As the title suggests, Praying with Paul is a study of the apostle Paul’s prayers designed as a Bible-study companion to the book Praying with Paul (originally titled A Call to Spiritual Reformation). The chief purpose in that book is to think through some of Paul’s prayers, so that we may align our prayer habits with his. We want to learn what to pray for, what arguments to use, what priorities we should adopt, what beliefs should shape our prayers, and much more. This study guide is written to encourage believers to gather together in small groups, Bible studies, and Sunday school classes to examine and apply Paul’s prayers in the context of Christian community.

The Bible contains numerous prayers and teachings about prayer. Here our focus is limited to selections from the thanksgivings, petitions, and exhortations of prayer that saturated Paul’s life, ministry, and writings to churches and coworkers. The apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 4:6, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanks giving let your requests be made known to God.” Three verses later he encourages the church to follow his example: “What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you” (v. 9).

Prayer is one of the basic and crucial ways we come to know God and demonstrate that we really do know Him. And yet many Christians are inconsistent, joyless, aimless, and powerless in prayer. We are busy and concerned with many things—even good things—but the vital biblical discipline of prayer has been sorely neglected. The rebuke of James 4:2-3 is alarmingly relevant for the Western church: “You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.”

This study of Paul’s prayers will highlight five areas where we can grow in our understanding and practice of prayer. We will seek to examine and emulate Paul’s priorities, passion, perseverance, power, and purpose in prayer. We’ll look at each of these five Ps of prayer here and then will draw particular attention to these areas in the eight lessons that follow.

First, consider Paul’s priorities in prayer. We typically pray most when circumstances are desperate—when we or those we love face serious illness, tragedy, financial need, relational strife, or a difficult decision. We should certainly pray for these sorts of concerns, asking God to provide, heal, protect, and lead.¹ However, Paul’s common practice is to pray looks different. He consistently thanks God for signs of His grace at work in people’s lives, such as growing faith, love, and faithfulness in times of adversity (see 2 Thess. 1:3-4). He also consistently asks God for those things that are most important and carry eternal weight, such as believers’ deepening knowledge of God, growing spiritual maturity, and increasing love for one another. This emphasis is clear in Paul’s prayer in Colossians 1:9-10, which is examined in session 4: “From the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.”

Second, Paul’s passion for people motivates his petitionary prayers. In 1 Thessalonians 3:9-10, discussed in session 3, Paul writes, “For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God, as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?” Strikingly, he tells believers in Philippians 1:8 that he yearns for them “with the affection of Christ Jesus.” That is, Paul’s deep affection for other Christians flows from his own profound experience of God’s love in Christ. If we are to follow the apostle’s example in petitionary prayer, we must be controlled by the love of Christ and must foster our love for people in practical, self-sacrificing ways. Our aim in Praying with Paul is to examine the biblical prayers of the apostle with a view to aligning our own prayer patterns with his. We study Scripture seeking lasting renewal and true spiritual reformation, and for that we are dependent on the transforming work of the Holy Spirit. May our prayers be increasingly characterized by God-centered priorities, passion for people, dogged perseverance in times of busyness or trial, spiritual empowerment, and a clear sense of purpose.

Third, the apostle demonstrates remarkable perseverance in prayer. Many of us may have the desire to pray more or better, but we don’t stick with it—like those who join a fitness center January 2 but by February or March are back to old habits. Paul and his coworkers thank God always, praying unceasingly for the churches. Paul perseveres in earnest, joyful petitions for other people even when the going gets tough. He continues to pray for others when he is in prison, when his travel plans are canceled, when his circumstances appear uncertain or bleak. As we will see in session 5, Paul persists in prayer because of his unshakable confidence “that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6).

Fourth, Paul recognizes that the true power for effective ministry and life transformation comes from God in response to prayer. Scripture summons us to recognize our inadequacy and weakness and rely on God’s “power at work within us” (Eph. 3:20), which strengthens us “for all endurance and patience” (Col. 1:11; see sessions 4 and 7). Paul prays that God by His power “may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power” (2 Thess. 1:11).

