In every place of worship, I want men to pray with holy hands lifted up to God, free from anger and controversy
I TIMOTHY 2:8
The book of Timothy is a compendium of letters written by the apostle Paul to his protégé, Timothy. From the look of things, Timothy seems to be influential or perhaps the pastor in charge of the church of Ephesus at that time. Apostle Paul was writing to him to encourage and remind him of the core essence of the church, how things should be done and how things should continue amongst brothers and sisters in Christ. I believe the purpose of Apostle Paul’s letter to Timothy and even the body of Christ to date can be summed in I Timothy 1:5 – The purpose of my instruction is that all believers would be filled with love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, and genuine faith.
During the course of my study sometime in the week, apostle Paul’s instruction about worship in I Timothy 2:8 caught my attention and it is as highlighted and quoted paragraph above. Let us closely dissect the verse together, shall we? As the Lord’s mouthpiece, he starts by saying:
In every place of Worship: It looks like apostle Paul was writing to every single physical gathering where God’s people chose to come together to worship the Lord. I also strongly believe that this admonition concerns every single church of God to date, every single place that we choose to call on the name of the Lord is a place of worship. Whether it is in our sitting room, in parks, in our bedrooms wherever it is that we choose to call on the name of the Lord in prayer or worship is a palace of worship in my opinion. Because the good Lord hears our prayers to Him regardless of wherever we may find ourselves.
I want men to pray with holy hands lifted up to God: With the above established, the Lord wants us to have a certain appearance and posture every single time we pray to Him or worship Him. He wants us to have holy hands and then he wants those holy hands lifted to Him. The holy hands lifted to God on high is quite symbolic for me; to me lifting up my hands in worship to God symbolizes an ascension into the Holies of Holies, it symbolizes my plea for God to accept my worship as Holy and acceptable to Him. And to ascend into the Holy of Holies, one must be thoroughly purified and cleansed of all forms of sin and filth. I somewhat touched on this practice of purification during the old covenant here. Here in I Timothy 2:8, apostle Paul highlights and reminds us how important it is to have our hands clean whenever we decide to commune with the father. I will like to assume that we talk to God every single day, every other hour during the course of the day in fact. And as often as you talk to Him, He wants our hands constantly free from filth such as malice, strife, murder, lies, and so on
, free from anger and controversy: The icing on the cake is apostle Paul’s highlight of the kinds of filth that the Lord wants us to stay clear off as we come into His presence in worship and prayer. The Lord wants us all to follow peace with all men without harboring anger in our hearts as we approach Him.
This bible verse is an admonition for you and me, children of God who commune with the father constantly to examine our hearts and hands to see if there be any filth there. If there be any filth on our hands, we should approach His throne of mercy for forgiveness. He is our ever-loving God who forgives our sins. It is a very important way in which we approach God’s throne, it is important that we approach His throne in purity and cleanliness.
As I wrap up this blog post, I am reminded of Joshua the high priest’s story in Zechariah chapter 3 as he stood before the angel of the Lord. The devil also stood beside him in front of the Lord’s angel to accuse him with the aim of probably hindering his prayers from being answered. This filthy garment that Joshua had on could symbolize his sinful nature or the besetting sins in Joshua’s life. Because of this filthy garment, the devil was able to stand beside him to point an accusing finger at him. This is what filthy, unholy hands can cause, it gives the devil the effrontery to accuse us of sins before the father. But when we have clean hands, the devil has no chance to even come near us in front of the father or even hinder our prayers to our father.