_ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP; INTERCESSORY PRAYER AND
THANKSGIVING.--THE SOLIDARITY OF CHRISTENDOM AND OF THE HUMAN RACE._
"I exhort, therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers,
intercessions, thanksgivings, be made for all men: for kings and all
that are in high places; that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life
in all godliness and gravity"--1 TIM. ii. 1.
The first chapter of the Epistle is more or less introductory. It
repeats what St. Paul had already said to his beloved disciple by word
of mouth, on the subject of Christian doctrine, and the necessity of
keeping it pure. It makes a digression respecting the Apostle's own
conversion. It reminds Timothy of the hopeful prophecies uttered over
him at his ordination; and it points out the terrible consequences of
driving conscience from the helm and placing oneself in antagonism to
the Almighty. In this second chapter St Paul goes on to mention in order
the subjects which led to the writing of the letter; and the very first
exhortation which he has to give is that respecting Christian worship
and the duty of intercessory prayer and thanksgiving.
There are two things very worthy of remark in the treatment of the
subject of worship in the Pastoral Epistles. First, these letters bring
before us a more developed form of worship than we find indicated in
the earlier writings of St. Paul. It is still very primitive, but it has
grown. And this is exactly what we ought to expect, especially when we
remember how rapidly the Christian Church developed its powers during
the first century and a half. Secondly, the indications of this more
developed form of worship occur only in the letters to Timothy, which
deal with the condition of things in the Church of Ephesus, a Church
which had already been founded for a considerable time, and was in a
comparatively advanced stage of organization. Hence we are not surprised
to find in these two Epistles fragments of what appear to be primitive
liturgical forms. In the First Epistle we have two grand doxologies,
which may be the outcome of the Apostle's devotion at the moment, but
are quite as likely to be quotations of formulas well known to Timothy
(i. 17; vi. 15, 16). Between these two we have what looks like a portion
of a hymn in praise of Jesus Christ, suitable for singing antiphonally
(iii. 16; comp. Pliny, _Epp._ x. 96): and also what may be a baptismal
exhortation (vi. 12). In the Second Epistle we have traces of another
liturgical formula (ii. 11-13).
St. Paul of course does not mean, as the A.V. might lead us to suppose,
that in all Christian worship intercession ought to come first; still
less that intercession is the first duty of a Christian. But he does
place it first among those subjects about which he has to give
directions in this Epistle. He makes sure that it shall not be forgotten
by himself in writing to his delegate at Ephesus; and he wishes to make
sure that it shall not be forgotten by Timothy in his ministration. To
offer prayers and thanksgivings on behalf of all men is a duty of such
high importance that the Apostle places it first among the topics of his
pastoral charge.
Was it a duty which Timothy and the congregation committed to his care
had been neglecting, or were in serious danger of neglecting? It may
well have been so. In the difficulties of the overseer's own personal
position, and in the varied dangers to which his little flock were so
unceasingly exposed, the claims of others upon their united prayer and
praise may sometimes have been forgotten. When the Apostle had left
Timothy to take his place for a time in Ephesus he had hoped to return
very soon, and consequently had given him only brief and somewhat hasty
directions as to his course of action during his absence. He had been
prevented from returning; and there was a probability that Timothy would
have to be his representative for an indefinite period. Meanwhile the
difficulties of Timothy's position had not diminished. Many of his flock
were much older men than himself, and some of them had been elders in
the Church of Ephesus long before the Apostle's beloved disciple was
placed in charge of them. Some of the leaders in the congregation had
become tainted with the Gnostic errors with which the intellectual
atmosphere of Ephesus was charged, and were endeavouring to make
compromise and confusion between heathen lawlessness and Christian
liberty. Besides which, there was the bitter hostility of the Jews, who
regarded both Paul and Timothy as renegades from the faith of their
ancestors, and who never lost an opportunity of thwarting and reviling
them. Above all there was the ever-present danger of heathenism, which
confronted the Christians every time they left the shelter of their own
houses. In the city which counted it as its chief glory that it was the
"Temple-keeper of the great Artemis" (Acts xix. 35), every street
through which the Christians walked, and every heathen house which they
entered, was full of pagan abominations; to say nothing of the
magnificent temples, beautiful groves, and seductive idolatrous rites,
which were among the main features that attracted such motley crowds to
Ephesus. Amid difficulties and perils such as these, it would not be
wonderful if Timothy and those committed to his care had been somewhat
oblivious of the fact that "behind the mountains also there are people;"
that beyond the narrow limits of their contracted horizon there were
interests as weighty as their own--Christians who were as dear to God as
themselves, whose needs were as great as their own, and to whom the Lord
had been equally gracious; and moreover countless hosts of heathen, who
also were God's children, needing His help and receiving His blessings;
for all of whom, as well as for themselves, the Church in Ephesus was
bound to offer prayer and thanksgiving.