Fifth, Paul prays and ministers with a clear sense of purpose. Often when we pray, particularly for urgent, pressing needs, it’s easy to lose sight of the big picture. However, we see that Paul consistently aligns his requests with God’s grand purposes to bring glory to His name and to save and sanctify His people. God acts for His glory and our good, and He accomplishes His glorious purposes in response to the expectant, dependent prayers of His people. Second Thessalonians 1:12 summarizes Paul’s ultimate goal in his petitions for the churches: “so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.” As discussed in session 2, Paul prays in view of the final day, when the Lord Jesus will be glorified in us because of what we have become by His transforming grace, and we will be glorified in Him because of what He has done for us.

Our aim in Praying with Paul is to examine the biblical prayers of the apostle with a view to aligning our own prayer patterns with his. We study Scripture seeking lasting renewal and true spiritual reformation, and for that we are dependent on the transforming work of the Holy Spirit. May our prayers be increasingly characterized by God-centered priorities, passion for people, dogged perseverance in times of busyness or trial, spiritual empowerment, and a clear sense of purpose.

PREPARATION

Group members are encouraged to prepare as much as possible each week in advance—first and foremost by a careful reading of the biblical text covered in that week’s session. The Introduction to each session leads into the Scripture text. You’ll want to have a Bible on hand as a quick reference for the primary texts and other references to passages throughout. Each of the eight sessions includes one or two sections of Scripture followed by a short commentary and personal reflection questions. The Commentary sections explain the text and highlight important theological and practical themes in Paul’s letters. The Reflection Questions reinforce key points noted in the commentary and promote honest self-examination and application of God’s Word.

GROUP SESSION

The small-group time begins with the Group Discussion section and a Warm-Up question to encourage everyone in the group to think about key concepts in the biblical text. Next watch the short Video featuring D. A. Carson’s exposition of Paul’s prayers. From there move to the Group Discussion questions to get everyone engaging with the content and implications of Paul’s prayers. These questions focus on observing and interpreting key truths in the biblical text, with the end focus on applying these truths to our practices of prayer. The Wrap concludes the group time. Spend about 10 minutes reiterating the bullet points and sharing prayer requests before closing in prayer.

A Take-Home component challenges group members to put flesh on the discussion and apply it during the week in some specific way. Recapping this section will be an important way to begin the Group Discussion the following week. Group members, and especially leaders, should consider consulting the works listed under Resources for Further Study, especially D. A. Carson’s Praying with Paul.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This study guide freely adapts and uses material from D. A. Carson’s Praying with Paul: A Call to Spiritual Reformation. I write in my own style, and I point readers to the relevant chapter or chapters from D. A.’s book at the end of each session. I would like to thank Brian Daniel from LifeWay, Collin Hansen and Ben Peays from The Gospel Coalition, and D. A. Carson for inviting me to write Praying with Paul and for their assistance in various ways to see the project through to completion. My teaching assistant, Zach Howard, proofread the study and made many helpful comments. I also had the opportunity to teach through many of Paul’s prayers and read D. A. Carson’s book with a wonderful group of college students in my Intermediate Greek Grammar class at Bethlehem College and Seminary. Finally, I am grateful to my wife, Kristin, for her constant encouragement and support and for reading portions of the study and offering suggestions.

Soli Deo gloria.

Brian Tabb
Bethlehem College and Seminary

Many Christians feel dissatisfied or discouraged with their prayer habits. It’s difficult to set aside adequate time to seek God in prayer and to intercede for the various needs of one’s family, friends, local church, city, and the world. When we do begin to pray, we sometimes struggle to know what to say and may find ourselves praying the same things again and again, seemingly making little progress. How can we experience increasing depth, vibrancy, and growth in our prayer life?

This session introduces Paul’s practices and priorities in prayer and also offers encouragement and practical strategies to carry out what might seem to be impossible biblical commands: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thess. 5:16-18). We must plan to pray if we want to see increasing depth, vibrancy, and maturity in our prayer life. This study will also suggest studying the prayers of Scripture, learning from the prayers of mature believers, and employing other practical lessons from the school of prayer.

In this video D. A. Carson discusses 1 Thessalonians 5:16-28. He unpacks the idea that prayer isn’t something we accidentally fall into. Prayer is a discipline that should be developed over time. But it’s in the context of thankfulness that makes it easier to have a constant willingness and desire to pray. This video also asks the question, “What do you pray for?” Are you simply asking for blessings, or are you asking God to shape your heart and the hearts of those around you to become more like Christ?

