The Power of Reason
The Power of Reason: Praying Through Unreasonable People
There is a prayer that does not get talked about enough. It is not the prayer for healing, not the prayer for provision, and not even the prayer for open doors of opportunity. It is the prayer for protection from people. Specifically, unreasonable people.
The apostle Paul, one of the most tireless and courageous missionaries the world has ever known, made this request of the churches he wrote to. In 2 Thessalonians 3:2, he asked believers to pray that he would be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men, noting plainly that not all men have faith. For a man whose entire life was devoted to reaching people, whose heart broke for the lost, who prayed for over seventy individuals by name throughout his letters, this is a striking request. The very people he was called to serve were sometimes the greatest threat to the work he was called to do.
That tension is worth sitting with for a moment. People are the purpose of the gospel. And yet people can pose the greatest obstacle to it.
Unreasonable Is Not the Same as Unintelligent
It is easy to confuse unreasonableness with a lack of intelligence. But these are not the same thing. Stupidity, if we are being blunt about it, is often a matter of capacity. A person who lacks the ability to understand something cannot be held responsible for that gap. But unreasonableness is something else entirely. It is a choice.
An unreasonable person understands. They simply refuse to. Peter addressed this kind of willful blindness in 2 Peter 3, describing people who, when confronted with the evidence of God's faithfulness, were willingly ignorant. They chose to stay in the dark. They placed their feelings, their power, and their preconceived ideas above truth.
That distinction matters enormously, because it changes how we pray. When someone is unreasonable, we are not praying for God to give them more information. We are praying for God to soften a will that has hardened against truth.
The Danger of Unreasonableness
Throughout the book of Acts, Paul encountered unreasonable opposition at nearly every turn. There were assassination attempts, mob violence, public contradictions, and relentless persecution. From Acts 9 all the way through Acts 27, the pattern repeats itself. Wherever the gospel went, unreasonable people tried to stop it.
But this is not just a first-century problem. Unreasonable people are woven throughout the entire biblical narrative. Consider Nabal in 1 Samuel 25, a wealthy man whose very name means fool. When David's men, who had been protecting Nabal's flocks without taking a thing, came humbly asking for food in return, Nabal erupted in contempt. His rudeness nearly cost him everything. David gathered four hundred armed men and set out to destroy Nabal's household entirely.
What stopped the bloodshed? Not Nabal. He was incapable of reason. It was his wife Abigail, who rushed out to meet David with gifts and wisdom, appealing to his better judgment, reminding him of who he was and what was at stake. David listened. He stopped. He turned around.
One man, unreasonable. One man, willing to be reached. The contrast is stunning. Abigail could not reason with her husband, but she could reason with David. And David's willingness to receive truth that day saved lives, including his own integrity.
Unreasonable people are not just a nuisance. They are dangerous. Dangerous to those around them, dangerous to their own families, and dangerous to themselves. Nabal had no idea how close he came to destruction because his own stubbornness had blinded him to reality.
Reason Is a Gift
If unreasonableness is the rejection of truth, then reason is one of God's great gifts to humanity. God himself invites it. In Isaiah 1, the Lord extends an open invitation to come and reason together with him. The entire structure of scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, is built on logic, evidence, prophecy, and fulfilled promise.
Consider the prophecies surrounding the birth of Christ alone. Jewish scholars have identified over 450 references in the Old Testament pointing toward the Messiah. The mathematical probability of one man fulfilling even a fraction of those prophecies by chance is beyond calculation. The miracles of Christ, thirty-seven of which are directly recorded, stand as further evidence. Walking on water. Commanding the wind and waves. Giving sight to the blind and raising the dead.
And yet, unreasonable people looked at all of that and demanded his execution.
Then there is the thief on the cross. He had no church background, no theological training, no works to offer. But hanging next to Christ, he watched. He saw the inscription above the cross. He felt the darkness fall at noon and stretch on for three hours. He felt the earth shake. And something in him chose reason over bitterness. He turned to Christ and said simply, remember me when you come into your kingdom. That day, he was promised paradise. One act of reason, one moment of surrender to truth, changed everything.
Two Ways to Pray
So what do we do with the unreasonable people in our own lives? The unreasonable coworker, the unreasonable family member, the child or spouse who seems impossible to reach?
Paul's prayer gives us one answer: ask God for deliverance. Some people need to be avoided. Their opposition is fixed, and continued engagement only causes harm. There is wisdom in recognizing that and praying for God's protection.
But 2 Timothy 2:24-26 offers a second answer. The servant of the Lord is called to be gentle, patient, and apt to teach, instructing those who oppose themselves in meekness, on the chance that God might grant them repentance and the acknowledging of truth, that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil.
Some unreasonable people need to be recovered, not avoided. They are not enemies to be escaped but captives to be prayed for. They are living in opposition to themselves, trapped in a snare they may not even recognize.
The question worth asking is this: which kind of prayer does this person need from me?
Pray for discernment. Pray for patience. Pray for the right words at the right time. And never forget that you and I were once unreasonable too, and someone prayed us out of the snare.
