1 Timothy 2:4 - Explained
"Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth."
The Bible here in verse 4 is actually stating what the will or the desire of God is — and he wants all men to be saved. Now this does not mean that all men are going to be saved, because the Bible says "narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." But the Bible is saying this is the desire and the will of God. God does not want people to burn in hell. God wants people to go to heaven. And you have to realise that if God got what he wanted, everybody would go to heaven.
But the reality is that God did not create us as robots. If God created us as robots — as the false teaching of Calvinism and reformed theology teaches — then he would simply choose all of us to believe on Christ and get saved, because his will and his desire is for all men to be saved. He would cause us or force us to believe on Christ so we would all go to heaven. But God does not always get his will or his desire, and the reason why is because he gave us free will to make our own decisions.
This completely destroys the idea of Calvinism, where God predestines some to heaven and some to hell. The Bible is very clear that his will and his desire is for everybody to be saved.
And then notice what it says at the last part of the verse — "and to come unto the knowledge of the truth." So what is salvation? Salvation is simply coming unto the knowledge of the truth. The Bible says "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved." Nothing about being saved here mentions repenting of your sins, giving your life to God, changing your actions, being baptised, going to church, reading the Bible, or keeping the sacraments. The Bible says that being saved is about coming unto the knowledge of the truth.
And what that means practically is this — a soul winner will go and give you the gospel and explain how to go to heaven. You believed something different before. You did not understand. But then if you choose to believe on Christ, you have come unto the knowledge of the truth. You are saved and on your way to heaven.
But sadly, God does not always get his wish. And sadly, as soul winners, we do not always get our wish either — because we give the gospel to people who choose not to believe. We cannot force people to believe, and God does not force people to believe. But we see that salvation is simply a matter of coming unto the knowledge of the truth.
And of course that is God's will. That is his desire. And that ought to be our desire as well — for people to go to heaven. We should spend our lives motivated to preach the gospel, trying to get people saved and bring them unto the knowledge of the truth.
Pastor Matthew Stucky