But there is no need to assume that Timothy, and those committed to his
care, had been specially neglectful of this duty. To keep clearly in
view our responsibilities towards the whole human race, or even towards
the whole Church, is so difficult a thing for all of us, that the
prominent place which St. Paul gives to the obligation to offer prayers
and thanksgivings for all men is quite intelligible, without the
supposition that the disciple whom he addresses was more in need of such
a charge than other ministers in the Churches under St. Paul's care.
The Apostle uses three different words for prayer, the second of which
is a general term and covers all kinds of prayer to God, and the first a
still more general term, including petitions addressed to man. Either
of the first two would embrace the third, which indicates a bold and
earnest approach to the Almighty to implore some great benefit. None of
the three words necessarily means intercession in the sense of prayer
_on behalf of others_. This idea comes from the context. St. Paul says
plainly that it is prayers and thanksgivings "for all men" that he
desires to have made: and in all probability he did not carefully
distinguish in his mind the shades of meaning which are proper to the
three terms which he uses. Whatever various kinds of supplication there
may be which are offered by man at the throne of grace, he urges that
the whole human race are to have the benefit of them. Obviously, as
Chrysostom long ago pointed out, we cannot limit the Apostle's "all men"
to all believers. Directly he enters into detail he mentions "kings and
all that are in high place;" and in St. Paul's day not a single king,
and we may almost say not a single person in high place, was a believer.
The scope of a Christian's desires and gratitude, when he appears before
the Lord, must have no narrower limit than that which embraces the whole
human race. This important principle, the Apostle charges his
representative, must be exhibited in the public worship of the Church in
Ephesus.
The solidarity of the whole body of Christians, however distant from one
another in space and time, however different from one another in
nationality, in discipline, and even in creed, is a magnificent fact, of
which we all of us need from time to time to be reminded, and which,
even when we are reminded of it, we find it somewhat difficult to grasp.
Members of sects that we never heard of, dwelling in remote regions of
which we do not even know the names, are nevertheless united to us by
the eternal ties of a common baptism and a common belief in God and in
Jesus Christ. The eastern sectarian in the wilds of Asia, and the
western sectarian in the backwoods of North America, are members of
Christ and our brethren; and as such have spiritual interests identical
with our own, for which it is not only our duty but our advantage to
pray. "Whether one member suffereth, all the members suffer with it; or
one member is honoured, all the members rejoice with it." The ties which
bind Christians to one another are at once so subtle and so real, that
it is impossible for one Christian to remain unaffected by the progress
or retrogression of any other. Therefore, not only does the law of
Christian charity require us to aid all our fellow-Christians by praying
for them, but the law of self-interest leads us to do so also; for their
advance will assuredly help us forward, and their relapse will assuredly
keep us back. All this is plain matter of fact, revealed to us by Christ
and His apostles, and confirmed by our own experience, so far as our
feeble powers of observation are able to supply a test. Nevertheless, it
is a fact of such enormous proportions (even without taking into account
our close relationship with those who have passed away from this world),
that even with our best efforts we fail to realize it in its immensity.
