and every one of these will soon mould itself into a system of subordination of all the moral virtues and intellectual abilities, all the powers of wealth, beauty, wit, and science, to the wanton pleasures, the capricious will, and the execrable [abominable] cruelty of one or a very few.
Understanding the foundation of the American republic is a vital key toward protecting it.
David Barton, nationally known author and public speaker, is the founder and president of WallBuilders, a pro-family organization which seeks to educate grass-roots society to rebuild America’s constitutional, moral and religious foundations.
For more information go to www.wallbuilders.com, call 817-441-6044 or write to WallBuilders, P.O. Box 397, Aledo, TX 76008-0397.