Instructions concerning Prayer
2:1I exhort therefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings, be made for all men; 2:2for kings and all that are in high place; that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and gravity. 2:3This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 2:4who would have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth. 2:5For
there is one God,
one mediator also between God and men, himself man,
Christ Jesus,
2:6who gave himself a ransom for all1;
the testimony to be borne in its own times; 2:7whereunto I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I speak the truth, I lie not), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.
2:8I desire therefore that the men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and disputing. 2:9In like manner, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefastness and sobriety; not with braided hair, and gold or pearls or costly raiment; 2:10but (which becometh women professing godliness) through good works. 2:11Let a woman learn in quietness with all subjection. 2:12But I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man, but to be in quietness. 2:13For Adam was first formed, then Eve; 2:14and Adam was not beguiled, but the woman being beguiled hath fallen into transgression: 2:15but she shall be saved through her child-bearing, if they continue in faith and love and sanctification with sobriety.
Notes:
- who gave himself a ransom for all. Ransom to the devil, never to God. God is all good, everywhere present and He has no need to be paid. The devil, however, our lower consciousness, needs to be sacrificed. See theories of how atonement might work. New Thought rejects the satisfaction theory (Jesus is my substitute) and embraces the moral influence theory (Jesus is my Wayshower). “Jesus is my Wayshower, not my substitute.”
