Here is our weekly verse for our Bible Study, we are continuing from 1 Timothy 2:1.

1 Timothy 2:2

“ - for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.”

Context:

At the time of this letter being written the emperor of the Roman Empire was Nero, who was notoriously cruel to Christians and later blamed the great fire that destroyed a large part of Rome on the Roman Christians. This led to many of them being heavily persecuted, with some of them being publicly butchered, burned and fed to animals.

“ - for kings and all those in authority”

Here we pick up from verse one where Paul has just instructed Timothy and the church in Ephesus to pray for all people.

The continuation of that instruction places a special emphasis on kings and all those in authority. It’s highlighted now more than ever that being a leader in any context is a tough job, hence the specific instruction that we should pray for our kings and leaders. They need prayer just as much as any of us. Sometimes we won’t like our kings or leaders, just like the Christians in Ephesus wouldn’t of liked Nero, a man who had incited violence against them. But, despite our feelings towards them we must still pray for them, you may not like the current political party in power but it is still essential to upholder them in prayer.

In the same way this can be applied to managers, church leaders, parents and law enforcement. These are all people who sit in positions of authority and in that context they need prayer that they will use their authority wisely and that they will follow God’s will in how they lead the people that they are responsible for.

“that we may live peaceful and quiet lives”

We should be praying for kings and leaders so that we might live a ‘peaceful’ and ‘quiet’ life, this idea is rooted in the need for a level playing field of sorts. We must pray not for special treatment from leaders or rulers but for an equality amongst people that we would be free to live our lives as Christians and do the work of God on this planet.

Quiet (Greek: ēremos) - The idea of a quiet life might seem strange as one of our instructions in the New Testament is to go out and tell the world all about Jesus. The word ēremos in Greek has an affinity to the idea of being still or tranquil. Through this we can see that the calling here was that would could live a peaceful and tranquil life, a life that was still in the sense of being steadfast in God and at peace in all circumstances.

“in all godliness and holiness.”

All of these instructions are meant to be taken in a manner that demonstrates all godliness and holiness. If we pray for people, live in a tranquil and peaceful life but still do not know and have God as the centrepiece of our love then all of the instructions given already are pointless.

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