16 Rejoice always,

17 pray without ceasing,

18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

19 Do not quench the Spirit.

20 Do not despise prophecies

21 but test everything; hold fast what is good.

22 Abstain from every form of evil.

What is your church’s greatest need? More effective programs? Renewed zeal for evangelism? Greater engagement with the needs of your community or of the world? Growth in disciplined, biblical thinking? More authenticity in relationships? Doubtless all of these and more are important and necessary for our churches today.

But what we need above all is to know God deeper and better. We think too little of God’s attributes, His marvelous deeds, and His revealed will for His creatures. We too rarely revel in His love or tremble at His holiness. His Word doesn’t saturate our conversations or shape our priorities to the degree that it ought.

One of the crucial ways that we grow in our knowledge of God—and show that we truly know Him—is consistent, heartfelt, biblical prayer. According to J. I. Packer, “Prayer is the measure of a man, spiritually, in a way that nothing else is.”1 Thus, this study focuses on select prayers in Paul’s letters, so that we may consider afresh the apostle’s practices, priorities, and motivations in prayer and increasingly align our own prayer habits with his.

In 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Paul gives a series of simple but important commands: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” Rejoicing, petitioning, and giving thanks—in many respects this serves as a shorthand summary of the life of prayer that Paul models and prescribes. We will consider each of these three exhortations in turn.

First, Paul writes, “Rejoice always.” The apostle repeatedly calls Christians to rejoice or be glad (emphasis added):

2 Corinthians 13:11 Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.

Philippians 2:8 Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord.

Philippians 3:1 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.

Philippians 4:4 Finally, brothers, rejoice.

The Christian life is characterized by the constant, active expression of joy in the Lord—the crucified and risen Lord Jesus. This rejoicing isn’t mainly an emotional high or good feeling. Rather, it means finding our souls satisfied in knowing the one true God and taking pleasure in experiencing His good gifts. It’s noteworthy that Paul addresses believers in Thessalonica that have experienced significant adversity. In 1 Thessalonians 1:6 the apostle acknowledges that “you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit.”

How can believers rejoice always, even during times of dark suffering? Such deep, unshakable joy is possible because of our hope of eternal life, made possible by Jesus Christ who has reconciled us to our Creator and will return as the victorious King. The victory of a favorite sports team prompts individual and corporate joy and celebration. Is the church characterized by such rejoicing over the Lord Jesus’ victory over sin and death, which is an infinitely greater basis for exultation than winning the Super Bowl or World Series? Christians are called to “Rejoice in hope” (Rom. 12:12) because our “reward is great in heaven” (Matt. 5:12). In this way, we follow the pattern of Jesus who endured the pain and shame of the cross “for the joy that was set before him” (Heb. 12:2). Do we keep in mind this glorious future perspective in the midst of present trials? Are we continually moved to rejoice because Jesus has saved us from our sins and for unending fellowship with God in the new creation?

Second, in 1 Thessalonians 5:17 Paul calls believers to “pray without ceasing” (ESV) or “pray continually” (NIV). That is, he summons the church to petition God constantly and persistently for what we need. Luke 18:1-8 illustrates this posture of persistent prayer in view of the faithfulness of God:

[Jesus] told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’ ” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

Commentator Gordon Fee writes, “Continual prayer is the ongoing reminder that God’s children are always and wholly dependent on their heavenly Father for all things.”2 We have seen that Paul urges believers to “rejoice always” and “pray continually.” The apostle then exhorts the church to “give thanks in all circumstances.” As we experience the joy of God’s presence and good gifts and as we recognize God’s answers to our prayers, we’re prompted to thank Him for richly supplying all our needs and to continue to make known our requests to God. In the Psalms, writers regularly praise and thank God for answering their prayers in times of need and distress. For example, David says in Psalm 30:8-12:

To you, O LORD, I cry, and to the Lord I plead for mercy: … You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever!

In 1 Thessalonians 5:18 Paul explains the underlying reason believers must constantly rejoice, pray, and give thanks: “for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” Here the will of God doesn’t refer to the secret divine purposes but to the revealed will of God. God commands and thus obligates us to rejoice, to petition Him for our needs, and to express gratitude to Him as the source of every blessing we enjoy.

