We’re to ask that civil magistrates might punish that which is evil and reward that which is good (presumably, as God defines both). We’re to pray with enemies in mind as well as friends, persecutors as well as supporters, rulers as well as fellow citizens. We’re to give thanks for good things received and for evil things prevented. As Christians, it is our duty and privilege—and it must be our priority—to pray for others regardless of their standing or office in society.

It was a time of transition in the history of the church. The Apostles were passing off the scene, and in the Pastoral (or, if you will, Presbyterian) Epistles we have the last three letters written by the Apostle Paul. He writes to Timothy and Titus, two “young” (early 40s?) church leaders who needed to know how to build and maintain healthy (i.e., sound) congregations of Christ’s church, especially in the absence of the Apostles. The Apostle knew that the local churches would, in his absence, continue to live in an increasingly inhospitable environment, and he knew that Timothy and Titus would need to put in place and keep in place those ministry practices that would sustain those churches. After all, Paul saw Christ’s church at odds with enemies inside and outside its number, at odds with false teachers, at odds with persecutors, even persecutors in cahoots with hostile government authorities. In anticipation of the spiritual warfare to come, Paul knew that the local churches would need to shore up their armor and arsenal for the coming confrontations in this world. He also knew that prayer would not be just any practice, not just any ministry: it had to be part of their armor and arsenal in spiritual warfare. With the stakes so high for Christ’s church, Paul forthrightly declares what their priority must be and why it must be what he prescribes in 1 Tim 2:1-7.

If we wonder what a sound church must do first of all, here it is: First of all, then, I urge that supplications and prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in high positions (1 Tim 2:1-2a). Right from the get-go, Paul sets the church’s priority: engage with God in all sorts of prayers for all sorts of people, even government authorities. All sorts of prayers: supplications (petitions for our good); prayers (petitions for God’s glory); intercessions (for or against others); thanksgivings (for good things received and for evil things prevented). For all sorts of people: regardless of their standing or office in society; for governmental authorities and their subjects; for friends and foes. 

But hold on. Why should we include civil authorities in our prayers? We should do so because it is God, the supreme Lord and King of all the world, who raises them up and brings them down.

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