Sermon on 1 Timothy 2:1-6, for the 6th Sunday of Easter (1 Yr lectionary), "How Wide is the Love of Christ"

Ephesians 3:18–19 By faith, “may [you] have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.” Amen. Every Sunday, in almost any Lutheran Church Missouri Synod church (I can’t speak for others), prayers are offered for “the whole people of God in Christ Jesus, and for all people according to their needs.”  Those include prayers for the spread of the Gospel, and those who do it—pastors, teachers, missionaries, etc. Prayers for those suffering from famine, war, violence, or natural disasters, as our brothers and sisters in Puna on the Big Island, or the North Shore of Kauai. Prayers for the sick and the suffering, in our congregation or others—including friends, family, neighbors, and others. Prayers to bless those who do good and restrain those who do evil. And almost always prayers for our governmental leaders—our president, governor, legislators, public safety workers, judges, etc. Those prayers rise, regardless of which political party is in office, which state or local community you’re in, and regardless of the individuals in office or the policies in sway by the current government. God’s call to prayer, and His reason for it, is bigger than our politics. And the reason why the whole church of Christ offers these prayers intentionally, week in, and week out—is found right in our reading today. The command is “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.”

Broadly our prayers are for everyone—all people. This is how wide God’s love is; how wide His concern is, that He commands us to pray for all people. Jesus even commanded that we pray for our enemies. Therefore, to purposefully “narrow” the focus of our prayers to exclude those we don’t like or care about, is a direct offense against the Gospel of Jesus Christ. “God our Savior…desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” The scope of God’s desire, and Jesus’ love, is so broad it includes all people. God desires their salvation. Our prayers, and our concern for others, should be shaped by the wideness of His love.

Why specifically mention kings and other leaders for prayers? Because they especially need our prayers for wisdom and justice in governing. Governing a country, state, or county is a difficult task. Thousands of competing concerns and interests, challenges, and needs. Since partisanship is not a Biblical goal or consideration, but justice and wisdom are, Christians need to pray for all our leaders to be given wisdom and to practice justice. Leaders all err in greater or lesser ways—and being in authority does not exempt them from the law—either God’s or man’s—but we pray that God would guide our leaders to preserve peace and justice, so we can “lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.” Consider this—the Gospel moves more freely in peaceful and stable societies. Good government, therefore, serves God’s higher purpose to give the Gospel free course. Yet even in bad governments, like those that persecuted Peter and Paul—even persecution can’t ultimately stop the spread of the Gospel. Sometimes even in the face of intense opposition, the Gospel multiplied. From the book of Acts till today, the Gospel still rolls on. Bad government also serves to humble us in repentance and even to redouble our passion in prayer, good works, and speaking the truth against evil.

God’s clear and unambiguous desire is that all people be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth. This is His revealed will—God’s given us this window into His heart. There are also things that can be described as God’s hidden will. We do not know, for example, why tragedies take place, beyond the generic truth that this is a fallen, sinful world, and that evil people are bound to do evil things. Many mysteries are hidden in God’s will and ways. But this, thank God, is not one of them. No guessing about it—God desires all people to be saved. No one can say God only wants certain people, however we might try to divide them into groups—that God only wants certain people to be saved. He wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. Therefore, when we look out at the world, we should see every person as a person for whom Jesus Christ died, and gave His life for. A person whom Christ loves.

This can do so much for our world to remove the glasses of hatred, disgust, or dislike that filter so much of what we see. This takes off those glasses, and helps us see the world instead with Christ’s eyes; His love. So we don’t only love and pray for and welcome those who we like, who look or think like us, who are of the same social status or who have the same interests as us. It’s so easy to narrow our love, to narrow our prayers, to ignore others. But how wide is the love of Christ, that deepens and opens our hearts up to others—that moves our hearts and mouths to prayer, and our eyes and hands to concern and help.

It’s not as though this leaves us with no common bonds to unite us, however. Rather, the Gospel of Jesus Christ changes those bonds from identity that is rooted only in family, culture, citizenship, social status, age, interests, male or female, etc, into bonds of identity that are centered in Christ Jesus and everything that He has taught. Galatians 3:27–28 “For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” In baptism, you are given an identity that re-centers in Christ Jesus, and old ties and definitions fade away in importance; or for positive bonds, we find new value and appreciation for the variety and uniqueness that God has bestowed on humanity. We are one people in Christ Jesus when we are made disciples, baptized in His name, and taught everything that He commanded us. Jesus calls us to continue in welcoming new disciples into that new family, unified around Him.