The following eight lessons may help us put into practice this summons to “pray without ceasing.”

First, we must plan to pray. No one drifts into disciplined prayer. Daniel, Jesus, Paul, and believers in the early church all clearly set aside specific times for prayer (see Dan. 6:10; Luke 5:16; Acts 2:42; Eph. 1:16). To grow in our practice in prayer, we must build into our schedules consistent and intentional times to do nothing but pray.

Second, adopt practical ways to impede mental drift. Vocalizing our prayers and typing out our requests to various biblical passages are two specific and simple strategies for remaining focused and avoiding mental drift.3

Third, if possible develop prayer-partner relationships. Meet regularly with a small group of committed prayer warriors. If you’re married to a believer, build consistent times of intentional prayer into your schedule.

Fourth, carefully choose models for prayer. Don’t try to imitate their phrasing or mannerisms, but study the content, breadth, and passion of the prayers of some mature godly men and women.

Fifth, develop a system for your prayer lists. You may employ a prayer journal, a folder filled with updated prayer letters and notes, a prayer calendar on your smartphone, a church membership directory, or a prayer guide for the world such as Operation World.4 Whatever the system, use prayer lists.

Sixth, combine praise, confession, and intercession. We have seen that 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 calls for regular rejoicing, petitioning, and thanking God. Some believers follow the pattern of adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication (ACTS). Others use the simple strategy of rejoice, repent, request (the three Rs).5 As will be suggested throughout this book, it is wise and helpful to tie your requests and intercessions closely to Scripture.

Seventh, those in positions of spiritual leadership should work at their public prayers. As with many aspects of Christian discipleship, mature, biblical praying is more easily caught than taught. This means that we should choose our models wisely. At the same time, when we have occasion to lead others in prayer (whether in corporate worship or around the dinner table), we should take that privilege and responsibility seriously and seek to be effective models for other people.

Finally, pray until you pray, as the Puritans often said. That is, we should seek to pray long enough and authentically enough that we move past formalism and unreality and begin to delight in God’s presence and esteem His will.

1. What is the relationship between rejoicing, praying, and giving thanks to God?
2. Consider your current prayer habits. Do you have a plan for regular, intentional prayer? Review the eight practical lessons of prayer noted above. What one or two of these strategies or principles do you want to put into practice this week?

23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.

25 Brothers, pray for us.

26 Greet all the brothers with a holy kiss.

27 I put you under oath before the Lord to have this letter read to all the brothers.

28 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Having instructed the church to rejoice, pray, and give thanks, the apostle then prays for the church and reminds them that he and his coworkers need prayer as well. In 1 Thessalonians 5:23 Paul makes two petitions, followed by an affirmation of confidence in the faithfulness of God in verse 24.

First, Paul prays, “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely.” The title “the God of peace” recalls the opening greeting of 1 Thessalonians 1:1 (“Grace to you and peace.”) and the command in 5:13 (“Be at peace among yourselves.”). Commentator Greg Beale explains, “God is referred to as the God of peace because he is the only one who perfectly possesses peace and he is the ulti- mate origin of peace for others.”6 In Scripture, peace is more than simply the absence of strife but refers positively to the wholeness and well-being of God’s people. Through His death on the cross, Jesus has achieved costly, lasting peace, reconciling people to God and also to one another (see Eph. 2:14-17; Col. 1:20).

Paul prays that God will bring about peace or wholeness by sanctifying believers completely. Holiness, or sanctification, is an important theme in 1 Thessalonians. For example, the apostle writes, “It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality. For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life” (4:3,7, NIV). God not only commands His people to live holy lives, He also gives them His Holy Spirit (see 4:8) and is faithful to accomplish the complete holiness of His people (see 5:24). Thus Paul asks God to sanctify the church, to bring His purposes to completion. Augustine captures this interplay between God’s commanding and enabling work in his famous prayer, “Give me the grace to do as you command, and command me to do what you will!”7

Paul’s second request complements the first: “May your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (5:23). This prayer reiterates 1 Thessalonians 3:13: “so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.”8 As we will see throughout this study, Paul’s understanding of God’s ultimate purposes for His church on the day of Christ fundamentally guides his priorities and perspective in prayer.

