1Tim 2:4 God Desires All Saved

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God Desires All Saved

1Tim 2:4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Today when you're around a crowd, look at each individual and think, "God desires to save that person - and that person". God desires to save each and every individual around you. So if and when you were to present the gospel, you might tell them that God desires that they be saved.

Eze 18:23  "Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?"

John 3:16,17 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."

But for people to be saved they need to come to the knowledge of the truth - which is the gospel. So part of the job of saving them has been entrusted to us - in cooperation with the Holy Spirit - to deliver to them the Word of God. And since it's God desire that people to be saved, and He has given us a role in that process, consider how you might involve yourself in that role.

Now just to digress into a little theological controversy here, many in the Christian community have a different point of view than what I have expressed here. They would say that God does not desire every individual to be saved. That is they would say that God desires all kinds of people to be saved, but not every individual. In fact they would claim that God does not love most people, that God doesn't desire most people to be saved, and that Christ didn't die for most people. These are those of an Augustinian theology, like Calvinists for example. Their theology prevents them from considering that God desires to save every person around them, and when they present the gospel to someone, their theology prevents them from telling that person that God desires to save them. For they would say that they don't know whether God desires to save them or not.

I bring this up for a number of reasons. For one thing I want Christians to be aware of the diversity of viewpoints within the Christian community on this point. And I want readers to understand that I am not of an Augustinian theology. I am aware of it however. I have read Augustine and Calvin. I have web pages under the Theology Menu which critique such ideas. I have debated with those of that viewpoint, and am open to discussing such matters with any of you. But I've come to the conviction that they are mistaken on a number of points, the interpretation of this verse being one of them.

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