About prayer
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📚I exhort, therefore, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercessions 📖, and giving of thanks 📖, be made for all men 📖, 2 📚for kings, and for all those in authority, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.2:2 Paul says pray for rulers, not criticize them. He indicates here that the prayers of Christian believers can influence the course of events in a country. This is true even when those in authority are not believers and may even be opposed to them (as was true in Paul’s day). Perhaps one reason why believers in some countries are not able to live peaceful and quiet lives is that they fail to pray for their rulers as they ought.⚜
God’s desire for all men
3 📚For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour,
2:3 Praying for unsaved and saved people pleases God. And what pleases God believers should be eager to do.⚜
4 📚who wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
2:4 Here is a clear statement of God’s attitude to everyone in the world. He wants every person to learn the truth about Christ and receive His salvation. Compare 1 Tim 4:10; John 1:29; 3:16; Rom 11:32; 2 Cor 5:19; 2 Pet 3:9; 1 John 2:1; Ezek 18:32. This is just what we would expect from a God whose nature is love (1 John 4:8). Then why do so many people fail to know the truth and to receive salvation? See Matt 23:37; John 3:19-20; 5:40; 2 Thess 2:10-12. Also see notes at Rom 8:29.⚜
One God, one Mediator, one ransom
5 📚For there is one God 📖, and one mediator 📖 between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 📚who gave himself a ransom 📖 for all 📖, testimony about this given in due time 📖.
7 📚For this I was appointed 📖 a preacher and an apostle (I am speaking the truth in Christ, and am not lying), and a teacher of the Gentiles 📖 in faith and truth.
8 📚So I want men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands 📖, 📖 without anger and doubting 📖.
Proper behavior and dress for Christian women
9 📚In the same way I want women to dress in decent clothing, modestly and soberly; not with braided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly garments, 10 📚but with good works (which is proper for women professing godliness).
2:9-10 Does God really see and care how women dress? Certainly. That is why He inspired Paul to write as he did here. Compare Isa 3:16-23. See also 1 Pet 3:3-4. Women who are believers should dress modestly and decently because they have no business trying to copy worldly women or to be the center of attention or to attract men. They should not wear gold or expensive jewels or costly clothing because they live in a world where the poor and needy suffer without proper food and clothing. Also their Lord and Saviour, who was poor Himself (Matt 9:20; 2 Cor 8:9), has called them to a life of self-denial, not self-indulgence – Matt 10:38-39; Luke 14:33. It is far better to give money to the poor or to use it to spread the gospel than to spend it on gold, jewelry and expensive clothes. God wants both believing women and men to be humble, modest and contented (1 Tim 6:6-8), and to lay up their treasures in heaven, not on earth (Matt 6:19-21). All believers should make sure they wear the “ornaments” and “clothing” of good deeds.⚜
11 📚Let a woman learn in silence 📖 with complete submission 📖. 12 📚And I do not permit a woman to teach 📖 or to have authority over the man, but to be silent. 13 📚For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14 📚And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor 📖.
2:13-14 Paul gives two reasons why women should not teach publicly or have authority over men. Neither reason has anything to do with the customs of the times, or what men in the Roman Empire thought was fitting, or any such thing.
The first reason is that God made Adam first – Gen 2:17-18, 21, 22. Paul says that God thus showed He intended man to be in the position of authority over the woman.
Second, Satan deceived Eve, not Adam – Gen 3:1-6. It seems Paul is suggesting that in theological matters women are more easily led astray than men. This would fit the context and be a good reason why they should not be permitted to have authority over men or teaching positions in the church.⚜
15 📚However, she will be saved in childbirth, if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self-control.
2:15 Pain in childbirth is one of the penalties for Eve’s sin – Gen 3:16. Here is an encouraging word to women who believe in Christ and show the proof of their faith in the way they live.⚜