What shall we say, then, about the difficulty of realizing the
solidarity of the whole human race? For they also are God's offspring,
and as such are of one family with ourselves. If it is hard to remember
that the welfare of the humblest member of a remote and obscure
community in Christendom intimately concerns ourselves, how shall we
keep in view the fact that we have both interests and obligations in
reference to the wildest and most degraded heathens in the heart of
Africa or in the islands of the Pacific? Here is a fact on a far more
stupendous scale; for in the population of the globe, those who are not
even in name Christians, outnumber us by at least three to one. And yet
let us never forget that our interest in these countless multitudes,
whom we have never seen and never shall see in this life, is not a mere
graceful sentiment or empty flourish of rhetoric, but a sober and solid
fact. The hackneyed phrase, "a man and a brother," represents a vital
truth. Every human being is one of our brethren, and, whether we like
the responsibility or not, we are still our "brother's keeper." In our
keeping, to a very real extent, lie the supreme issues of his spiritual
life, and we have to look to it that we discharge our trust faithfully.
We read with horror, and it may be with compassion, of the monstrous
outrages committed by savage chiefs upon their subjects, their wives, or
their enemies. We forget that the guilt of these things may lie partly
at our door, because we have not done our part in helping forward
civilizing influences which would have prevented such horrors, above all
because we have not prayed as we ought for those who commit them. There
are few of us who have not some opportunities of giving assistance in
various ways to missionary enterprise and humanizing efforts. But all of
us can at least pray for God's blessing upon such things, and for His
mercy upon those who are in need of it. Of those who, having nothing
else to give, give their struggles after holiness and their prayers for
their fellow-men, the blessed commendation stands written, "They have
done what they could."
"For kings and all that are in high place." It is quite a mistake to
suppose that "kings" here means the Roman Emperors. This has been
asserted, and from this misinterpretation has been deduced the
erroneous conclusion that the letter must have been written at a time
when it was customary for the Emperor to associate another prince with
him in the empire, with a view to securing the succession. As Hadrian
was the first to do this, and that near to the close of his reign, this
letter (it is urged) cannot be earlier than A.D. 138. But this
interpretation is impossible, for "kings" in the Greek has no article.
Had the writer meant the two reigning Emperors, whether Hadrian and
Antoninus, or M. Aurelius and Verus, he would inevitably have written
"for _the_ kings and for all in high place." The expression "for kings,"
obviously means "for monarchs of all descriptions," including the Roman
Emperor, but including many other potentates also. Such persons, as
having the heaviest responsibilities and the greatest power of doing
good and evil, have an especial claim upon the prayers of Christians. It
gives us a striking illustration of the transforming powers of
Christianity when we think of St. Paul giving urgent directions that
among the persons to be remembered first in the intercessions of the
Church are Nero and the men whom he put "in high place," such as Otho
and Vitellius, who afterwards became Emperor: and this, too, after
Nero's peculiarly cruel and wanton persecution of the Christians A.D.
64. How firmly this beautiful practice became established among
Christians, is shown from their writings in the second and third
centuries. Tertullian, who lived through the reigns of such monsters as
Commodus and Elagabalus, who remembered the persecution under M.
Aurelius, and witnessed that under Septimius Severus, can nevertheless
write thus of the Emperor of Rome: "A Christian is the enemy of no one,
least of all of the Emperor, whom he knows to have been appointed by
his God, and whom he therefore of necessity loves, and reverences, and
honours, and desires his well-being, with that of the whole Roman
Empire, so long as the world shall stand; for it shall last as long. To
the Emperor, therefore, we render such homage as is lawful for us and
good for him, as the human being who comes next to God, and is what he
is by God's decree, and to God alone is inferior.... And so we sacrifice
also for the well-being of the Emperor; but to our God and his; but in
the way that God has ordained, with a prayer that is pure. For God, the
Creator of the universe, has no need of odours or of blood."[35] In
another passage Tertullian anticipates the objection that Christians
pray for the Emperor, in order to curry favour with the Roman government
and thus escape persecution. He says that the heathen have only to look
into the Scriptures, which to Christians are the voice of God, and see
that to pray for their enemies and to pray for those in authority is a
fundamental rule with Christians. And he quotes the passage before
us.[36] But he appears to misunderstand the concluding words of the
Apostle's injunction,--"that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in
all godliness and gravity." Tertullian understands this as a reason for
praying for kings and rulers; because they are the preservers of the
public peace, and any disturbance in the empire will necessarily affect
the Christians as well as other subjects,--which is giving a rather
narrow and selfish motive for this great duty. "That we may lead a
tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and gravity," is the object and
consequence, not of our praying for kings and rulers in particular, but
of our offering prayers and thanksgivings _on behalf of all men_.
