1 Timothy 2:1-7

B1 Encourage prayer

C1 Verse 1 Prayer for everyone

D1 Petitions

E1 A petition, supplication, is a request to an authority.

E2 Proverbs 30:7-8 NIV Two things I ask of you, LORD; do not refuse me before I die: Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.

D2 Prayers

E1 Prayers is a more formal, respectful talking with God.

E2 Luke 6:12 NIV One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.

E3 1 Timothy 5:5 NIV The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help.

D3 Requests

E1 The word has the idea of coming together to converse.

E2 It is used in our passage and also 1 Timothy 4:5 NIV because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.

D4 Thanksgivings

E1 According to the old Webster’s Dictionary, it means an acknowledgment expressive of a sense of favor or kindness received;

E2 1 Timothy 4:4 NIV For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving.

D5 We ARE to pray. Prayer is not hard. It is talking with God. It is worship and fellowship.

C2 Verse 2 Prayer for leaders

D1 One of the many reasons we pray to God concerning our political leaders is so we (all) can live in peace and safety.

D2 For Christians must live a Christian life. This is sometimes hard, because the government is against Christians.

D3 Regardless, we must always pray for our leaders whether we like them or not.

D4 Jeremiah 29:7 MKJV And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be exiled, and pray to the LORD for it. For in its peace you shall have peace.

D5 2 Kings 8:3 NIV At the end of the seven years she came back from the land of the Philistines and went to appeal to the king for her house and land.

C3 Verses 3-4 Prayers for everyone to be saved

D1 The text clearly says all. Don’t let anyone fool you out of the plain, normal sense. Compare:

E1 2 Peter 3:9 NIV The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

E2 Isaiah 53:6 MKJV All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, each one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

E3 2 Corinthians 5:14 NIV For Christ's love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.

D2 All whether poor, rich, or in between. All whether employed in medical, legal, government, agriculture, retired, unemployed, education, etc. All means all.

D3 Either people are saved by Jesus Christ and Him alone or they are not.

D4 He is the only mediator.

D5 Works are worthless. Philippians 3:7-8 NIV But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ.

C4 Verse 4

D1 Note the word truth.

E1 Truth is reality.

F1 Wisdom (God’s way of thinking): Proverbs 8:7 NLT for I speak the truth and detest every kind of deception.

F2 Proverbs 12:17 NLT An honest witness tells the truth; a false witness tells lies.

F3 We must read and study the Bible with the understanding that God is telling the truth in its plain, normal sense.

E2 Truth is important to God.

F1 God is the God of truth and faithfulness:

G1 Isaiah 65:16 WEB so that he who blesses himself in the earth will bless himself in the God of truth; and he who swears in the earth will swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hidden from my eyes.

G2 2 Corinthians 1:20 NLT For all of God's promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding "Yes!" And through Christ, our "Amen" (which means "Yes") ascends to God for his glory.

F2 Exodus 34:6 NKJV And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, "The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth.

F3 Revelation 15:3 WPNT They sing the song of Moses, the slave of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying: “Great and marvelous are Your works, O Lord God, the Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King of the nations!

E3 God speaks in truth. John 7:16-18 NLT So Jesus told them, "My message is not my own; it comes from God who sent me. 17 Anyone who wants to do the will of God will know whether my teaching is from God or is merely my own. 18 Those who speak for themselves want glory only for themselves, but a person who seeks to honor the one who sent him speaks truth, not lies.

D2 Jesus came speaking and teaching truth. His motive was for people to be saved and to understand the ways of His kingdom.

C5 Verse 5

D1 God and humanity are at odds. God is holy; humans are sinful. God is wise; humans are stupid. God is truthful; humans are liars. We are enemies of each other.

D2 Jesus is the reconciler, the mediator. Romans 5:10 NIV For if, while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!

D3 Acts 4:12 NIV Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.

C6 Verse 6

D1 ...ransom for all…

E1 This states clearly “ransom for all.”

E2 Many interpret this to mean only some. They reason that if all meant all, then all are saved, that is, universalism. Thus, they, in actuality, call the Holy Spirit a liar. If God wanted to say some or many, the Scriptures would say so. John Gill (essentially a fatalist) writes on this verse: ...[Jesus Christ] shows his great love to his people; and also as a "ransom", or a ransom price for them, αντιλυτρον, in their room and stead; to ransom them from the slavery of sin, and damnation by it, from the captivity of Satan, and the bondage of the law, and from the grave, death, hell, ruin, and destruction: and this ransom was given for "all"; not for every individual of mankind, for then all would be delivered, freed, and saved, whereas they are not; or else the ransom price is paid in vain, or God is unjust to receive a sufficient ransom price from Christ, and yet not free the captive, but punish the person for whom he has received satisfaction; neither of which can be said. But the meaning is, either that he gave himself a ransom for many, as in Mat 20:28 for the Hebrew word כל, to which this answers, signifies sometimes many, a multitude, and sometimes only a part of a multitude…

E3 God wants all to be saved. God provided a mediator for humanity. God provided salvation for all, if they meet His conditions. His condition is to believe after the Holy Spirit has opened a person’s heart.

F1 Acts 16:14 NIV One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message.

F2 John 16:8 NLT And when he comes, he will convict the world of its sin, and of God's righteousness, and of the coming judgment.

F3 John 1:12 NLT But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.

F4 John 3:15-16, 36 NLT so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. 16 "For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. ... 36 And anyone who believes in God's Son has eternal life. Anyone who doesn't obey the Son will never experience eternal life but remains under God's angry judgment."

F5 John 6:47 NLT I tell you the truth, anyone who believes has eternal life.

F6 Romans 10:9 NLT If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

D2 This life and message came at the perfect, proper time. It is the life of Jesus and His message.

C7 Verse 7

D1 Paul is a messenger and Apostle of Jesus Christ to preach Jesus’s life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. Jesus’s message came at the right time, and so did the preaching of the Gospel.

D2 Paul states that he is telling the truth. The truth is the message of Jesus and Paul’s appointment to preach it.

C8 This section of 1 Timothy is given mainly to preachers, deacons, deaconesses, and other church leaders, but it is to be applied to every Christian.

C9 Questions:

D1 Why is Jesus so important regarding salvation?

D2 Why is the Gospel for all people?

D3 Why did God choose people to preach the Gospel?