Bible Synapse
Should we pray for everyone?
Hard question · Psalms, wisdom and the prophets · raised by 1 of the lists sceptics circulate
See the passages joined in the interactive mapThe passages
“supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men”, including kings and all in authority, for God “will have all men to be saved”.
I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
“Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.”
Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.
“Therefore pray not thou for this people”, “for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble.”
Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble.
The objection
Paul tells the church to pray “for all men”. But God told Jeremiah, more than once, “pray not thou for this people”. Should we pray for everyone or not?
The answer
God’s words to Jeremiah are a particular command to one prophet at one moment, not a rule for prayer in general. They are spoken to Jeremiah (“pray not thou”) about “this people”, the Judah of his day, which had refused to listen again and again: “I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not” (7:13). Around the command stand the sins that brought it: trust in “lying words” about the temple (7:4), theft, murder, adultery and Baal worship (7:9), and whole families making cakes for “the queen of heaven” (7:18). Judgement had been decided, and the prayer forbidden was a prayer to turn it away: “Pray not for this people for their good” (14:11). God even said, “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people” (15:1). Barnes’ Notes observes that Moses’ prayers had prevailed when the people were moving upward; now they were going from bad to worse.
The command itself shows how normal such prayer was. Jeremiah had been praying for them, “to speak good for them, and to turn away thy wrath from them” (18:20), and God had to tell him to stop. Nor did God forbid all prayer for others afterwards. He told the exiles in Babylon to pray for the city of their captors: “seek the peace of the city”, “and pray unto the Lord for it” (29:7). When the remnant asked Jeremiah to pray for them, he answered, “I will pray unto the Lord your God according to your words” (42:4).
1 Timothy 2:1 gives the standing rule for the church. Prayers are to be made “for all men”, rulers included, because God “will have all men to be saved” (2:4). The New Testament also knows of a limit like Jeremiah’s: “There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it” (1 John 5:16). So the passages agree. The rule is to pray for everyone; the exception is when God himself has made known that his judgement on a people is fixed.
Still open
Christians differ over what John means by the ‘sin unto death’ (1 John 5:16), and over whether Jeremiah was barred from all prayer for Judah or only from asking that the coming judgement be turned aside. Matthew Henry takes the second view: he could still pray for their souls.
From the classic commentators
Jeremiah foretold the destruction of Judah and Jerusalem, and yet prayed for their preservation, not knowing that the decree was absolute; and it is the will of God that we pray for the peace of Jerusalem. Even when we threaten sinners with damnation we must pray for their salvation, that they may turn and live.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Jeremiah 7:16 (1706–1721)