1 Timothy 2:1-4
I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
EDWARD PAYSON (1783-1827): Those who are invested with authority, need, more than other men, our prayers; because they are exposed, more than other men, to temptation and danger. While they have a more than ordinary share of duties to perform, they are urged by temptations, more than ordinarily numerous and powerful, to neglect their duty. They have, for instance, peculiarly strong temptations to neglect those personal, private duties which God requires of them as men, as immortal and accountable creatures; and a performance of which is indispensably necessary to their salvation. They are exposed to the innumerable temptations and dangers which ever attend prosperity. The world presents itself to them in its most fascinating, alluring form; they are honoured, followed, and flattered; they enjoy peculiar means and opportunities for gratifying their passions; they seldom hear the voice of admonition or reproof; and they are usually surrounded by persons who would consider every expression of religious feeling as an indication of weakness.
WILLIAM ARNOT (1808-1875): It is fashionable in high places to laud religious indifference, and stigmatize as bigotry all earnest belief.
EDWARD PAYSON: How powerfully, then, must they be tempted to irreligion, to pride, to ambition, to every form of what the Scriptures call worldly-mindedness?
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): They have many difficulties to encounter, many snares to which their exalted stations expose them.
EDWARD PAYSON: How difficult must it be for them to acquire and maintain an habitual, operative recollection of their sinfulness, their frailty, their accountability to God, their dependence on His grace, and their need of a Saviour. How difficult, in the midst of such scenes and associates, as usually surround them; to keep death in view; to be in a constant state of preparation for its approach; to practice the duties of watchfulness, self-denial, meditation and prayer; and to preserve, in lively exercise, those feelings and dispositions which God requires, and which become a candidate for eternity. How strongly, too, must they be tempted to make the performance of their official duties, an excuse for neglecting those personal duties, which God requires of all men, in whatever station or circumstance they may be placed.
JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): It is hard for great ones to deny themselves.
EDWARD PAYSON: We may remark farther, that they have many powerful temptations to neglect, not only their personal, but their official duties. They are tempted to indolence and self-indulgence; tempted to prefer their own private interest, to the public good; tempted to pay an undue regard to the selfish wishes and entreaties of their real, or pretended friends; tempted to adopt such measures as will be most popular, rather than those which will be most beneficial to the community; tempted to forget the honour and the rights of Jehovah, and suffer them to be trampled on with impunity.
GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770): If we consider how heavy the burden of government is, and how much the welfare of any people depends on the zeal and godly conversation of those that have the rule over them: if we set before us the many dangers and difficulties, to which governors by their station are exposed, and the continual temptations they be under to luxury and self-indulgence; we shall not only pity, but pray for them.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): Paul teaches “that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all classes of men; for kings, and for all that are in authority”—in which duty many are woefully remiss—yet it is not for their salvation, but “that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.”
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Since the hearts of kings are in the hands of the Lord, and He can turn them as He pleases, prayer should be made to Him for them, that He would either convert them, and bring them to the knowledge of the truth, they now persecuted; or at least so dispose their hearts and minds, that they might stop the persecution, and so saints might live peaceably under them, enjoy their religious liberty, and be encouraged in their moral conversation.
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): It is our duty, therefore, not only to pray for those who are already worthy, but we must pray to God that He may make bad men good.
EDWARD PAYSON: It can scarcely be necessary to add, that persons who are exposed to temptations so numerous and powerful, peculiarly need our prayers. I will only add that the Scriptures intimate with sufficient clearness that those temptations are, in most instances, but too fatally successful. They inform us, that “not many mighty men, not many noble” are saved, 1 Corinthians 1:26. Our Saviour farther declares, that it is hard for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God; and it would be easy to shew that the causes which render it difficult for a rich man, operate with equal force to make it difficult for men clothed with authority, to enter this kingdom.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Not many great men after the flesh, not many mighty are chosen and called!
JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): Not many mighty—men of power and authority.
C. H. SPURGEON: Is it not an extraordinary thing that the Lord should ever have loved some of us? We are nothing in particular and there are mighty men, learned men, men of rank and station, yet He has passed them by.
JOHN CALVIN That man, however, were an arrant fool, who would infer from this, that God has in this manner abased the glory of the flesh, in order that the great and noble might be shut out from the hope of salvation. There are some foolish persons that make this a pretext for not merely triumphing over the great, as if God had cast them off, but even despising them as far beneath them.
JOHN TRAPP: Saith Martin Luther of Elizabeth, Queen of Denmark, who lived and died in the truth of the gospel: “God hath His, even among great ones, too.”
C. H. SPURGEON: True enough is that word―it was never said, “Not any great men, not any mighty are chosen.” God has selected a few in places of wealth, and power, and influence who have faith in their hearts, and that in an eminent degree.
FRANCES BEVAN (1827-1909): Lady Huntingdon said she was thankful for the letter “m.”
H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): When someone asked her what she meant, she stated that she was so thankful that Scripture does not say, “Not any noble are called.” It says, “Not many noble, ” and therefore she got into heaven by an “m.”
ADAM CLARKE (1760-1832): As it is a positive maxim of Christianity to pray for all secular governors, so it has ever been the practice of Christians.
J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): Let us pray much for great men. They need great grace to keep them from the devil. High places are slippery places. No wonder that Paul recommends intercession “for kings and for all that are in authority.”
