For this reason I was appointed as a preacher, an apostle, and a faithful and true teacher of the Gentiles. I am telling the truth; I am not lying about anything.
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
Here is, I. A charge given to Christians to pray for all men in general, and particularly for all in authority. Timothy must take care that this be done. Paul does not send him any prescribed form of prayer, as we have reason to think he would if he had intended that ministers should be tied to that way of praying; but, in general, that...
Commenting on 1 Timothy 2:1-8
I will therefore that men pray everywhere,.... In this declaration of the apostle's will concerning prayer, he only takes notice of "men"; not but that it is both the duty and privilege of women, as well as men, to pray in their houses and closets; but because he is speaking of public prayer in the church, which only belongs to men, he speaks only of...