The apostle uses four words that pertain to prayer. We are to offer supplications—that is, pleas for mercy in time of urgent need.

We are to offer prayers. The word used in the original Greek language refers more to an attitude. This gets confusing, because we understand the word prayer to mean communicating with God. However, in the Greek the word Paul uses refers more to an attitude of our worship and prayer. Worship and prayer is set apart from the rest of our life. It’s a bit more formal, reverent, and majestic than other things. We don’t approach worship and prayer flippantly or carelessly.

The third word for prayer is intercessions—that is, prayers for other people.

Appropriate to the context we find ourselves in right this moment, we are to offer thanksgivings to God. Even in difficult times of life, there are things to be thankful for. An enlightening practice is to think of something bad that’s happened to you that turned into a blessing, and give thanks to God for that.

Someone pointed out that often times we think in terms of what we should pray for. I can pray for this or I can pray for that. Yet, in this evening’s reading Paul doesn’t address what we pray for at all. Instead, he’s concerned with who. We are urged, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people.” Think about how monumental that task is!!! We are to pray for all people. All people means all people! There’s no one that we shouldn’t pray for! No one’s excluded. Not even enemies, persecutors, or those who don’t get along with us.

Someone wrote, “Paul does not seem to be afraid that a congregation may pray for too many or ask too much.” There’s always someone to pray for. Sometimes we pray for people specifically. Sometimes we pray for people generally. For example, in his Large Catechism Martin Luther says that part of the fulfillment of Paul’s urging to pray for all people happens when we pray the Lord’s Prayer—especially the petition “Give us this day our daily bread.” Such an insight might sound strange or like a bit of a stretch at first. But when you think about it, the prayer for daily bread involves all facets of our lives. That means that it involves everyone, because whether we realize it or not, all our lives are so intertwined. What happens to the farmer, affects the truck driver, affects the grocery store, and affects you. So, we pray for everyone (which is a God-pleasing practice).

We also pray for governing authorities. Seems kind of odd maybe. Out of all people, why does he single out civil servants? Because they can dictate large scale policy—everything from what kind of light bulb can be sold to policies that can result in the persecution of Christians. They are the ones who make, administer, and judge laws. So, we pray for them—whether they are believers or not, whether they make themselves enemies of God and His people or not.

We pray that they receive and use wisdom to make, administer, and judge laws in God-pleasing ways. In one of our Sunday morning prayers, we ask God to, “Help them to serve this people according to your holy will.” In another Sunday morning prayer, we pray that “they may use the authority entrusted to them honorably and for the good of the people.” God has entrusted them with authority, because if God didn’t allow it to happen, then someone or something else more powerful than God did. There is no someone or something else. So, God puts them in positions of authority, expecting them to serve righteously.

We pray such prayers so that life is peaceful and quiet. Good government leads to the flourishing of peace and quietness. How may times people say, “I just want there to be peace and quiet!” Peace is the idea of tranquility (rest and relaxation). Think of what a tranquilizer does for an animal that’s going ballistic. It’s been injured. It doesn’t know what’s going on. It doesn’t know who the people are trying to help it. It doesn’t know they are trying to help. It just flails everywhere, lashing out, trying to get away. The tranquilizer relaxes the animal. The animal feels tranquil. It doesn’t worry about a thing.

A quiet life is a well-ordered life, and that is the opposite of a very noisy life that’s marked by chaos. “God is a God of order,” Scripture teaches. Just look at the creation account, the instructions for the tabernacle and temple, or the Old Testament Laws. They are all very orderly events. Paul teaches that God expects there to be order in the Church. It’s not a free-for-all. So, a well-ordered government allows people to live in quietness and enjoy peace.

We also pray such prayers so that our lives are “godly and dignified in every way.” A theologian points out that godliness deals with our lives in relationship to God and dignity deals with our lives in relationship to other people. There’s both a vertical sphere in relationship to God and a horizontal sphere in relationship to others.

We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection for our sins. This sets us free from being snared in sin. We can live lives of godliness—serving the Lord and seeking to do what He desires. Through the death and resurrection of Jesus, that sets us free from sin and empowers us to lead lives of godliness, we can bear the fruit of worthy conduct toward our neighbors. We can live honorably before others. We can love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and we can love our neighbors as ourselves.

Such prayers are “good and pleasing to God” because God wants people—all people—to be saved from sin, death, the devil, and hell. The Lord our God really doesn’t want anyone to perish. He desires everyone to repent and believe the Good News of Jesus’ death and resurrection. The Lord desires all to be rescued from eternal destruction. The Lord desires to redeem every man, woman, and child from the wrath to come. The sad reality is many reject, spurn, and turn away from their Savior, resist the work of the Holy Spirit. Yet, the Lord still desires their salvation. The Father loved the world in this way: He sent Jesus to save it. The Lord seeks and saves the lost. So should we.

Such prayers are good and pleasing to God, because the Lord wants people to come to the knowledge of the truth. Pontius Pilate had asked Jesus, “What is truth?” The simple answer is two-fold and interwoven. Jesus says to God the Father, “Your Word is truth.” Jesus says, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” To “come to the knowledge of the truth” is to receive and believe the revelation of God’s Holy Word—to receive and believe Jesus as the way of salvation. Because God desires all to be saved, because Jesus died for all, we (who are united with Christ Jesus in the glory of God the Father) pray for all people by the power of the Holy Spirit.

WE PRAY FOR ALL PEOPLE—IF FOR NO OTHER REASON—BECAUSE WE JOIN THE LORD IN DESIRING THE SALVATION OF ALL PEOPLE

Let us remember to pray and give thanks this day and every day for other people and their salvation. Amen.