First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be offered for everyone—
Paul makes this command to meet a perverse objection: some think we need only pray for believers and the Church, and why concern ourselves with strangers? He cuts through that reasoning and orders us to pray for all men without exception, not limiting our prayers to the body of the Church alone.
AI summary
Commenting on 1 Timothy 2:1-15
Prayer for all men, even kings who persecute us, flows from the very nature of Christian faith. Paul gives no fixed form, trusting the Spirit to guide; he sets only the general heads: supplications to avert evil, prayers for good, intercessions for others, thanksgiving for mercies received. This diffusive charity marks us out from every sect.
AI summary
Commenting on 1 Timothy 2:1-8
I exhort therefore, that first of all,.... The two principal parts of public worship, being the ministry of the word and prayer; and the apostle having insisted on the former, in the preceding chapter, in which he orders Timothy to charge some that they teach no other doctrine than that of the Gospel, gives an account of his own ministry, and call to it, and...