CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Ephesians 6:18. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.—Here we have the recognition of a directing Superior. The true soldier fights under the direction of his ἀρχηγός. The “sounds of strife” are dying away in this verse.
Ephesians 6:20. An ambassador in bonds.—R.V. “in chains.” Sustaining the honour of Christ under personal indignity. That I may speak boldly.—It needed not only the apostle’s own, but his readers’ prayers to enable him to speak freely within stroke of the “lion’s paw” (2 Timothy 4:17).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Ephesians 6:18-20
The Programme of Prayer.
I. Prayer should be constant and varied in its methods.—“Praying always with all prayer and supplication” (Ephesians 6:18). The Christian warrior is armed from head to foot with the girdle, the breastplate, the greaves, the shield, the helmet, and the sword; no weapon of defence or offence is wanting; it would seem as if nothing was needed to complete the equipment. The one essential now is the spirit and courage to fight, to use the spiritual weapons with dexterity and effect; and the power to do this is secured by prayer. Prayer should be constant; the soul should be ever in a praying mood; and supplication, earnest entreaty, should be used in the special emergencies that occur in the battle of life. “Praying always with all prayer”: all kinds and methods of prayer should be employed—prayer in public aided by the sympathy and inspiration of numbers, in private when alone with God, in the family, in the whirl of business, in the stress of battle, in the intervals of recreation, in the heart without a voice and with the voice from the heart. The earnest and needy soul will find its own way of keeping up a prayerful intercourse with God. “Some there are,” said Wesley, “who use only mental prayer or ejaculations, and think they are in a state of grace and use a way of worship far superior to any other; but such only fancy themselves to be above what is really above them, it requiring far more grace to be enabled to pour out a fervent and continued prayer than to offer up mental aspirations.”
“Warrior, that from battle won,
Breathest now at set of sun;
Woman, o’er the lowly slain,
Weeping on his burial plain!
Ye that triumph, ye that sigh,
Kindred by one holy tie:
Heaven’s first star alike ye see—
Lift the heart and bend the knee.”
Hemans.
II. Prayer is prompted and sustained by the divine Spirit.—“Praying … in the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:18). The Spirit is the author and element of the believer’s life in Christ. It is He who gives the grace and power to pray; He helps our infirmities, and intercedes for us and in us. Prayer is one of the highest exercises of the soul, and achieves its loftiest triumphs under the inspiration and help of the Spirit. He suggests topics for prayer, proper times and seasons, imparts urgency and perseverance in supplication, and He alone makes prayer effectual.
III. Prayer should be accompanied with persevering vigilance.—“Watching [keeping awake] thereunto with all perseverance and supplication” (Ephesians 6:18). We must not only watch and pray, but watch while we pray. Watch against wandering thoughts, against meaningless and insincere petitions, against the seductive suggestions of the tempter, and against the tendency to trust in our prayers or in our earnestness rather than in God, whose help we supplicate. “With all perseverance” means a sustained, unsleeping, and unresting vigilance. The word implies stretching out the neck and looking about in order to discern an enemy at a distance. Without watchfulness prayer and all the spiritual armour will be unavailing. The best-appointed army, over-confident in its strength, has suffered inglorious defeat by neglecting to watch. The wakeful and earnest suppliant must persist in prayer, undaunted by opposition and unwearied by delay.
IV. Prayer should be offered on behalf of the Church in general.—“For all saints” (Ephesians 6:18). Prayer that in its nature is generous and comprehensive is apt to become selfish and narrowed down into despicable limits. The man prays best for himself who prays most earnestly for others. “Prayer for ourselves must broaden out into a catholic intercession for all the servants of our Master, for all the children of the household of faith. By the bands of prayer we are knit together—a vast multitude of saints throughout the earth, unknown by face or name to our fellows, but one in the love of Christ and in our heavenly calling and all engaged in the same perilous conflict. All the saints were interested in the faith of the Asian believers; they were called with ‘all the saints’ to share in the comprehension of the immense designs of God’s kingdom. The dangers and temptations of the Church are equally far-reaching; they have a common origin and character in all Christian communities. Let our prayers at least be catholic. At the throne of grace, let us forget our sectarian divisions. Having access in one Spirit to the Father, let us realise in His presence our communion with all His children” (Findlay).
“The saints in prayer appear as one,
In word and deed and mind;
While with the Father and the Son
Sweet fellowship they find.
“Nor prayer on earth is made alone—
The Holy Spirit pleads;
And Jesus on the eternal throne
For sinners intercedes.”
J. Montgomery.
V. Prayer should be definite and special in its petitions.—
1. For the preacher of the gospel in unfavourable circumstances. “And for me … an ambassador in bonds” (Ephesians 6:19-20). An ambassador, being the representative of his king, his person was in all civilised countries held sacred, and it was regarded as the greatest indignity and breach of faith to imprison or injure him. Contrary to the lights of nations, this ambassador of the King of heaven was put in chains. Even Paul, with all his magnificent endowments, felt the need for the prayers of God’s people and craved for them. The fortunes of the gospel were bound up with his life, and he was now suffering for his courageous defence of the truth. It was of immense importance to the early Church that he should be true and faithful in this crisis, and he asks for the prayers of God’s people that he may be sustained and the gospel victorious. Here was a definite and special theme for prayer. Occasions of great peril evoke the spirit of earnest supplication. It is an aid to devotion to have some one to specially pray for.
