2.-Wrath and Doubting

" I will therefore that men (or the men) pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting" (1 Tim. 2:8). The Apostle Paul, in writing to Timothy, begins the Epistle whence this passage is quoted, with grace. Contending with those who were upholding the law, he speaks of himself, blasphemer and persecutes as he had been, as a signal example of this-of the Grace of God to poor sinners, without any distinction as to nation or name (1 Tim. 1:3-18). Next, he exhorts, because of this outflow of love to the world, that supplications, prayers, and intercessions, giving of thanks, should henceforth be made for all, and no longer confined, as in the times of the law, to the Holy Land and the Temple. "Everywhere" prayer was to be made (1 Tim. 2:1-8). Thus we have the clue to the closing words of the above passage, "without wrath and doubting; here the Apostle evidently glances at two distinct states of mind, which, in the case of disciples born under the law, and still cleaving thereto, would, in a measure, hinder their sympathy with such a precept as this; "WITHOUT WRATH"-here he hints at the natural opposition of the Jewish mind to the thought of God, showing grace to the Gentiles, as seen in 1 Thess. 2:16, " Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles, that they might be saved." "AND DOUBTING"-Observe how in Acts 10, we have an example of this, I mean of one born a Jew, even Peter, not exactly opposing, but doubting, in the case of Cornelius, the goodness of God in converting the Gentiles, and then, mark, on the other hand, how the Lord meets, and sets aside, his misgivings, on the occasion of Cornelius send- ing for him to teach him the truth, " The Spirit said unto him, Behold three men seek thee. Arise therefore, and get thee down, and go with them, doubting nothing." (Acts 10.19,20).