Many of us may be surprised by the apostle Paul's request to pray "for kings and for all who are in authority" (1 Tim 2:1). We are even less surprised by the request for thanksgivings "for all people." It is easier to pray for humanity as a whole, but for the government...

Some people say that "they" are hypocrites, others that they are unbelievers, but most forget that first of all they are people. And we Christians, members of the Body of Christ, are called to be His presence in this world. We are not of the world, but "kings and those in authority" have been given authority in this world, and we are called to pray for them so that, even in the smallest measure, and even through earthly authority, the will of the King of Heaven may be done on earth.

This is possible, for there have been holy emperors, kings, and princes in history, from the most ancient times to our own day. It may seem to us that our prayer means nothing: to pray for someone's healing, for peace in a friend's family, that is still acceptable; but to pray for those who hold power, for peace on earth, that is too much. But it is not so. For example, in our own day, through the prayers and efforts of Christians, two African tribes were reconciled. And do we know what else happens, or does not happen, in this world through the prayers of our more responsible brothers and sisters in Christ? We so rarely realize the measure of our responsibility, yet we truly are members of one Body of the Church, and our prayer and our righteousness or sinfulness are not "our problems," as people now like to say, but pain or joy for the whole Church, for the Body of Christ.

Of course, each person answers for himself before God, but there are baptized people who were not raised in the faith or later lost it. And still a baptized unbeliever differs from an unbaptized person, because the whole Church prays for him at the Eucharist. That is the measure of our responsibility. We answer for these people, for those who have been joined to the Church by the sacrament of baptism but do not pray themselves. That is why it is so important to ask, pray, and give thanks for all people, "lifting up holy hands without anger or doubting."

Continuing the theme of a "quiet and peaceable life," Paul speaks about what it should be filled with: prayer and good works (vv. 8-10). Such a way of life would be quite acceptable for any religious person, regardless of the religion he professes. The only exception might be those bearers of the spirit of militant religiosity who accept no one but themselves and consider it their duty to wage holy war against the whole world until the complete triumph of their religion. But the point is not only that the spirit of peaceful religiosity was personally closer to Paul than the spirit of militant religiosity. In any case, the image of Paul when he was not yet either Paul or an apostle testifies rather to the opposite: he did not adopt either the spiritual calm or the religious breadth of his teacher Gamaliel, the Gamaliel of the Book of Acts. But when, after the meeting on the Damascus road, Paul understood what the Kingdom was, he also understood something else: religion is not the main thing in a person's life; it is not religion that makes him righteous, and it is not religion that saves.

The Christian's main task, as the apostle sees it, is not the spread of a new, final, and absolutely true religion, but witness to the Kingdom. But one cannot bear witness to it by words alone: one must show seekers that the Kingdom is not a beautiful dream, but a reality already accessible now to those who want to be joined to it. How could the Kingdom be demonstrated to those who do not yet know anything about it? Answering this question, Paul points to the Church's prayer gatherings as the place where the Kingdom can be seen with one's own eyes. But if those who presented themselves in the prayer gathering as examples of an inhabitant of the Kingdom were no different from pagans the rest of the time, the witness could hardly be considered complete. And the good works the apostle mentions became a manifestation of the same life of the Kingdom in everyday life. Hence also the requirement of hierarchy and order in church gatherings about which Paul speaks, forbidding women to be church preachers, "to teach," vv. 11-15. This is connected, of course, not with any inferiority or second-class status of women, as some readers of the Bible think today, but with the calling given to woman by God and, accordingly, with the ministries entrusted to her by God, among which church preaching is not included.

And the point here is not church discipline as such, but what stands behind it, provided that the Church is living a normal spiritual life, one that is not distorted or perverted: the order proper to the life of the Kingdom, determined not by external laws, but only by God's providence for each of its inhabitants and, accordingly, by each person's calling. In that case even outward order becomes not something self-important and often self-sufficient, but a witness, a witness to the Kingdom that determines this order.

The apostle Paul is one of those specific people against whom feminists raise objections. “How can this be? What he says is simply demeaning.” The problem is that, in his own language, the apostle explains a simple fact: men and women differ greatly in their constitution and divine calling. One can react to this in different ways. One can be indignant and outraged. One can refuse to believe in God because of it. Yet the differences between men and women are a fact that must be taken into account, if only because the paths by which we go to God and the callings He lays upon us depend on who we are.