2. For courage and facility in unfolding the mystery of the gospel he feels constrained to declare.—“That utterance may be given unto me, that I may … make known the mystery of the gospel, … that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak [as I must needs speak]” (Ephesians 6:19-20). The apostolic prisoner was more concerned about his message than his own fate. He hailed the occasion of His defence before the civil authorities as an opportunity for unfolding and enforcing the gospel, for preaching which he was now in chains. He feels the gravity of the crisis, and he is nervously anxious to do justice to his grand theme. Clear as was his insight and firm as was his grasp of the leading truths of the gospel, he invokes the prayers of the Ephesian saints that God may give him liberty and power in their exposition, and that he may win converts to the truth from the midst of his enemies. The pulpit will become a greater power if the people of God pray fervently and unitedly for the ambassadors of Christ. Prayer is more potent in winning souls than the logic and eloquence of the preacher.
Lessons.—
1. The topics for prayer are abundant and ever present.
2. Prayer nerves the soul with divine power.
3. Earnest and believing prayer will prevail.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Ephesians 6:18-20. Praying with all Prayer.
I. The apostle supposes our obligation to prayer to be so plain that every rational mind will see it, and so important that every pious heart will feel it.—Our obligation to prayer naturally results from our weakness and dependence and God’s all-sufficiency and goodness. Desires directed to Him are prayers. To clothe our desires in language is not essential. God hears the desire of the humble. There is the same reason for daily prayer as for daily labour. Prayer is a means of enlivening our pious sentiments and exciting us to the practice of duty and thus preparing us for divine favours.
II. Prayer is of several kinds.—Social and secret, public and domestic, stated and occasional; and consists of several parts—confession, supplication, intercession, and thanksgiving. The apostle points out no part or kind of prayer in distinction from all others, but exhorts in general to pray with all prayer.
III. The manner in which our prayers should be offered.—The spirit and temper of the heart in our prayers is the main thing necessary to qualify them for God’s acceptance. The first thing necessary in prayer is faith. Our desires must be good and reasonable. Attention of mind, collection of thought, and warmth of affection are qualifications required in prayer. Our prayers must be accompanied with justice to men. Charity is an essential qualification in prayer. Our prayers must be joined with a sense of and sorrow for sin, and submission to the divine will. We are to continue in prayer, and watch thereunto with all perseverance.
IV. The apostle here teaches the duty of intercession for others.—If God is good to others as well as to us, there is the same ground on which to offer our social intercessions as our personal petitions. We are commanded to pray for all men, and especially for all saints; this is to pray for the general virtue and happiness of the human race in this and all succeeding ages. Christians ought to pray for their minister. There was something special in Paul’s case—he was an ambassador in bonds.
V. The apostle points out the manner in which he aimed and all ministers ought to preach the gospel.—The apostle desired to make known the mystery of the gospel, and to speak boldly. In a minister boldness is necessary; not that impudent boldness which assumes an unmerited superiority, but that pious fortitude that dares to utter the important things of religion without reserve and without fear of personal inconvenience. He must persevere in the faithful execution of his office, whatever discouragements may arise from the opposition of the world, the frowns of the great, the contempt of the proud, the want of concurrence, or the smallness of his success.—Lathrop.
Ephesians 6:18. Praying in the Spirit.
I. The time.—“Always.”
1. The frequent practice of prayer.
2. The constant cultivation of the spirit of prayer.
II. The manner.—“With all prayer and supplication.”
1. The prayer of the closet. Secret.
2. The prayer of the family. Domestic.
3. The prayer of the social circle. United.
4. The prayer of the sanctuary. Public.
III. The matter.—“With all prayer and supplication.”—
1. There are thanksgivings to be rendered.
2. There are confessions to be made.
3. There are petitions to be offered.
4. There are intercessions to be presented.
IV. Spirituality.—“In the Spirit.”
1. With our own heart.—Not formal or mechanical.
2. In dependence on the aid of the Holy Ghost.
V. The continuance.—“With all perseverance.”
1. In the general habit. Prayer never to be given up.
2. In special objects. No fainting in prayer.
VI. The intercession.—“And supplication for all saints.”
1. For the whole Church. 2. For any part of the Church that is in danger of distress.
3. For our own section of the Church. 4. For our Christian friends.—G. Brooks.
The Duty of Prayer.—Prayer is the communion of the soul with God, and the casting of itself upon Him for help and guidance.
I. God has implanted prayer as an instinct in the hearts of men.—In times of danger the soul instinctively cries out for God or some unseen power to interpose and save.
