Praying for Politicians in Public Worship

by Steve Meister

In no uncertain terms, the visitor said, “I’ll never be back to this church, you’re political.” They were indignant that during the pastoral prayer, I had prayed for the President (President Obama at that time). I led the church in asking God to grant our President wisdom to lead justly and to save him by faith in Christ. Honestly, it was a fairly brief and innocuous part of our service. But it was enough for at least this visitor to mark us out as being “political.”

To be fair, resistance to praying for political rulers during worship is nothing new. Around AD 400, John Chrysostom had to concede: 

The soul of some Christians might be slow at hearing this and may resist this exhortation. For at the celebration of the holy mysteries it may be necessary to offer prayers for a heathen king.[i] 

It is, in fact, because of our latent animosity toward “heathen rulers” that we’re commanded by God to pray for them. In 1 Timothy, Paul wrote to the churches in Ephesus that were infiltrated by a self-righteous legalism and elitism (e.g., 1 Tim 1:4-7; 4:1-5). In order to disciple Christians further in the gospel that Christ came to save sinners (1 Tim 1:15), Paul instructed Timothy to start with how a church prays - in 2:1-2, he exhorted:

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

What is God seeking to accomplish in and through his people when we pray publicly for our governing leaders? There are at least three divine aims implied by 1 Timothy 2:1-2. We may better explore their depth by also considering the reflections of Christians in the past on this text, since most of them faced a government far more hostile to Christianity than anything we see in the West today.

1. Prayer changes the state and our society.

We pray that God would work for the good of the church in the world through our prayers. Those who are most responsible for establishing the conditions of our society is our civil leaders. They are to be “an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer” (Rom 13:4) and “… to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good” (1 Pet 2:14). God has ordained government for “the public good” (2LCF 24.1), to create and preserve social stability and peace, the conditions most suited to the spread of the Gospel and flourishing of churches. We pray that God may cause the State to preserve order in society that a “peaceful and quiet life” is possible. In the 4th century, Ambrosiaster explained: 

They are to pray for the rulers of this world, that they would be able to keep their people subject to them, so that left in peace, we might serve our God in tranquility of mind and quiet. They are also to pray for those to whom supreme power has been entrusted, that they might govern the state in righteousness and truth and supply all things in abundance, so that the disruption of rebellion might be taken away and happiness put in its place.[ii]

While some measure of persecution is inevitable (cf. 2 Tim 3:12), it is never to be invited nor sought after by Christians. On this point, Gerald Bray helpfully comments: 

He [Paul] did not invite persecution as a means of encouraging church growth, but the very opposite. In his mind, the gospel would be preached most effectively if Christians were allowed to live in peace, and it was the duty of the secular rulers to ensure that they could do so.[iii] 

There is a reason that there are more churches in Sacramento, California, where I pastor, than in the nation of Saudi Arabia. Christians must pray for the state to preserve a civil society, with religious liberty. In the face of any evil and folly in our civil leaders, we go to our Lord who holds the hearts of our rulers “like a stream of water” in His hands (Prov 21:1). John Calvin reminds us:

It is our duty, therefore, not only to pray for those who are already worthy, but we must pray to God that he may make bad men good.[iv]

In a world of sinners, civilization – a civil and stable society – is an achievement, not a guarantee. It is a mercy from God for which we must ask Him. We ought to put off the apathy and cynicism that says our prayers do not matter and remember James 4:2, “You do not have, because… you do not ask.”

As we lament the condition of western society today, we must also ask ourselves whether we’ve prayed for those who lead it. Could it be that one of the causes of the current social discord and controversy is the rampant prayerlessness in our churches? Could it be that God is awakening a pragmatic and worldly church to remember our dependence on Him for the social conditions to pursue our lives? We pray for our political leaders because, as my grandmother says, “prayer changes things.” 