When this most pressing obligation is duly discharged, then, and only
then, can we hope with tranquil consciences to be able to live Christian
lives in retirement from the rivalries and jealousies and squabbles of
the world. Only in the attitude of mind which makes us pray and give
thanks for our fellow-men is the tranquillity of a godly life possible.
The enemies of Christian peace and quietness are anxiety and strife. Are
we anxious about the well-being of those near and dear to us, or of
those whose interests are bound up with our own? Let us pray for them.
Have we grave misgivings respecting the course which events are taking
in Church, or in State, or in any of the smaller societies to which we
belong? Let us offer supplications and intercessions on behalf of all
concerned in them. Prayer offered in faith to the throne of grace will
calm our anxiety, because it will assure us that all is in God's hand,
and that in His own good time He will bring good out of the evil. Are we
at strife with our neighbours, and is this a constant source of
disturbance? Let us pray for them. Fervent and frequent prayers for
those who are hostile to us will certainly secure this much,--that we
ourselves become more wary about giving provocation; and this will go a
long way towards bringing the attainment of our desire for the entire
cessation of the strife. Is there any one to whom we have taken a strong
aversion, whose very presence is a trial to us, whose every gesture and
every tone irritates us, and the sight of whose handwriting makes us
shiver, because of its disturbing associations? Let us pray for him.
Sooner or later dislike must give way to prayer. It is impossible to go
on taking a real interest in the welfare of another, and at the same
time to go on detesting him. And if our prayers for his welfare are
genuine, a real interest in it there must be. Is there any one of whom
we are jealous? Of whose popularity, so dangerous to our own, we are
envious? Whose success--quite undeserved success, as it seems to
us--disgusts and frightens us? Whose mishaps and failures, nay even
whose faults and misdeeds, give us pleasure and satisfaction? Let us
thank God for the favour which He bestows upon this man. Let us praise
our heavenly Father for having in His wisdom and His justice given to
another of His children what He denies to us; and let us pray Him to
keep this other from abusing His gifts.
Yes, let us never forget that not only prayers but _thanksgivings_ are
to be offered _for all men_. He who is so good to the whole Church, of
which we are members, and to the great human family to which we belong,
certainly has claim upon the gratitude of every human being, and
especially of every Christian. His bounty is not given by measure or by
merit. He maketh His sun to shine upon the evil and the good, and
sendeth His rain upon the just and the unjust: and shall we pick and
choose as to what we will thank Him for, and what not? The sister who
loves her erring or her half-witted brother is grateful to her father
for the care which he bestows upon his graceless and his useless son.
And shall we not give thanks to our heavenly Father for the benefits
which He bestows on the countless multitudes whose interests are so
closely interwoven with our own? Benefits bestowed upon any human being
are an answer to our prayers, and as such we are bound to give thanks
for them. How much more grateful shall we be, when we are able to look
on them as benefits bestowed upon those whom we love!
This is the cause of so much of our failure in prayer. We do not couple
our prayers with thanksgiving; or at any rate our thanksgivings are far
less hearty than our prayers. We give thanks for benefits received by
ourselves: we forget to give thanks "for all men." Above all, we forget
that the truest gratitude is shown, not in words or feelings, but in
conduct. We should send good deeds after good words to heaven. Not that
our ingratitude provokes God to withhold His gifts; but that it does
render us less capable of receiving them. For the sake of others no less
than for ourselves let us remember the Apostle's charge that
"thanksgivings be made for all men." We cannot give plenty and
prosperity to the nations of the earth. We cannot bestow on them peace
and tranquillity. We cannot bring them out of darkness to God's glorious
light. We cannot raise them from impurity to holiness. We can only do a
little, a very little, towards these great ends. But one thing we can
do. We can at least thank Him who has already bestowed some, and is
preparing to bestow others, of these blessings. We can praise Him for
the end towards which He will have all things work.--"He willeth that
_all_ men should be saved" (ver. 4), "that God may be all in all."
FOOTNOTES:
[35] _Ad Scapulam_, ii.
[36] _Apol._, xxxi.