All People

1 Timothy 2:1–7 NIV

1 I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people— 2 for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 3 This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time. 7 And for this purpose I was appointed a herald and an apostle—I am telling the truth, I am not lying—and a true and faithful teacher of the Gentiles.

Sometimes when we are studying the scripture, it is meaningful to look at repeated phrases. In this passage, we have the phrase “all people” repeated 3 times, and I want to use that as our outline for this morning’s message.

For whom should we pray? Where does Paul draw the line for Timothy?

Pray for All People

We are such a divided people in the world today. We seem to emphasize the things that separate us instead of the things that draw us together.

Paul advises Timothy that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be given for All People. That doesn’t leave anybody out! No matter how different they may be from us, no matter who they are to offer petitions - that means that we will pray for their needs to be filled. He says that we are to offer intercession - the idea that we are to pray on behalf of other people, that God would intervene in their lives. And finally, he says that we are to give thanks for “All People.” It is easy to give thanks for the people we love - our families, our friends, our fellow believers. It gets a whole lot more difficult to be thankful for people who don’t like us or people who are very unlike us.

He then advises Timothy to pray “for” kings and all those in authority. Regardless of who is in authority, we ought to pray for them, Paul says. This is advice not only for the leaders we agree with! The ruler at the time of this writing would have been Nero. We complain about some of our leaders often, but here are some things you ought to know about Nero.

Became emperor at the age of 17

Killed his mother.

Killed 2 of his wives.

Very popular in his early reign.

He was accused of setting the great fire of Rome.

He was known for persecuting christians

He built a golden house with a golden statue of himself

There are other facts about his life that are even more sordid, but I’d rather not talk about them here.

And yet - Paul says to pray for him! Perhaps the key here is that he says pray “for” kings and leaders. The people of Rome were to pray “to” their kings. The Roman emperor was considered a god, and the people were to pray to them, so Paul’s emphasis here that Timothy was to pray for Nero would have been noted.

We should also pray for our leaders - like them or not. We should pray for our leaders whether they are from the political party we support or not. The reason Paul gives is that we may liv e peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.

Pray often. Pray for everybody. Prayer is good. Prayer pleases God. Paul does not tell Timothy how to do it or describe its mechanics, or even show off with a polished example. Like the Nike commercial, he simply underscores the need for Timothy to just do it.

God wants All People to be saved.

God’s desire is that every person would come to have a relationship with Him and be saved from their sins. Paul makes it clear to Timothy that this is the case.

If that is God’s desire, then it ought to be the desire of all of us who follow Him!

I believe that most Christ followers would say that is our goal as well. We would like everybody to know Jesus and be saved from their sins and the consequences that they bring, but is that really what we want? If we truly love people, then that is our desire.

I want you to note that this does not mean that people will agree with us on every view that we have. There are Christians that disagree with me about all kinds of things. Not every believer will agree politically. Not every believer will agree with my interpretation of the Bible. Our desire should not be to make clones of ourselves, but to make disciples of Jesus - people who have come to know Him as their savior and Lord and who follow His leading. God’s desire is that every person would be saved.

Jesus is the ransom for All People

We usually think of a ransom as a payment that is demanded in order for someone who has been kidnapped to be released. There have been famous kidnappings that have captured the hearts of the world. Often the demanded ransom is beyond the means of the family to pay.

What Paul is reminding Timothy in this passage is that All People (there’s that phrase again) are in need of a ransom. That implies that all of us have been kidnapped - every person has been taken in by sin and there is a payment due for our sin. Paul says over in Romans that the wages of sin is death - the payment for our sins that is due is our death. All People have sinned - there’s that phrase again. All people. That leaves nobody out! We are all guilty, we have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

But Paul says the ransom has been paid for all people!

I Timothy 2:6 says Jesus "gave himself as a ransom." A ransom is a price paid to purchase someone's freedom.

In 1193, the English King Richard I, also known as Richard the Lionheart, was returning from leading a Crusade to the Holy Land. As he returned through Europe, Leopold V captured him in Austria, and he was given over to Henry the VI. The Holy Roman Emperor demanded a ransom for Richard's release. The price was to be 150,000 marks, equal to three tons of silver. This was an enormous ransom demand. But the people of England so loved their king they submitted to extra taxation, and many nobles donated their fortunes for Richard's release. After many months, the money was raised and King Richard returned to England. That's where we get the expression, "a king's ransom."

But to us, the term "a King's ransom" could better be applied to the tremendous price Jesus, the King of Kings paid for our sins on the cross. This King wasn't being ransomed; He paid the ransom so we can be set free. It is the most expensive ransom in the history of mankind.

That ransom was paid for “All People.” Every person you have ever met, ever will meet, or never will meet - All People have had their ransom paid - the amount that is due is their very lives, but Jesus paid that price for all of us!