A minister stands before a hall full of graduating theology students and decides to demonstrate the theme of his address. “Please stand up,” he says. “I will read out the names of some high government officials for whom we have a responsibility to pray. If you know that official’s name, keep standing. If not, you sit down.” He begins with the president. No one sits down. Then the state governor, and a few people sit down. When he mentions the senator from the state more people sit down. By the time he gets to the congressperson representing the district only about 25 percent of the audience remain standing. To conclude the demonstration, he says to those still standing: “If you have not prayed for each of these at least once since the beginning of this year, please be seated.” One person, and only one person, is left standing. If we carry out the same demonstration in our church today, how shall we fare?

In today’s second reading, Paul gives instructions to Timothy on Christian worship. The first injunction he gives him is on praying for everyone, especially for civil authorities: “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions” (1 Timothy 2:1-2a). Today we take it for granted that we should pray for our leaders, but when you realize that Paul wrote this letter at a time when Christians were going through a most brutal state-approved persecution under the wicked emperor Nero, then the injunction to pray for the emperor raises eyebrows. Why would Christians pray for this emperor and his deputies who are out to eliminate the church?

Paul anticipates the question and gives Timothy two reasons why the church should pray for the king and all who are in high positions. The first reason is “so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity” (verse 2b). The church needed to pray so that the king would reverse his bad and discriminatory laws against Christians, which would enable them to live their lives in quiet and peace, fulfilling their religious obligations without fear of arrest, molestation or death. In other words, they were not praying for the emperor so that he would continue in power with his bad policies and decrees, they were praying so that he would change his heart and his policies against Christians.

The second reason to pray for the emperor is more altruistic. As Christians we know that “God desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (verse 4). But the emperor and his nobles are living in the darkness of error and sin. So the church needed to pray for them to come to the light of truth and salvation. The religion of the emperors was emperor worship. In death emperors were deified and proclaimed to be gods, in life there were called sons of god (filii divi). Paul says that they are in error because there is only one God and one Son of God, who mediates between God and humankind, Jesus the Christ. “For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human” (verse 5). Since the emperor and his officials are in error, Paul enjoins Christians to pray for them so that they may realize that truth and salvation are found in Christ “who gave himself a ransom for all” (verse 6).

When Paul asks us to pray for the king, he is not asking us to automatically support the policies of whoever happens to be the head of government. He is asking us to pray so that (1) our rulers may govern us with laws that allow us freedom of worship so that we can freely carry out our religious duties without hindrance; and (2) that they themselves may come to know the truth that we all share, that there is only one God, and this God has revealed Himself fully in His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, and so come to be saved themselves.

Today there are many countries in the world where the Christian faith is persecuted and believers cannot practise their faith openly. We need to pray for a change of heart in the rulers of such countries. In some traditional Christian countries the signs of the faith can no longer be displayed in public: prayer has been banned in schools, crucifixes have been removed from public buildings, and “Merry Christmas” has been changed to “Happy Holiday.” Let us pray today for our government officials so that they may recognize the universal kingship of Christ and make it possible for us to practise our faith both in private and in public.