<p>2:4 <i>Who would wish all men to be saved</i>- See on 2:1<i> For all men. </i>I have suggested that Paul bids the Lord Jesus pray for all men, especially those in the Governments; and he here gives the reason. The Lord's will that all be saved requires the taking of the Gospel to all men, and their acceptance of the message. And so Paul bids the Lord Jesus to pray for those in authority, because it was and is typically them who hinder the spreading of the Gospel and who create environments which penalize accepting the Gospel.</p><p>Paul tells Timothy or calls the Lord Jesus- see on :1 to pray for the Government to allow him to continue preaching, because God &ldquo;will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth&rdquo; (1 Tim. 2:1-4). There is here the suggestion that Timothy&rsquo;s prayers would enable more men to come to the knowledge of the Truth, and thereby fulfil God&rsquo;s intention. But that intention and will of God had been made dependent on the prayers and preaching of the likes of Timothy. God&rsquo;s &ldquo;will&rdquo; is that all will be saved; yet not all will be. His will is that not one of the little ones perish (Mt. 18:14); but we can offend the little ones, so that they do perish. His <i>intention</i> is that the church reveals His wisdom to this world (Eph. 3:10); but it doesn&rsquo;t always do so. None can resist His will; and yet His will is not necessarily what He does, in that His will does not force men and women into obedience or compliance. God is not a manipulator nor a bully, i.e. He does not enforce His will over others. Only in the future Kingdom of God will His will be done on earth as it is now done in Heaven. His will to save all has been frustrated by the church. The Gospel was to be taken to every person under heaven, from the first century onwards. So why, then, did billions live and die in ignorance? I have no final answer, but I would suggest that this was not His will; just as our behaviour so often is not His will. The church was potentially empowered to take the Gospel to the planet, right from the start. And yes, I include to the remotest islands of the Pacific, the jungles of South America etc. The technology would have been raised up- the logistical side of it would've been nothing for God to fix if believers had wished to do it with all their hearts. Instead they argued over theology and got lost in legalism and divisions between themselves, and allowed the world and all its limitations to influence their thinking. Here, Paul is appealing for prayers for Governments so that &quot;all men&quot; can be saved. He realized that state opposition hinders the salvation of all men, because people</p><p>It could also be observed that &quot;all men&quot; need not mean 'every human being', but 'all types of men'. In our age we see this happening. The Gospel <i>is</i> going to all the world. Not only to every nation, but to every type of person. Even in the West, men from prisoners to the highest business executives are now being baptized; and women from prostitutes to politicians. There is repeated Biblical emphasis that &ldquo;all men&rdquo; will hear and respond to the Gospel (Jn. 1:7; 5:23; 12:32; Acts 17:30,31; 1 Tim. 2:4). It can&rsquo;t mean &lsquo;every man, woman and child who ever live&rsquo;; for many have lived and died knowing nothing of Christ. It must surely mean that a few of &lsquo;all types of people&rsquo;, ethnically, linguistically, socially, in terms of personality types... will be saved; just as there were representatives of all types of animal gathered into the ark a type of baptism into Christ, as Peter informs us. If the rain is a type of the second coming, it follows that before that time, all types of animal, clean and unclean which Acts 10 interprets as Jews and Gentiles must be gathered into the ark of Christ. And now in this century, as we come to the end of human history, all types of people are realising deep within them that something is up with this world. They are starting to feel their desperation, for all their show of hedonism. There are far more believers in God today than there were 50 years ago. That&rsquo;s a fact. Never say or think that people &lsquo;just aren&rsquo;t interested&rsquo;. Some of them are, indeed more and more of them are, and they are desperately interested. Men and women are somehow turning to Him, but lack the knowledge. And if we go on with this work, the end will shortly come.</p><p><i>And come to the knowledge of the truth- </i>Paul sometimes writes of <i>the </i>truth, with the article; but this is one of the 14 times in the pastoral letters where he doesn't use the article. So I don't think his sense is that God wishes all men to pass through a process of knowledge / study until they come to a defined set of theological understandings which he calls &quot;the truth&quot;. The very same phrase is used in 2 Tim. 3:7: &quot;ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth&quot;. So learning, 'Bible study' of itself will not necessarily lead to &quot;the knowledge of the truth&quot;. And that is true to observed experience; for all manner of folks study the Bible but come through all their learning to a different set of truths at the end of it. I suggest that as so often, there are two halves to this verse, which state the same thing but in different terms. &quot;To be saved&quot; is parallel with 'coming to the knowledge of the truth'. Jn. 17:3 speaks of life eternal as knowing the one true God; the great salvation which we shall experience in terms of knowing Him and His Son, the relationship with them then which begins now- that is the knowledge of truth. This is the one and ultimate truth. And that is not the same as sitting for eternity reciting the terms of a statement of faith, the various correct Biblical interpretations we have come across. Knowing God and His Son is all about relationship with them, as is made clear so often and especially in John's Gospel. Phil. 3:8 speaks of &quot;knowing Christ Jesus my Lord&quot; and parallels it with 'winning Christ' at the last day; the 'knowledge' which is in view here in 1 Tim. 1 is also, I suggest, speaking of our relationship with Christ in the Kingdom. This is the 'knowledge' of 1 Cor. 13:12: &quot;Then shall I know, even as also I am known&quot;. For now we &quot;see through a glass darkly&quot;, our 'knowledge' is blurred and incomplete; and only then shall we see / know Him &quot;face to face&quot;.</p><p>Unfortunately, an over hasty and slipshod reading of this verse has led to the phrase 'saving truth', by which the impression is given that the possession of true Biblical interpretation will somehow save the possessor thereof. And thus the attitude develops that if we 'know the truth', in the sense of understanding a particular set of teachings, we shall thereby be saved; and maintaining those same understandings up to our grave planks is seen as the most essential part of Christian endeavour. But we cannot be saved by intellectual knowledge; but rather by faith in the simple truth of Christ and God's saving grace. This is what can lead us to the faith that is certain that if the Lord returns at this moment, by grace I shall indeed be saved. Focusing upon 'saving truth' gives high priority to the issue of whether we have our interpretations all completely right; and it creates inevitable tension over words and meanings, with the need to disfellowship others who differ however slightly from the supposed 'saving truth' of our interpretations.</p>