While men have endeavored, strived, and dreamed of ways to change a nation’s culture for the better, as with all things, the Bible has provided the answer all along.

For centuries, the simple biblical methodology has been all but ignored by the church. It is easily overlooked, even by the most devoted Bible scholars, but when brought into tight focus, the concept is illuminating, captivating, and inspires fervent action.

The heart of Capitol Ministries’ mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ in the political arena throughout the world is found in 1 Timothy 2:1-4.

It is our biblical mandate.

In this verse, the Apostle Paul hands the mantle to his protégé Timothy as the Apostolic Period of biblical history comes to a close and the dawning of the Church Age begins. Paul explains the missional priorities for the church.

First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 

Paul is stressing that “First of all,” Timothy is to have four motivational facets of prayer.

Keep in mind the four facets of prayer are evangelistic in their overall nature, in that the end of verse 4 is in keeping with this same thought: who desires all (kinds) of men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.  

We pray because God desires all kinds of men (as we will see, even kings and all who are in authority—those who persecuted the church!) to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth!

That is the big picture here in this passage – the Bible’s top-down mission strategy.

Each of these four facets of evangelistic prayer has a different motivational aspect, the last of which is “thanksgivings” to God who, rightfully so, receives all the glory for His gift of salvation!

“First of all,” is translated from the Greek word “protos,” which means  “first in priority.” This one word in particular should not be overlooked when thinking through your personal, or your churches’ missional priorities!

Paul is instructing the newly minted pastor Timothy to make these four aspects of prayer on behalf of all men. All men is a general term and is a reference to people groups.

And then he says to make these four aspects of prayer to kings and all who are in authority. Notice this is very precise: That prayers be made for a specific affinity sphere of people whose commonality is not a language but a profession.

The Holy Spirit has chosen kings and all who are in authority as a priority among all other affinity spheres. This fact alone should pique our curiosity. The following Scripture tells why.

Paul uses a hina clause which in Greek grammar signals a cause and effect, a when/then or if/then action. The hina clause here is translated so that.

These petitions are made so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. Even though Scripture tells us that believers will suffer persecution, a tranquil life is God’s perfect will and continual desire for us (cf. John 10:10).

This, then, is the biblical prescript for how positive cultural change is accomplished.

Evangelizing kings and all those who are in authority – this passage declares—specifically relates to if or not believers can live a peaceful and quiet life in the here and now.

For the past 50 years, this vital biblical prescription for how best to change culture has gone unheeded by well-meaning religious activists who have hammered a moralistic remedy of lobbying public servants for better laws.

Religious activists began their political efforts in the mid-1970s and in 2022 the culture is still in rampant moral decline because the methodology heretofore to effect change is not biblically based.

First Timothy 2:1-4 gives the biblical basis for cultural change. Think about it:

We cannot ask those who do not know the Author of Scripture to accept the precepts of His book.

When the institution of the church devolves into a political lobbying organization versus fulfilling its call to be a purveyor of new life in Christ, it becomes largely ineffective.

Paul instructed all church pastors that only after evangelistic prayers are made for kings and all who are in authority, and they come to Christ and are discipled in His Word will a society possibly possess (in the sense of God’s perfect will), a tranquil and quiet life.

Because the biblical prescript for cultural change hasn’t been followed by-in-large in America, we are reaping what we have not sown; disobedience to biblical principles always leads to deleterious results.

The men and women public servants who are lost in their trespasses and sin (cf. Ephesians 2:1) do not have the ability to understand God’s morality. Nor do they possess the clarity of conviction, nor the willpower necessary to enact them both personally or professionally.

First Corinthians 2:14 says, But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.

As one of many examples of this, we should not be bewildered when an unbelieving public servant says, “Let’s change our tax laws because we want to give away more money to people who don’t want to work.”

While the unbelieving public servant is excited by this prospect thinking he has found a solution to solving poverty, the Christian public servant is thinking, “This doesn’t match biblical teaching relative to financial stewardship. There are principles in play here that must be considered.”

Another example would be the unbelieving public servant who propagates publicly-funded safe havens for those who want to shoot up on drugs.

But the believing public servant understands from the Bible that man is fallen and addictive behavior should in no way be coddled or rewarded. And the list of examples goes on.

Scripture is declarative regarding the fallen nature of man—that it is so severe that he cannot effectively reason let alone adopt sound policy because biblical principles are not understood by his unregenerate mind, according to 1 Corinthians 2:14.

In Proverbs 29:2 Solomon conveyed the same principle to the next political leader of Israel (his son, Rehoboam) that Paul is conveying to Timothy in our passage of study herein.  Proverbs 29:2 states:

When the righteous increase the people rejoice, but when a wicked man rules people groan.

Until the church is proactive about winning the soul of the unregenerate public servant to Christ, the person who is dead in his trespasses and sin, no one can expect the unbeliever to think or act on anything that is biblical whatsoever.

Evangelical political activism is nominal at best; it is largely ineffective. America’s decline is illustrative of that.

The work of CapMin ministry leaders to evangelize and disciple political leaders is catalytic and strategic. This top-down mission strategy is intensely biblical. It is potent, not only as it relates to fulfilling the Great Commission, but to changing the course of a nation.

Obviously, Christians are to be about building God’s kingdom, but the ancillary aspect is that as they concentrate on that, and to the degree they do, they will also be a preserver and illuminator (salt and light per Matthew 5) in culture today through evangelism and discipleship of political leaders.

First Timothy 2:1-4, contains the formula for how to change culture.

In summary, to change the culture for the better, the formula is to reach kings and all who are in authority with the Word of God.

It is the biblical way. Nothing else compares.

In Him,

Ralph Drollinger

Ralph Drollinger, President and Founder of Capitol Ministries, teaches three separate Bible studies every week in Washington, D.C., to U.S. Senators, Representatives, and former White House Cabinet Members and Senior Staff. Capitol Ministries has established discipleship Bible studies to legislators in 43 U.S. state capitols and to foreign federal public servants in 34 nations. Bible study-based ministries have been planted to local city and county leaders in several U.S. States and in several foreign nations. Learn more at capmin.org/ministries.