Ephesians 6:10-20 Commentary

It’s not surprising that preachers and scholars generally pay most of our attention to this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson’s military imagery. After all, while Paul’s images are easily misunderstood and misapplied, they’re also prominent in this text, vivid and memorable. We’ve even managed to cram some of them into things like Vacation Bible School weeks.

So, preachers might let the Spirit prompt us to also pay close attention to and explore the apostle’s call to “put on” God’s full armor that includes things like the belt of truth and breastplate of righteousness. After all, the evil one’s attacks against Jesus’ friends are no less insidious and persistent than they were when Paul wrote to Ephesus’ Christians.

But preachers may also sense the Spirit prompting us to focus more closely on the theme of prayer that ends this Sunday’s Epistolary Lesson. After all, Ephesians 6:18-20 uses some form of the word we translate as “pray” no less than five times in three verses. In fact, one might argue that prayer is the last piece of the armor of God that Paul summons the Christians in Ephesus to “put on.” It, of course, doesn’t necessarily have a military connotation. Prayer may seem, in fact, to stand contrary to the military imagery the apostle employs in this text.

However, Paul’s call to prayer is, in some ways, the climax of his entire letter to the Ephesian church. He has written stirring words about the grace with which God has gifted God’s people. The apostle has issued a beautiful profession of the unity with which God graces God’s diverse sons and daughters. He has also summoned Ephesus’ Christians to live Christ-like lives. Yet Paul basically ends his lovely letter to them with repeated calls to prayer.

He begins that summons with verse 18’s invitation to “Pray [proseuchomenoi]* in the Spirit [en Peneumeti] on all occasions [en panti kairo] with all kinds of prayers [proseuches] and requests [deeseos].” The apostle packs this one sentence with so many riches that it deserves more than a cursory examination.

He invites his Ephesian brothers and sisters in Christ to pray “on all occasions,” literally “in every season.” Paul insists, in other words, that there is no time or place where Christians’ prayer is out of season or place. Every occasion is time for prayer. There are times and places where action is necessary. There are also times and places where wisdom and patience are more prudent than action. But there is no time when prayer is inappropriate.

Scholars haven’t always agreed on just what Paul means by praying “in the Spirit.” As is so often the case, preachers will need to let the Spirit and their own theological tradition inform how they describe it. But most Christians would agree that the apostle is at least summoning God’s dearly beloved people to let the Spirit inform our prayers and to pray for and about things that are consistent with the Spirit’s goals and purposes.

Jesus’ followers’ prayers, of course, may take several shapes. Some are proseuches. While Paul uses the Greek word that we generally translate as “prayers,” by setting it next to deeseos (“requests”), he may be at least inviting Christians to pray our praise and thanksgiving, as well as supplication. Jesus’ friends don’t just ask God for things, as important as they may be. We also prayerfully praise God for who God is and what God does. This, of course, with the Spirit’s help, requires God’s people deliberately spend time meditating on and contemplating God’s character.

The apostle continues by asking the members of the Ephesian church to keep praying for God’s people, including and himself. He begins in verse 19 by inviting God’s adopted sons and daughters to be “alert [agrypnountes] and always keep on [proskarteresei] praying [deesei] for all the saints [hagion].”

Several things are striking about this summons. One is something most modern translations seem to downplay. Paul summons his Ephesian brothers and sisters in Christ to a kind of vigilant prayerfulness for their fellow Christians. Christians’ prayers for other Christians never pause, nap or sleep. We constantly keep watch with them, especially for their well-being.

Of course, Christian individuals and even churches can’t pray 24/7/365. While God never slumbers or sleeps, people whom God creates in God’s image do. So American and Canadian Christians can, for example, take comfort in knowing that when we sleep, Australian and Chinese Christians, are praying for God’s dearly beloved people, including us, on our behalf (and vice versa).

However, in a season of North American and European political partisanship, Jesus’ friends also never forget that the saints for whom Paul calls us to diligently pray include Christians with whom we don’t agree. What’s more, in a time in which even Jesus’ followers sometimes casually hurt each other, God’s people faithfully pray for those who have made us their enemies. And, of course, vigilant prayer also intercedes for our fellow Christians who pray a very high price for following Jesus with us. The Message’s paraphrase of verse 18’s summons is particularly lyrical: “Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other’s spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out.”

Yet while verse 19 may seem to imply that Paul doesn’t think of himself as one of the “saints” for which his fellow Christians should pray, he does plead with Ephesus’ Christians to intercede before God on his behalf as well. “Pray also for me,” he adds in verses 19 and 20, “that whenever I open my mouth [anoixe tou stomatos], words [logos] may be given me [moi dothe] so that I will fearlessly [parresia] make known [gnorisai] the mystery [mysterion] of the gospel [euangeliou] for which I am an ambassador [presbeuo] in chains [halysei]. Pray that I may declare [lalesai] it fearlessly [parresiasomai], as I should [hos dei me].”

The Spirit inspired the apostle to say a great deal in just two verses. But preachers want to remember that their first reference is to Paul himself. He is under great duress. The Roman authorities have likely imprisoned [halysei] the apostle for his faith. Yet those authorities have not yet managed to silence him. God still graces the apostle with opportunities to share the gospel.

So, he pleads with his Ephesian brothers and sisters in Christ to pray that the Spirit will give him the right words to say at the right time. Paul begs them to pray that God will give him both wisdom and courage as he shares the mysteries of the gospel that are God’s salvation by grace of all who receive that grace with our faith. That, after all, is the mission with which God entrusted Paul when God knocked him off his horse and into God’s kingdom.

Once preachers have established Paul as verses’ 19-20’s primary referent, we can let the Spirit prompt us to make some observations about what those verses teach Christians about prayer. Among other things, the apostle summons us to pray for our fellow Christians’ proclamation of the gospel. This certainly includes their sharing of the good news of the saving work of Jesus Christ that we receive with our faith in him. But in a real sense we say something about the God whom we worship in Jesus Christ every time we open our mouths. How we speak to (and about!) each other, including those who don’t yet know Jesus Christ, says volumes about the One whom we claim to love and serve.

Paul also invites us to pray that the Spirit will equip our fellow Christians to “fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel.” We pray for each other as well as our own sharing of the best news the world will ever hear. Jesus’ friends pray that neither human weakness nor others’ opposition will hinder the proclamation of the gospel that our world is dying to hear.

On top of all that, Paul’s request for others’ prayers for him while he’s imprisoned reminds Christians of another set of Christians for whom he at least implies we should pray: those who are in prison. While Christians may not be in prison because of their faith, they are still with us, by God’s amazing grace, “the saints” who are ambassadors of the gospel. So we pray that God will also give God’s image-bearers who are in prison the means to proclaim the mysteries of the gospel courageously and persistently, both by what they say and do.

*I have here and elsewhere added in brackets the Greek words for the English words the NIV translation uses.

Illustration

Sometimes speaking about the implications of the mystery of the gospel requires more wisdom than fearlessness. Nearly ten years ago Tova Friedman spoke at what’s now Calvin University about her experiences in Auschwitz during the Holocaust. During the question and answer period that followed, someone stood, gave a long introduction about his love for his country, and then asked Ms. Friedman about the American destruction of millions of babies via abortion.

In his “‘The Twelve’ Blog” of January 20, 2015 entitled, Prophetic or Poor Taste?, my colleague Scott Hoezee reflected on this Christian’s opening of his mouth: “I guess that despite whatever sympathies I may have for the man’s overall concerns, standing up to a heroic figure like Tova Friedman to wave a finger that basically said, ‘Well, OK, you went through a bad time but what about THIS other thing’ was just a bad thing to do.”