2:3a

This is good: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as This refers to what Paul commanded in 2:1–2, that is, to pray for everyone. So here he said it was a good/right thing for people to pray for everyone.

2:3b

pleasing in the sight of God our Savior: This is the reason that it is “good” to pray for everyone (2:3a). When a person prays, it is pleasing to God.

God our Savior: When Paul mentioned God here, he was referring to God the Father. As discussed in the note on 1:1c, New Testament authors more usually refer to Christ as Savior. However, Paul used this expression six times in 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, and Titus.

our: This again refers to Paul, Timothy, and the Ephesian believers.

Savior: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as Savior refers to a person who saves or rescues someone else from danger. Paul was saying that God rescues all people who trust in Christ. In other words, he saves them from their sin and its consequences.

© 2003 by SIL International®

Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0

All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.