<p>2:6 <i>Who gave himself as a ransom</i>- see on Rom. 3:19; Gal. 5:1. We were bought out of slavery by His death- and should not remain under bondage to any legal code nor to anything.</p><p><i>For all- </i>Christ died a ransom &ldquo;for all&rdquo;, and yet more specifically &ldquo;a ransom for many&rdquo;, i.e. not all (1 Tim. 2:6 cp. Mk. 10:45). See on 1 Cor. 11:3. The Lord was &ldquo;a ransom for all&quot;, although it was only us, the redeemed, who were ransomed by Him out of sin's slavery (Lk. 1:68; Tit. 2:14; 1 Pet. 1:18; Rom. 8:13; Rev. 5:9; 14:3,4). The &quot;all men&quot; of our 'world' could therefore be limited to those who constitute God's world, as here defined. The real solution to being 'too inward looking' is to go out into the highways and byways, and compel men to come in to the covenants of promise.</p><p>Do we admit that we just don't preach as we should, failing to engage people with the Gospel because we assume 'nobody's interested'? 1 Tim. 2:1-6 has something for us. The Lord's death on the cross was a ransom payment &quot;for all men&quot;; and in this context, Paul urges that because God therefore wishes &quot;all men to be saved&quot; we should therefore pray &quot;for all men, even for kings and those in authority&quot;. If the Lord's death truly was for all, in that He was representative there of all men, He there &quot;tasted death for every man&quot; (Heb. 2:9)... then we should pray for &quot;all men&quot; quite literally to be saved, knowing that God is willing that &quot;all men be saved&quot;. And Paul makes this point in the context of appealing for us to pray for all men, even Kings. This means that we should pray for even those we consider most unlikely- that they might be saved. For the cross of Christ has potentially saved them- if they will accept it. Thus Paul comments in 1 Tim. 2:6 that the cross was &quot;a ransom for all, to be testified&quot;. The testifying or witnessing to it is to be done by our preaching. Notice how Paul draws a dynamic parallel between praying for all men and witnessing to all men (1 Tim. 2:1 cp. 6). Preaching- when it is truly inspired by the cross- can never be a prayer-less exercise, a mere presentation of information. It will be done prayerfully, thoughtfully targeted at specific individuals whom we're praying will accept the message.</p><p>Paul exhorts that prayers be made &ldquo;for all men&quot;, just because &ldquo;Christ Jesus gave himself a ransom for all&quot;, and He thereby is the one and only mediator between God and man (1 Tim. 2:1-6). Because of what He enabled for all, we should pray for all, that somehow circumstances might be allowed which enable all men&rsquo;s salvation in Jesus to indeed spread to all men.</p><p><i>The testimony made at the due time</i>- The idea is overall as in GNB: &quot;That was the proof at the right time that God wants everyone to be saved&quot;. The cross of Christ is the assurance that God wants human salvation. He is not passively waiting for us to clear some bar, but rather urges us on through demonstrating in the cross His passion for our salvation.</p>