God Desires All to Be Saved

by Edwin Crozier

Text: I Timothy 2

Paul told Timothy to get his prayer life in order first. By extension, get the congregation praying first. Specifically, they were to pray for kings and those in high positions. By this means, they were to accomplish peace for the church. They were to pray for these rulers so the Christians could lead peaceful and quiet lives, godly and dignified in every way.

Paul explained that this was good because God desires that all people be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. In other words, the prayer for these kings and rulers was not simply for any kind of blessing. These prayers were for the salvation of kings and rulers. God wanted even the pagan kings and rulers to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.

In a time when folks believed their kings and rulers were the mediators between the gods and the people, sometimes thinking their kings were divine, Paul said there is only one mediator: the man Christ Jesus. Jesus, who is God in the flesh, perfectly mediates between man and God. He is the mediator for all people, whether kings or citizens, whether men or women, whether Jews or Gentiles. Further, this mediator wants all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.

All people. No matter race, gender, socio-economic status, education level, ethnicity, language, tribe, parentage, background, or sins. All people. The ones we like and the ones we don’t. All people. The ones who have been nice to us, and the ones who haven’t. Jesus wants people saved. All people.

Since we know God wants people saved, it is always right to pray for their salvation. As Paul did in Romans 10:1 for his brothers in the flesh, the Jews.

As a side note, do you notice that the goal of these prayers is not actually for the laws of the land to line up precisely with the laws of God? Rather, these prayers seek for the laws to allow us as Christians to serve God without interference. Further, the approach for accomplishing this is not the mobilization of Christians to take over the government, but the spread of the gospel so that even those in governing authority will hear it and live by it. And in all this, the goal is not that nations become Christian, but that people be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.

This leads us to one final question. If God wants all people to be saved, what are we doing today to help accomplish that?