Commentary on 1 Timothy 2:1-7

In 1 Timothy 2:1–7, the author shifts into the specific “instructions” (tēn paraggelian, see also 1:3–4) that he first mentions in 1:18. The goal of such instruction is “faith and a good conscience” (New Revised Standard Version), and the rejection of the latter by some has led to their faith being “shipwrecked” (1:19). The first instruction is for “supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings” to be offered “for all people” (hyper pantōn annthrōpōn, my translation). Why should the audience pray for all people? Part of the answer lies in the author’s radical use of “all people” in 2:4: God “desires all people (pantas anthrōpous) to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (New Revised Standard Version modified).

Next in the request for prayers, “kings and all who are in high positions” get a special mention. Numerous possibilities exist for why he makes that request. Does he, for example, seek the conversion of political leaders along with “all people,” so that leaders will govern according to “Christian principles”? Is the author of 1 Timothy, in other words, an ancient “Christian nationalist”? His stated purpose of prayers for leaders is actually simple and practical: Prayers are needed “so that” (hina) the author and other Christ-followers (note the “we” in verse 2) would “lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity” (verse 2, New Revised Standard Version).

Here, interpreters must bear in mind the distance between contemporary American democratic governance structures and those of the first-century Roman Empire. As Luke Timothy Johnson states, “It is important for present-day readers to grasp that the idea of a Jeffersonian democracy was as far from Paul’s imagination as the concept of a nuclear suburban family with dual-career spouses.”¹

Contemporary political imaginations can conceptualize dramatic political transformations through democratic processes, revolutions, or other means. Similarly, ancient apocalyptic writings envisioned wholesale cosmic transformation of present orders. The author of 1 Timothy, however, like the author of 1 Peter, seems to take the established imperial order as firmly established.²

Whether due to a lack of sociopolitical imagination, a level of comfort within the imperial order, or something else entirely, the author’s request to pray for such leaders seems quite practical. Rather than live as sectarians, zealots, or others who might draw the empire’s attention and risk the well-being of Christ-believing communities, they should pray for their leaders so they can pursue godly lives without fear or violence.

Yet, one also finds in these verses a tension between conservatism and subtle subversion. The author never conflates earthly rulers with the ruler of the cosmos. Although the audience should offer prayers “for kings and all who are in high positions,” such figures are not confused with the recipient of those prayers, whom the author earlier identifies as “the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God” (1:17, New Revised Standard Version).

In the first century CE, Roman emperors were at times addressed with the titles of “savior” and “lord.” The author of 1 Timothy, however, identifies God as Savior (1:1; 2:3; 4:10) and Jesus as Lord (1:2, 12; 6:3, 14–15; see also the more ambiguous 1:14). For the author, Jesus can combine these and related identities and be identified as “the only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords” (6:15, New Revised Standard Version).

Instead of loyalty to an emperor and deities—the two intertwined in the emperor cult—1 Timothy acknowledges the ultimate sovereignty of one God, with God’s Son Jesus Christ serving a mediating role between God and humanity. He summarizes: “For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all” (1:5–6, New Revised Standard Version).

By reading the epistle’s admonition to pray for sociopolitical leaders alongside its descriptions of God and Christ as divine sovereigns, the tension between conservatism and subversion in the passage comes into view. Christians who experience injustice and oppression understandably read the Pauline letters in search of a perspective that encourages the transformation of the world’s systems and structures. Such readers would be disappointed to find in 1 Timothy not a prophetic call to hold leaders accountable but what seems to be mere acceptance of imperial powers (see also Romans 13:1-7). Furthermore, the verses that follow our focus text (2:8–15) do little to characterize the author as an advocate for liberation.

Yet the author’s seeming resignation about the immovability of sociopolitical powers does not tell the full story. The author also implicitly subverts—though without fully deconstructing—human claims to sociopolitical power over others by locating all of humankind within the context of the divine rule of God and Christ. Within that cosmological perspective, the claims of kings or other rulers can never be ultimate. It is important, moreover, for readers to recall the purposes for prayers on behalf of sociopolitical rulers: “so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity” (verse 2).

Despite the difficulties of reading 1 Timothy, its mix of conservativism and subtle subversion offers something for Christians who live in politically fraught and unstable environments to consider. For one, that framing locates Christ-believers within a sociopolitical order while giving them an identity and way of life that is never fully commensurable with that order.  Moreover, the text reminds readers who possess significant amounts of social power and political agency to consider that, in some situations, subtle forms of political subversion, rather than more overt acts of protest or rebellion, are necessary to preserve the well-being of the most vulnerable.

The choice of whether to adopt Timothy’s subtlety or, say, Revelation’s vision for cosmic overhaul is never one of mere text selection. Such judgments are acts of discernment for those who live and conduct themselves with “hope set on the living God” (1 Timothy 4:10).

Notes

1. Luke Timothy Johnson, Letters to Paul’s Delegates: 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, TNTIC (Valley Forge, PA: Trinity Press International), 129.
2. Johnson, Letters to Paul’s Delegates, 128–30.