2. Prayer changes the church.

God not only works through our prayers, but he also works in those who are praying. Like the Christians in Ephesus, we often find that the people most difficult to love among “all people” are our political leaders. John Calvin observed:

He [Paul] expressly mentions kings and other magistrates, because, more than all others, they might be hated by Christians.[v]

God has commanded us to pray to sanctify our hearts toward the officials over us. Tertullian made this point in his Apology:

If you think that we have no interest in the emperor’s welfare, look into our literature, read the Word of God…. it has been enjoined upon us, that our charity may more and more abound, to pray to God even for our enemies and to beg for blessings for our persecutors.[vi]

 Later, John Chrysostom simply observed: 

First, hatred toward those who are outside the circle is transcended, for no one can feel hatred toward those for whom he prays.[vii]

Try hating the one for whom you’re praying. It’s near impossible. You are more likely to just not pray for them. In fact, the first sign that someone may be the object of your hatred is that they’re no longer a subject of your prayers. Truly, “Prayer… is still the finest safeguard against the sin of hatred.”[viii] We pray publicly for political rulers so that our animosity toward them is hindered and our love for them abounds more and more.

Public prayer for our leaders disciples the church to love their enemies and pray for those who persecute us (Matt 5:44). We pray not only for God to change our political leaders, and our community through them, but that he’d continue to change us as we pray.

3. Prayer can change community perception of the church.

We also pray in public worship so that our society may perceive us less as a hostile element within it. Christians have long had to deal with the accusation that we’re subversive and dangerous to the social order. Even in Paul’s life, Christians were blamed for the burning of Rome. By the headlines today, things often seem little different. So we pray to live “godly and dignified in every way,” that is, to be pious and respectable before all who watch us.

Concern for how the surrounding community perceives the church is a persistent theme in the New Testament (e.g., 1 Tim 3:7, 8; 5:14; 6:1; cf. 2 Cor 8:21; Rom 12:17; 1 Pet 2:11). Prayer is one way that we demonstrate our good intentions toward our culture. In the apologetic writings of the early church, prayer was regularly cited in defense of Christianity.  Along with Tertullian, cited above, Origen contended Christians give help to the emperor by prayer: 

… at appropriate times we render to the emperors divine help, if I may so say, by taking up even the whole armor of God. And this we do in obedience to the apostolic utterance which says, “I exhort you, therefore, first to make prayers, supplications, intercessions and thanksgivings for all men, for emperors, and all that are in authority.” Indeed, the more pious a man is, the more effective he is in helping the emperors—more so than the soldiers who go out into the lines and kill all the enemy troops that they can.[ix]

Chrysostom remarked on how our prayers might even have an evangelistic affect on our society:

Those apart are made better by the prayers that are offered for them, by losing their ferocious disposition toward us. For nothing is so apt to draw men under teaching as to love and to be loved.[x]

Many of us have had the personal experience of seeing someone’s countenance soften by simply asking, “How can I pray for you?”  In the same way, the church corporately may diffuse some of the animosity from its community by praying for them and letting them know that we do. What if, when our civic leaders thought of churches, remembered us as those who intercede with God for their good?

Admittedly, in our partisan age, praying publicly for politicians is going to be off-putting to some professing Christians. But remember that is partly why we are commanded to do so in the first place. It is part of our discipleship of those who profess the name of Christ.[xi] In an era of increasing hostility from our elected officials, we are called to the example of our Lord Jesus, entrusting ourselves to “him who judges justly” (1 Pet 2:23). We place our circumstances in his sovereign hands. We show love, even for those who do not love us, overcoming evil with good (Rom 12:21). All this is expressed as we pray for those God has put over us in the world.

Notes

[I] Homilies on 1 Timothy, VI, in NPNF 1, 13:426 

[ii] Cited by Oden, First and Second Timothy and Titus, pp. 90-91

[iii] Gerald Bray, The Pastoral Epistles, p. 140

[iv] Commentaries on the Epistles to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, p. 52.

[v] Ibid.

[vi] Apology 31.1–2.[vi]

[vii] Homilies on 1 Timothy, VI, in NPNF 1, 13:426 

[viii] Homer Kent, The Pastoral Epistles, p. 97

[ix] Against Celsus 8.73

[x] Homilies on 1 Timothy, VI, in NPNF 1, 13:426

[xi] On the discipleship in corporate worship, see Jon Payne, Public Worship is Discipleship.