Paul’s confidence doesn’t rest on the church’s valiant efforts to pursue holiness and godliness but in the faithfulness of God to finish what He starts. “He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it” (5:24). First Corinthians 1:8-9 expresses the same conviction: “He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (NIV). The God who calls the church will certainly carry out His sanctifying work in them unto the end. After offering instruction in prayer and praying for God to accomplish His ultimate purposes in the church, the apostle now asks the Thessalonians to intercede for him in verse 25: “Brothers, pray for us.” Paul repeatedly requests prayer in his letters:

Colossians 4:3-4 At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison—that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.

2 Corinthians 1:11 You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

Philippians 1:19 I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance.

Philemon 22 At the same time, prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping that through your prayers I will be graciously given to you.

The apostle asks the churches to pray for unspecified help, for deliverance from unbelievers or from prison, and especially for open doors to boldly proclaim the gospel. Paul believes that God is faithful to accomplish His purposes in response to the prayers of His people. Even the apostle recognized his utter need for prayer and was not above asking others to pray for him in general or specific ways. Paul’s example forces us to reflect on our own constant need for prayer. Are we willing to humble ourselves enough to say, “Brothers, pray for me”?

1. Why do you think Paul addresses his prayer in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 to “the God of peace”?
2. Whom do you regularly ask to pray for you? What sort of prayer requests do you share?

Mature, biblical praying is more easily caught than taught. Perhaps you’ve observed this principle at the dinner table. Many families customarily pray before meals. When they’re old enough, children will often volunteer to pray. In these precious moments, we see where children copy how their parents pray. Sometimes, to be sure, they develop their own approach (like thanking God for all the animals they can think of or for every part of the meal). But in general, they pray for the things they hear their parents pray for. The example we set during simple prayers before meals or at bedtime with our children may have the most lasting impact because they will learn to pray the way they’ve been taught.

Warm up

Who in your life has served as a model or mentor in prayer? What is something specific that you learned from that person?

Show Session 1 Video

Group Discussion

Spend the next several minutes engaging the discussion questions below. Try to avoid simple, pat answers and challenge yourself and the group to dig deeper into the truths that Paul presents to us.

1. What does it look like practically to “rejoice always”?
2. What motivates Christians to rejoice even in difficult trials?
3. Read 1 Thessalonians 5:25; Romans 15:30-32; Colossians 4:3-4; and 2 Thessalonians 3:1-2. What prayer requests does the apostle Paul make in these verses?
4. What is one way that you are encouraged or challenged by Paul’s example of asking the churches for prayer?
5. Do you have a current plan to regularly and intentionally pray? Do you have a particular system for praying for the specific needs of other people that you have found to be helpful?
6. How does Paul’s statement, “This is the will of God, your sanctification,” relate to his prayer for the God of peace to sanctify the church completely?
7. What is one way you are hoping to grow in prayer as a result of this study?

Wrap Up

• Our lives should be marked by constant rejoicing because of Jesus’ victory over sin and death, continual prayer because we are utterly dependent on God for every good thing, and thanksgiving in every circumstance because of God’s blessings.
• To experience increasing depth, vibrancy, and growth in our prayer lives, we must plan to pray and study the prayers of Scripture and of mature believers and employ other practical lessons from the school of prayer.
• Paul prays for other believers and asks for prayer because he is confident that God is faithful to carry out His purposes to completion

Close in prayer. Use the three Rs (rejoice, repent, request) and Paul’s prayer in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 to guide your focus.

It’s challenging to pray consistently and specifically for a large number of people and concerns without a system for keeping track of prayer needs. If you don’t have a system in place, consider starting one this week. If you already have a system in place, reflect on ways you could strengthen it. Who or what should be included in your prayer list? You may begin with those people you regularly see and interact with— family, close friends, coworkers, your pastor, key ministry leaders. Include the names of several unbelievers for whom you will regularly pray, as well as several missionaries in another part of the world whom you or your church supports. Ask these people for specific requests and write them down, along with one or two Scriptures next to each name to guide your focus in prayer for these people. For ideas on which Scriptures to pray through, it would be helpful to read chapter 4 of the book Praying with Paul, where you’ll find lists of all of Paul’s prayers. Once you have a basic system in place for keeping track of prayer concerns, plan to set aside daily time to pray. In the space below record what your prayer plan is for the next two months.