There is a prayer that does not get talked about enough. It is not the prayer for healing, not the prayer for provision, and not even the prayer for open doors of opportunity. It is the prayer for protection from people. Specifically, unreasonable people.
The apostle Paul, one of the most tireless and courageous missionaries the world has ever known, made this request of the churches he wrote to. In 2 Thessalonians 3:2, he asked believers to pray that he would be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men, noting plainly that not all men have faith. For a man whose entire life was devoted to reaching people, whose heart broke for the lost, who prayed for over seventy individuals by name throughout his letters, this is a striking request. The very people he was called to serve were sometimes the greatest threat to the work he was called to do.
That tension is worth sitting with for a moment. People are the purpose of the gospel. And yet people can pose the greatest obstacle to it.
Unreasonable Is Not the Same as Unintelligent
It is easy to confuse unreasonableness with a lack of intelligence. But these are not the same thing. Stupidity, if we are being blunt about it, is often a matter of capacity. A person who lacks the ability to understand something cannot be held responsible for that gap. But unreasonableness is something else entirely. It is a choice.
An unreasonable person understands. They simply refuse to. Peter addressed this kind of willful blindness in 2 Peter 3, describing people who, when confronted with the evidence of God's faithfulness, were willingly ignorant. They chose to stay in the dark. They placed their feelings, their power, and their preconceived ideas above truth.
That distinction matters enormously, because it changes how we pray. When someone is unreasonable, we are not praying for God to give them more information. We are praying for God to soften a will that has hardened against truth.
The Danger of Unreasonableness
Throughout the book of Acts, Paul encountered unreasonable opposition at nearly every turn. There were assassination attempts, mob violence, public contradictions, and relentless persecution. From Acts 9 all the way through Acts 27, the pattern repeats itself. Wherever the gospel went, unreasonable people tried to stop it.
But this is not just a first-century problem. Unreasonable people are woven throughout the entire biblical narrative. Consider Nabal in 1 Samuel 25, a wealthy man whose very name means fool. When David's men, who had been protecting Nabal's flocks without taking a thing, came humbly asking for food in return, Nabal erupted in contempt. His rudeness nearly cost him everything. David gathered four hundred armed men and set out to destroy Nabal's household entirely.
What stopped the bloodshed? Not Nabal. He was incapable of reason. It was his wife Abigail, who rushed out to meet David with gifts and wisdom, appealing to his better judgment, reminding him of who he was and what was at stake. David listened. He stopped. He turned around.
One man, unreasonable. One man, willing to be reached. The contrast is stunning. Abigail could not reason with her husband, but she could reason with David. And David's willingness to receive truth that day saved lives, including his own integrity.
Unreasonable people are not just a nuisance. They are dangerous. Dangerous to those around them, dangerous to their own families, and dangerous to themselves. Nabal had no idea how close he came to destruction because his own stubbornness had blinded him to reality.
Reason Is a Gift
If unreasonableness is the rejection of truth, then reason is one of God's great gifts to humanity. God himself invites it. In Isaiah 1, the Lord extends an open invitation to come and reason together with him. The entire structure of scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, is built on logic, evidence, prophecy, and fulfilled promise.
Consider the prophecies surrounding the birth of Christ alone. Jewish scholars have identified over 450 references in the Old Testament pointing toward the Messiah. The mathematical probability of one man fulfilling even a fraction of those prophecies by chance is beyond calculation. The miracles of Christ, thirty-seven of which are directly recorded, stand as further evidence. Walking on water. Commanding the wind and waves. Giving sight to the blind and raising the dead.
And yet, unreasonable people looked at all of that and demanded his execution.
Then there is the thief on the cross. He had no church background, no theological training, no works to offer. But hanging next to Christ, he watched. He saw the inscription above the cross. He felt the darkness fall at noon and stretch on for three hours. He felt the earth shake. And something in him chose reason over bitterness. He turned to Christ and said simply, remember me when you come into your kingdom. That day, he was promised paradise. One act of reason, one moment of surrender to truth, changed everything.
Two Ways to Pray
So what do we do with the unreasonable people in our own lives? The unreasonable coworker, the unreasonable family member, the child or spouse who seems impossible to reach?
Paul's prayer gives us one answer: ask God for deliverance. Some people need to be avoided. Their opposition is fixed, and continued engagement only causes harm. There is wisdom in recognizing that and praying for God's protection.
But 2 Timothy 2:24-26 offers a second answer. The servant of the Lord is called to be gentle, patient, and apt to teach, instructing those who oppose themselves in meekness, on the chance that God might grant them repentance and the acknowledging of truth, that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil.
Some unreasonable people need to be recovered, not avoided. They are not enemies to be escaped but captives to be prayed for. They are living in opposition to themselves, trapped in a snare they may not even recognize.
The question worth asking is this: which kind of prayer does this person need from me?
Pray for discernment. Pray for patience. Pray for the right words at the right time. And never forget that you and I were once unreasonable too, and someone prayed us out of the snare.
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