Hijacked Prayers

I desire, then, that in every place the men should pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument; (1 Timothy 2:8 NRSV)

It has not been my practice to go looking around for other people's opinions from commentaries or writings on the passages that I am considering. But for some reason I decided (with some reservation) to take a look on the internet to see if I could find some helpful ideas regarding these words at the end of this verse. I want to find out more about Paul's possible intentions for referring to the emotions of a person while they lift up holy hands in prayer.

Well, as I was afraid, I did come across some very biased deliberations on this verse that I didn't spend much time reading because of the obvious agenda and the spirit displayed. I could tell almost right away after starting to read their comments that they intended to discount even the plainest statements of Scriptures in order to defend their church's stance on this issue of raising hands. I am not interested in debating this issue though I am quite interested in learning more of God's original design for this practice. I am very open myself to coming much more into alignment with the privileges that I might be enjoying if I wasn't so fearful of what others would think about me. But again, that is a completely different topic than what I want to think about today.

Yesterday I stumbled across an excellent resource, a wealth of very helpful background information that is helping me understand much better many of the things I am reading here in this larger context of 1 Timothy 1 and 2. It explains much of the cultural context and the practices of the pagans that surrounded the Christians that Paul was addressing. Given some of the details and beliefs of the pagans and the practices surrounding some of the various specific deities in the very cities where they lived, I found it very compelling to realize that a number of references in this passage address directly those issues and beliefs that posed a danger for those Christians specifically. If you would like to check out that resource you can find it here.

But so far, and I have not even read all of what was on that resource yet and I haven't come across much of anything addressing this subject of wrath and doubting or arguing. However, I did find a commentator this morning that seemed to have a balanced presentation that did not have an obvious ax to grind which helped me perceive that this is really closer to what it appears at face value. While there are certainly a number of other interesting issues in these verses that swirl around the periphery, it seems more clear to me now that it is quite important that when we pray – however we do that – that we need to not do so in a spirit of anger against others or to entertain a spirit of disputation.

You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God's righteousness. (James 1:19-20 NRSV)

Now that I have considered this for a little while it does remind me of the many times when I have found myself squirming with increasing discomfort as some person or preacher has hijacked their opportunity to lead out in public prayer and turned it into a lecture or even a diatribe about their favorite issue. Something about public prayer seems to cause people to think that if they present their unique views in public in the context of a prayer that somehow it gives their views more credibility since others listening are somewhat caught defenseless and remain helpless waiting for the person to finish up his prayer.

What is it about public prayer that makes us subconsciously think it will give more weight or supposed credibility to a person's words more than when just presented in a sermon or talk? Is what we say in prayer somehow supposed to carry more weight of truth from God than just the opinions of the person themself? That seems to be the unspoken implication even though I have never heard it discussed before. But I do know that inside I feel some disgust whenever I sense that someone is using a public prayer as an opportunity to further their own personal agenda against the unspoken objections of their listeners instead of valuing that opportunity to simply open their heart to God on behalf of their hearers.

Even when the subject is not a controversial one, I am still a bit frustrated when I hear a person using public prayer begin to transition from speaking to God to preaching to the listeners. It is sometimes amusing to observe how even the language modulates back and forth from a first person addressing of God to second person or even third person speech talking about God or about some other subject that they want to impose on their hearers. What becomes rather clear if the listener is thinking about it is that the one praying is no longer really talking to God at all but is trying to extend the length of their own sermon while in a different mode. Or, if that person is usually not allowed to have a chance to speak publicly, then they are using their time to pray publicly as an opportunity to get in their two cents worth of opinion under the protection of their invitation to lead public prayer.

All of these situations and more might well be addressed in these words of Paul in this verse. While many people may differ widely in their opinions and arguments about whether men should lift up their literal hands or not in public prayer, I think far more people might be in agreement about their frustration with those who abuse their leading out in public prayer to further their own agenda instead of expressing the deeper issues of the heart to God.

What is becoming more clear to me the longer I think about this is that prayer, whether public or private but particularly public prayer, should not be allowed to be hijacked with agendas tied to issues that are motivated with anger or that involve hot-button issues that induce arguments. For someone to abuse their privilege of leading others in public prayer by injecting their own strongly biased opinions upon their hearers instead of trying to pray in behalf of the hearts of the worshipers is an affront to God and a contamination of the very spirit of worship that should permeate our assemblies. It seems clear to me anyway from this passage that this is a warning against abusing the practice of public prayer to gain advantage over others about some particular issue of strong disagreement in the church.

Another closely related issue that could be further explored in connection with this is – What is the real meaning of “leading out” in public prayer? Just what does leading mean anyway? Without going further down that path right now, I would simply say that I believe it should have much more to do with issues of the heart than with intellectual issues of debate or doctrine. The person praying in public should consider that they are being trusted to represent others collectively before God much like a priest did in the Old Testament. This is not an opportunity to be exploited to instruct the listeners but is a time to bring before God the entreaties, petitions and thanksgivings that are mentioned here in verse 1. And all of this is in the context of a realization and awareness that the God we are talking to is a God who intensely desires everyone to be saved and to come to a saving knowledge of the truth. (v. 4)

As I look more at the context of this passage I can also see clearly that this is one half of a pair of issues that Paul is addressing. This is the part where he addresses a problem of men in particular in the church and immediately in the next verses he addresses a companion issue that is more commonly seen with women in the church. I am not going to tackle that right now, but I find it very helpful to notice this contrast for understanding the true purpose and meaning of this passage. Evidently males in the body of Christ are likely to have more tendency toward a problem in this area than females and Paul is targeting that issue directly in the first part of this pair of instructions/warnings.

While there is plenty of material for very heated debate in these verses about other issues, I not only want to see the danger that Paul is warning against here but I would even more like to know, or better yet experience within the body, the flip side of this issue. I would like to see modeled and to participate in a body of worshipers where this was being done in a healthy way that would promote real worship, that would be inspiring and uplifting, that would bring glory and honor to God's reputation and that would lift the hearts of all who were present much closer to the presence and the heart of the Father. I am eager to not just avoid the problems that Paul has to point out here, but even more I desire to experience the true way of worship that might be experienced when these things are not present.