For better or worse, all Christians have some sort of default framework for how to pray and what to ask for. Children growing up in believing homes learn to pray from their parents. When college students come to Christ, they adopt the framework for prayer modeled by campus ministry leaders and the Christians that disciple them. Regardless of where we start, we should try to cultivate a more robust and mature framework for prayer. Even though most of Jesus’ disciples had grown up praying in their homes and at the synagogue, they still said to Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1).

In this session we adopt the same attitude, “Lord, teach us to pray,” and to this end we’ll examine the apostle Paul’s spiritual framework, his perspective and aims, and the specific petitions and thanksgivings that he makes. Paul sets an example by thanking God for signs of His grace in other Christians’ lives, specifically their growing faith and love and their faithful endurance of suffering. We’ll see that Paul’s ultimate goal when he prays is that Jesus’ name may be glorified in us and that we may be glorified in Christ. We’ll examine his request that God might make Christians worthy of His calling and bring to fruition their ambitions and efforts for good by His matchless power. We’ll also seek to learn from the apostle’s example of giving thanks to God for evidences of His grace at work in the lives of other people.

In this video D. A. Carson discusses 2 Thessalonians 1:3-12. Using this prayer from Paul, D. A. urges us to give thanks to God for the demonstration of the gospel in the lives of people we know. D. A. also unpacks the last part of this passage, addressing what it means when Paul prays “we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling” (2 Thess. 1:11).

3 We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.

4 Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring.

5 This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering—

6 since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you,

7 and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels

8 in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

9 They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might,

10 when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed.

When the secular news media reports on the church, it typically highlights bad news of some sort. A prominent pastor falls into sexual sin, a Christian charity mishandles funds, an historic denomination splits apart because of theological controversy. Often Christians join in, denouncing this leader or that movement and offering sober analysis of the sins that have led to the present tragedy. But should we focus more on problems and controversy in the church or on encouraging reports of fruitful, strategic ministries and testimonies of believers who are overcoming sin and growing in holiness, joy, and love?

Paul was constantly on the lookout for signs of God’s saving, transforming, and equipping work in the lives of believers. The apostle labored tirelessly, proclaiming the gospel in new places and instructing converts in the Christian faith. He endured threats, persecutions, imprisonments, and various setbacks that would tempt most people to give up and find a safer, more fulfilling nine-to-five. What kept Paul going through such adversities and disappointments? Paul recognized specific ways God was at work and he responded with thanksgiving. The unvarnished truth is that what we most frequently give thanks for betrays what we most highly value. If a large percentage of our thanksgiving is for material prosperity, it is because we value material prosperity proportionately. That is why, when we first turn to Paul’s thanksgivings, they may startle us; they may even seem alien, for they do not focus on what many of us habitually cherish. Paul gives thanks for signs of grace among Christians, among the Christians whom he is addressing.

Second Thessalonians 1:3-10 provides us with Paul’s framework for prayer, the foundational motivations and theological convictions that shape what the apostle prays for and why. In verse 3 we read, “We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.” Paul here expresses gratitude to God for three particular signs of grace among the Thessalonian believers.

First, Paul thanks God that their faith is “growing abundantly” (ESV) or “flourishing” (HCSB). This refers not to their initial conversion experience but to their increasing faithful trust in God. In Paul’s former letter, he wrote that he sent his coworker Timothy “to establish and exhort” them in their faith and hoped to come to them himself to “supply what is lacking in your faith” (1 Thess. 3:2,10).¹ Paul thanks God because the Thessalonian believers aren’t satisfied by past successes but are striving to grow in spiritual maturity.

Second, Paul expresses gratitude to God that their love is increasing. Earlier he observes that these Christians had “been taught by God to love one another” (1 Thess. 4:9), and now he celebrates that such love is increasingly apparent among the Thessalonians. It is natural for people to love, tolerate, and get along with those who are like them, who share similar interests, temperament, ethnicity, and socioeconomic class. Ideally the church is different, as it is made up of people from various backgrounds and life stations, who share a more fundamental allegiance to the Lord Jesus that stems from His matchless love for them. Love is the distinguishing mark of Jesus’ followers (see John 13:34-35), and so Paul is grateful when he sees it.