Our Savior also wants us to know the truth. It’s fashionable today to say “truth” is relative, or each person has “their own truth.” This is nothing new—Pontius Pilate asked Jesus 2,000 years ago, “What is truth?” People will say it’s snobbish or backwards to believe there is such a thing as THE truth, and especially this truth in verse 5-6: “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.” People today are likely to respond with: “many paths lead to God”, “God has many names” or “many roads lead to heaven” and similar ideas. But Jesus was quite clear when He said: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father, except through me” (John 14:6), or Peter when he said, “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). The thing to notice though, is that the Gospel of Jesus is at the same time an exclusive and inclusive statement. Exclusive because there’s only one Way—Jesus—no other mediator between God and man. God has set this One avenue for reconciliation—and God directs all nations to Jesus.

But the Gospel is also a deeply inclusive message, because God wants all people to be saved, and Jesus gave himself as a ransom for all, and for God so loved the world, and so on! The Gospel  is inclusive—because all sinners can receive the free gift of salvation. The Gospel is not for the elite who reached a certain standard of righteousness, and have never sinned X. Nor for elite races or social status. Rather, Acts 17:26 says God made all people from one man (Adam), which means we are really one human race. God breaks down our artificial dividers of status, importance, class, righteousness, etc, and points us to one unified truth—we’re all sinners desperately in need of rescue and reconciliation with God—and it’s already completely done and prepared for us in the ransom of Christ Jesus.

Ransom, if you haven’t stopped to think about it before, is an important Biblical idea. Maybe it makes you think of kidnapping or holding hostages until a ransom is paid. But in the Bible, a ransom was to set free captives or slaves. More about slavery or prisoners of war. Without Christ we are slaves to sin and death—captives imprisoned in darkness and misunderstanding. But Jesus’s ransom, His death on our behalf, liberates us by the forgiveness of our sins. Death’s chains are broken by Jesus’ resurrection life. Believe in Him, and you’re unshackled from death’s chains—He is the Resurrection and the Life.

Jesus gave Himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. This is a message that needs to go out. A witness for others. There is no restraint on you telling any person you meet that God loves them and desires for them to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. We know it, because God has sent His Son Jesus to die and rise for us, and because it’s plain as day in His Word. I know that His forgiveness, life, and salvation, are meant for you too.

Obviously, it’s always troubling about who is not saved; those who don’t believe in Jesus, or want no part of it. And Jesus did say that many will reject Him, for many are called, but few are chosen. But this is no reason to be discouraged or give up. He tells us to make disciples of all nations. There’s no fear or discouragement in Jesus’ words. He sends His disciples to speak the Gospel to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to all the ends of the earth, like rippling waves from a stone cast in the water. The Gospel of Jesus never stops at rejection, but continues to go out, finding willing ears and willing hearts to embrace the knowledge of the Truth. The Holy Spirit uses that Word to create faith in our hearts that God loves all of us. Your life, my life, the life of every human, is precious to God, is ransomed by His Son, and all our sin-broken relations with God are repaired through this One Mediator, Jesus Christ. By faith “may [you] have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:18–19) Amen.

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1. 1 Timothy 2:1-6. Why does this passage remind us how wide the aim of our prayers should be? See also Matthew 5:44. What are some reasons that our natural human tendency is to narrow our prayers to smaller or select groups of people? Why does God want us praying for everyone?
2. Why do kings and leaders especially need our prayers? Why is it irrelevant who they are, when it comes to needing our prayers? 1 Timothy 2:2; cf. Ezra 6:10; 7:27-28; 9:6-9. How do we profit from good governance, regardless of the form of government, or who is in power? Romans 13:1-7.
3. What does 1 Tim. 2:3-4 tell us about God’s revealed will? Cf. 2 Peter 3:9; Ezekiel 18:23; John 3:16. What things could be described as belonging to God’s hidden will?
4. How does it change the way we look at every other human person, to know that God wills for their eternal salvation and their knowledge of the truth? How does Jesus reorient our “bonds of identity” from those things we as humans favor, to something better? Galatians 3:27-28; Colossians 3:9-10; Acts 15:22-32; Acts 17:26.
5. How exclusive and inclusive is the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Acts 4:12; John 14:6; Mark 10:45. Are there any limitations on who we should share the gospel with, or to whom it applies? Matthew 28:18-20; 1 John 2:2; John 3:16. Why is this great comfort for all of us?
6. Salvation is universally given by Jesus to and for all mankind, but it is not universally received. Why is it incorrect to lay the blame for that at God’s feet—and correct to place it at our own? Why does God not force salvation upon us? How does Matthew 23:37-39 capture God’s heart towards those who are unwilling?