II. God desires that men should pray regularly and constantly.—Blessings are promised in answer to prayer which the soul can obtain in no other way.
III. God commands men to pray.—To abound in prayer and to pray without weariness and fainting.
IV. God teaches how to pray and what to pray for.—The Spirit helps our infirmities.
V. There is no religious life apart from prayer.—The Bible saints were men of prayer. At the very beginning of human history men began to call upon God. And in the visions of heaven which St. John has recorded, when the Lamb had taken the book to open its seals, the twenty-four elders fell down before Him, “having every one of them harps and golden phials full of odours, which are the prayers of the saints, and they sang a new song.” Prayer leads to praise.
VI. How can we make the duty a privilege and the privilege a pleasure?—If Christ was comforted and strengthened by prayer, can we as Christians live without it? Is not a prayerless Christian in danger of being no Christian at all?—Homiletic Monthly.
Ephesians 6:19-20. A Picture of Moral Bravery.
I. An ambassador charged with a message of world-wide significance and importance.—“To make known the mystery of the gospel” (Ephesians 6:19).
II. An ambassador, contrary to the law of nations, imprisoned because of his message.—“For which I am an ambassador in bonds” (Ephesians 6:20).
III. An ambassador irresistibly constrained to declare the message for which he suffers.—“That therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak” (Ephesians 6:20).
IV. An ambassador imploring, not the sanction of civil authorities, but the prayers of God’s people that he may be emboldened to discharge his high commission.—“And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly” (Ephesians 6:19).
Ephesians 6:19. The Gospel a Mystery.
I. Because it is known only by divine revelation.—Such a secret it is that the wit of man could never have found out. As none but God could lay the plot, so none but Himself could make it known.
II. Because when revealed its truths exceed the grasp of human understanding.—They are to the eye of our reason as the sun to the eye of our body, that dazzles and overpowers. They disdain to be discussed and tried by human reason that there are three subsistences in the Godhead and but one divine essence. We believe, because they are revealed. God and man united in Christ’s person is undeniably demonstrable from the gospel, but the cordage of our understanding is too short to fathom this great deep. “Would’st thou see a reason,” said Augustine, “for all that God says? Look into thine own understanding, and thou wilt find a reason why thou seest not a reason.”
III. The gospel is a mystery in regard of the kind of knowledge the saints themselves have of it.—
1. Their knowledge is but in part, and imperfect.—The most of what they know is the least of what they do not know. The gospel is a rich piece of arras rolled up this God has been unfolding ever since the first promise was made to Adam, opening it every age wider than the other.
2. It is mysterious and dark.—Gospel truths are not known in their native beauty and glory, but in shadows. Our apprehension of things are manly compared with those under the law, but childish compared with the knowledge of glorified saints.
IV. The gospel is a mystery in regard to the rare and strange effects it has upon the godly.—It enables them to believe strange mysteries—to believe that which they understand not, and hope for that which they do not see. It enables them to do as strange things as they believe—to live by another’s spirit, to act from another’s strength, to live by another’s will, and aim at another’s glory. It makes them so meek and gentle that a child may lead them to anything good, yet so stout that fire and faggot shall not fright them into sin. They are taught that all things are theirs, yet they dare not take a penny, a pin, from the wicked by force and rapine. They can pray for life, and at the same time desire to die.—Gurnall.
Ephesians 6:20. Boldness a Duty in a Minister.
I. The nature of the boldness desired.—
1. To speak all he has in command from God to deliver.
2. To speak with liberty and freedom of spirit, without fear or bondage to any. Speaking openly and plainly.
II. Boldness to be shown in preaching the gospel.—
1. In asserting the truth of the gospel.
2. In reproving sin and denouncing judgment against impenitent sinners.
III. The kind of boldness a minister should cultivate.—
1. A convincing boldness.
2. A meek boldness.
3. A zealous boldness.
IV. The means of procuring ministerial boldness.—
1. A holy fear of God.
2. Castle thyself within the power and promise of God for assistance and protection.
3. Keep a clear conscience.
4. Consider that which thou most fearest is best prevented by freedom and boldness in thy ministry.
5. Consider how bold Christ was in His ministry. What greater incentive to valour can the soldier have than to see his general stand with undaunted courage where the bullets fly thickest! Such valiant captains do not breed white-livered soldiers. It is impossible we should be dastardly, if instructed by Him and actuated by His Spirit.—Ibid.
Ephesians 6:20. The Gospel Ambassador.
I. The dignity of his office.—Seen:
1. In the majesty of the Prince from whom he comes.
2. In the greatness of the Person whose place he supplies.
3. In the excellency of the message he brings.
II. How the duty of his office should be discharged.—
1. Stain not the dignity of thy office by any base, unworthy practices.
2. Keep close to thy instructions.
3. Think it not enough that thou deliverest thy message from God, but show a zeal for thy Master whose cause thou negotiatest.
4. Let not any person or thing in the world bribe or scare thee from a faithful discharge of thy trust.
5. Be kind to and tenderly careful of thy fellow-subjects.—Ibid.