BIG PICTURE: Paul urges that prayer be offered for all, especially those in authority, so that they may promote conditions in which people will come to salvation.

1. Right Living: Praying Biblically (vs. 1-2)

Christians are to pray for all sorts of individuals, specifically

• for those in authority
• with a view to civil peace
• in an environment where the gospel might advance
• where Christians live lives of godliness and holiness.

2. The Right Doctrine Informing Our Right Living (vs. 3-6)

• God is the savior who desires all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth of the gospel. Therefore, Christians pray for the salvation of those in authority.
• That God would have all people be saved is a necessary corollary of the truth of monotheism, and of the provision of only one mediator: the man Christ Jesus
• The extent of the mediator’s ransom is “for all people.” This has been witnessed to at the proper time.

3. Paul’s own career in proclaiming the gospel to Gentiles (not just Jews!) bears out the reality of the universal scope of God’s will to save. (v.7)

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Typology analyzes how New Testament persons, events, and institutions (“antitypes”) fulfill Old Testament persons, events, and institutions (“types”) by repeating the Old Testament situations at a deeper, climactic level in salvation history.