1 Timothy 2:4 - William Styles

1 Tim. 2:4, “Who will have all men to be saved,” quoted to prove that the Spirit desires and endeavours to save all men, but fails when sinners resist Him. If, however, this interpretation is true, the Spirit is not God, unless the reader can accept the idea of a baffled Deity. An examination of the context removes all difficulty. St. Paul has exhorted that prayer be offered for all men—not surely for every individual member of the human race—but men of all characters and conditions. In this sense, understand the term “all” in the text. The election of grace is restricted to no one nation, is irrespective of men’s social or political standing—its range being predetermined by God’s good pleasure, whose will it is that “all (sorts of) men (Jews, Gentiles, Greek, barbarian, bond and free) shall be saved.”