First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.
Let’s be honest—left to ourselves, we are lost, away from God, clueless as to how to be made right with Him.
There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death. 1
Remember back at the beginning how we decided to get ‘knowledge of good and evil’ so we didn’t have to depend upon God to reveal what we wanted to know on our timeline? Did we ever get it wrong! Our shortcut to knowing gave us everything except life with the LORD. Now, only through Christ can we again know the righteousness of God, to be able to once again know Him and have a renewed priority
First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 2
Would we ‘figure it out’ that the path to ‘a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way’ would come through the ‘first of all’ of praying for those placed in authority by God rather than doing it our way? My experience is that we would rather degrade anything ‘higher’ than ourselves. Again, God’s way is not our intuitive way.
This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 3
In our flesh we seldom care about ‘all people’ and have a much smaller circle of concern than God. It takes the work of Christ in us to be aware beyond our self-interests and want what God wants from our hearts. The LORD has made the Way:
For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. 4
Curious how we don’t like the LORD’s Way, how we think we should be able to go about it our way! But who besides God has the ability to see through intention into actuation? You simply do not have the resources to give God what it takes for redemption and reconciliation. Only Jesus has accomplished what we could not and it is only in accepting God’s verdict on this acceptability that we can come back to the LORD. But it is a singular Way and we do not get to alter what the LORD has done to make it more acceptable to our sensitivities.
Only One Way. Can we be humble enough to accept God’s way or will we insist upon going another direction?