When it comes to reading the Word of God it is quite easy to read a verse and forget that there is a surrounding context. What I mean is this; we are prone to looking at verses in the bible in isolation, and because of this, we can easily misinterpret what the word of God is actually saying. For example: in the book of Revelation chapter 3 we see Christ speaking to the Church of Laodicea. In verse 20 we read “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” This verse is used by many Christians when they are evangelizing to unbelievers. It goes something like this “if you open up the door to your heart and let Jesus in, He will surely come in and you will be saved”. There is a problem when saying something like this (or something similar) or using this verse to witness to an unbeliever and it is mainly this: In this chapter and specifically this verse, Christ is speaking to the Church, not un-professing unbelievers. I hope this example shows why understanding the context is important. Having the understanding of context will help us in our further study of particular verses, and our main text of focus will be in 1 Timothy 2:4 “who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Before we begin let’s look at this verse with a surrounding context.
“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man[a] Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. 7 For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.”
Next to 2 Peter 3:9 and John 3:16, 1 Timothy 2:4 is one of the most often quoted verse that people use in attempt to disprove that God had elected individuals to be saved, and to deny that there was a particular intention in the atonement, as well as deny any thought that would say God has a special salvific love for His children.
These individuals start with humanistic assumption that if God does not love all people the same, then God would be unjust to love some people more than others. But we must begin with the Biblical understanding that because man is unworthy of divine grace and deserving only of hell, God in His wisdom, holiness, and freedom chooses to love and elect any creature He desires. I have often asked these individuals in our discussions whether God would have been just to condemn all the people in the world from Adam till now. The answer has always been “yes.” I then ask if this be true, would it be so wrong for God to be merciful and elect some to be saved? And this is there they start to balk or hesitate to answer.
Why do these individuals commit this type of inconsistency? Because there is a common notion that says, “grace” is only grace if it’s given to all people. You should be asking yourself, “doesn’t this defeat the very meaning of grace?” And that is exactly correct, grace is undeserved. We must understand that if God in His freedom chooses to give one individual electing grace, He is under no obligation to give someone else the same grace. Then you may hear “but that’s not fair!” That is exactly correct, it’s not fair—it’s called grace. We don’t want God to be fair. We want Him to be merciful to us. If God were fair with us, we would all get our just reward: to burn eternally in the lake of fire for the sins we have committed.
It is argued that if we take the bible literally then 1 Timothy 2:4 simply means that God desires everyone person in the world to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. That’s it, done deal, case closed right? NO! We learned in our last study on John 3:16 that the context explains to us what the verse truly means and it is no different in this verse. Just as last study, a careful exegesis of the context will be sufficient to learn Paul’s meaning. No matter how different this may be to the modern traditional understanding of this verse, we must stay true to the text of Scripture. God is glorified when His truth is upheld; no matter if anyone is convinced of the truth or not.
It is usually said “all means all.” Well of course it does but the question we must ask is “all of what?” This is where the context must determine what “all” is referring to. So let’s now examine it by looking at the verses that precede verse 4,
“First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, 2 for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. 3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."
Let’s work backwards to see the flow of Paul’s thinking. Notice verse 4 begins with “who”; the antecedent is obviously “God” in verse 3, which begins by saying that there is something good and pleasing to our God. What is this "pleasing" that Paul is referring to? To find out we need to view verses 1 and 2 together as a unit. Paul is urging Timothy the importance of prayers and other spiritual disciplines to be made for all kinds of classes of people.
Paul gives the key statement by noting that the regal class of kings and the higher social class of those in authority should be included in prayer and other disciplines. And what is the reason for this urging? “So that "we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way." Paul is not simply stating that they need to pray so that the rulers’ anger would be appeased. No! He has something more eternally hoped for than temporal appeasement of the ruling oppression; he has salvation in mind. Hence, Paul immediately follows up with these verses, 3 "This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." Paul has in mind that God does not intend to save only one particular class of people but all social classes, including kings and those in authority. To read "all people" as "every human being in the world" is not warranted by the text and shows that one puts their own tradition into the text and losses Paul's true meaning. Many have read into this text the idea that all individuals in the world are in view. But Paul is talking about a particular social class. Therefore it is correct to say that Paul is speaking of all “kinds” or “sorts” of people, that is, it is God’s desire that the social class of those in higher authority are not excluded from His saving grace.
Importantly, in order to grasp the full power of the meaning behind Paul’s statement “all people” in verse 4, it is important to briefly take a look at the historical context behind 1 Timothy. Paul is writing this letter to Timothy who is in Ephesus and Paul is advising Timothy to stay and fulfill his teaching and ministerial duties (1 Tim. 1:2). Let’s try to put ourselves in the shoes of a Jewish convert, being commanded to pray for, not just kings and those in authority, but Gentile kings and those in authority. This command obviously affects Gentile and Jewish listeners differently, but for the latter it would have been much more of a shock to be exhorted to pray for not just heathens, but heathen authorities. God wants “all people” to be saved, those of the social class of kings and those in authority, which included Gentile authorities.
Another point that requires attention are the couple of verses that follow verse 4. . 5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man[a] Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.”
Let’s put special attention to the important connecting word “for”, which Paul uses to give us the causal reason for what came before it. Paul is introducing sacrificial language in which he ties together the mediation of Christ with His atonement. And again, in verse 6, we see the word “all” in which Christ gave Himself as a ransom. It would be absurd to state that Christ gave Himself as a ransom for every single person on planet earth, for if He did, every individual would be saved, not to mention that God would have no basis to judge any man for his sins (Cf. Matt. 20:28).
Incidentally, it would be a little silly to read the following verses that contain the phrase “all people” or “all” with it meaning “every single individual on the planet” (col. 3:11, Gal. 3:28, Mark 13:13, Acts 21:28, Acts 22:15). Other verses could be cited, but this sampling demonstrates clearly that it is an exegetical fallacy to use the default meaning “every single individual on the planet” when approaching these texts. Remember, context is king.
Finally, it is key that we recognize that in verse 7, Paul connects his Gentile mission to the second use of “all” found in verse 6. This can be often overlooked when treating this text. Paul says in verse 7, “For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.” In very clear language, Paul is affirming that God has included the Gentiles in His plan of salvation by Christ giving Himself as a ransom for “all” not just for the Jews; hence, the reason he immediately follows by saying, “For this I was appointed a preacher and a apostle….of the Gentiles.” Given this context, we can begin to appreciate the ethnic dynamics of the Pauline gospel message.
In summary, Paul uses “all people” in verse 4 to refer to all social classes (in this case, inclusion of kings and those in authority); then in his second use of “all” in verse 6 he refers to all ethnic classes (in this case, inclusion of Gentiles). With these contextual and historical dimensions of the text, we can value why it is essential that we are careful not to import our 21st century modern American cultural assumptions back into a 2,000 year old Jewish letter. It is imperative that we listen to the historical context, as well as the immediate context to learn its intended meaning, rather than force our preconceived ideas of what we think the text should mean.
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