Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
The apostle Paul wrote this letter to his young protégé Timothy, who was leading a church in Ephesus — a major port city in what is now Turkey. Paul was urging the church to pray for all kinds of people, including rulers and authorities who may not have been believers. This verse gives the reason: God's heart is not narrow. He genuinely desires every person — of every background, culture, moral history, and nation — to be saved and to personally know the truth about who he is. "Knowledge of the truth" here means more than intellectual understanding; in Paul's letters it consistently refers to a saving, life-changing encounter with God through Jesus Christ.
Father, your heart is wider than mine, and I admit that. Expand my desires to match even a fraction of yours — for the people I love easily and for the ones I've given up on. Teach me to see people the way you see them. Amen.
Make a list in your head of the people you'd least expect to find in heaven. A corrupt politician. The person who devastated you. Someone whose beliefs feel like the opposite of yours. Now sit with this: God wants them there. Not grudgingly, not as a technicality he's obligated to honor — but genuinely, actively, with the same longing he has for you. That's the staggering claim of this single verse. God's desire for human salvation is not selective. It is wide open, and it doesn't consult your list of who deserves it. This verse should make you uncomfortable in a productive way. If God wants all people saved, then your prayers — and your heart — should probably reflect something of that. It's easy to want good things for people you love. It's harder to genuinely hope for redemption for someone who's caused harm, or for the person you've simply stopped caring about. The invitation here isn't to manufacture feelings you don't have. It's to ask God to give you even a small fragment of his longing for people you've quietly written off. Who in your life have you stopped hoping for? That might be exactly where your prayer life needs to go next.
This verse says God "wants" all people to be saved — does that mean everyone will be saved eventually, or is something else being claimed here? What's the difference?
Is there a person or group of people you find it genuinely difficult to want good things for? What does this verse say to you about that honestly?
If God desires every person to come to a knowledge of the truth, how should that change the way Christians speak about and treat people who don't share their faith?
Knowing that God desires the salvation of every person in your life — including the difficult ones — how does that shift the way you actually interact with them?
Who is someone you could begin praying for this week — someone whose spiritual wellbeing you haven't thought about in a long time, or maybe ever?
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
John 3:15
For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.
Ezekiel 18:32
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
John 3:17
For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Titus 2:11
Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
Ezekiel 33:11
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
2 Peter 3:9
In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;
2 Timothy 2:25
Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live?
Ezekiel 18:23
who wishes all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge and recognition of the [divine] truth.
AMP
who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
ESV
who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
NASB
who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
NIV
who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
NKJV
who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth.
NLT
He wants not only us but everyone saved, you know, everyone to get to know the truth we've learned:
MSG