Third, Paul thanks God that they are persevering through persecutions and afflictions (see v. 4). The Thessalonians’ display of steadfastness and faith in trials is so outstanding that the apostle boasts about it “in all the churches.” For believers who stand in grace and maintain a sure hope in God, “suffering produces endurance” (Rom. 5:3). Thus, Paul testifies publicly that the Thessalonians are remaining faithful in suffering, so that others might be encouraged by signs of God’s grace and might join Paul in thanking God for His amazing work in these believers’ lives.

Paul then explains the nature and purpose of these believers’ suffering mentioned in verse 4.² He writes in 2 Thessalonians 1:5, “This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering.” When these people believed Paul’s testimony (see v. 10), their lives were changed. They stopped worshiping pagan gods at the local temples and they began serving the living and true God. They experienced new joy and love for other people (see 1 Thess. 1:5-10; 4:9). At the same time, their family members, friends, and coworkers who didn’t believe began to marginalize, threaten, and persecute these believers. Paul writes in 1 Thessalonians 2:14, “For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews.” These suffering Christians may have wondered if God was displeased with them, but Paul stresses that their perseverance during trials actually demonstrates that God has counted them worthy of His kingdom.

In verses 6–10 Paul describes God’s coming vindication of persecuted Christians and righteous judgment on their persecutors. The apostle believes that when Jesus returns, His true followers will glorify Him and enter into His eternal kingdom, while those who don’t know God or obey the gospel “will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction” (v. 9). This eternal perspective dramatically informs Paul’s perspective on the present difficulties that he and other believers experience. The prospect of the Lord’s return in glory, the anticipation of the wrap-up of the universe as we know it, the confidence that there will be a final and irrevocable division between the just and the unjust—these have become merely creedal points for us, instead of ultimate realities that even now are life-transforming. To pray rightly about present trials, we must recover Paul’s biblical orientation toward the return of Christ and the perfect establishment of God’s kingdom in the new heaven and new earth.

1. What does Paul thank God for 2 Thessalonians 1:3-4?
2. How does this compare to the Paul’s prayer of thanksgiving for these same believers in his earlier letter?

11 To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power,

12 so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

If we adopt Paul’s spiritual framework, his eternal perspective, and his practice of constantly thanking God for signs of His grace at work in our midst, what sorts of requests should we present to God? The opening phrase “to this end” (ESV) or “with this in mind” (NIV) makes clear that Paul’s petitions follow directly from his thanksgiving in verses 3–10. Here Paul makes two worthy petitions for the Thessalonian church (v. 11) and spells out the ultimate goal of these prayers (v. 12).

First, the apostle constantly asks God to count these Christians worthy of God’s calling (see v. 11). The Bible sometimes uses “calling” language to refer to God’s invitation to people who may refuse to come (see Matt. 22:1-14). But Paul consistently speaks of God’s effective call; that is, God truly saves those whom He calls (see Rom. 8:29-30). God doesn’t call those whom He counts worthy, but He calls unworthy people and then summons them to live according to their calling (Eph. 4:1). In praying that God would make these believers worthy of His calling, Paul is asking God to so work in their lives that they will grow up into Christian maturity. In a strange paradox, Paul is constantly telling people, in effect, to become what they are; that is, since we already are children of God because of His free grace to us in Christ, we must now become all that such children should be. God has graciously called us; now we must live up to that calling.

Do we regularly pray that God would make us worthy of His calling? For parents, what is our greatest priority for our children? Do we ask God to grant them good health and academic and professional success more than we pray that they would be transformed by God’s power and grow into Christian maturity? To what extent are our goals as parents different from those our non-Christian neighbors have for their children? Our prayers often give us an honest and sobering window into what we truly value.

Second, Paul prays that God by His power might fulfill believers’ every resolve for good and every faith-prompted work (see v. 11). Elsewhere the apostle says that God “works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13), but here he asks God to fulfill every desire that believers have for goodness. These texts aren’t at odds but rather express a profound and complementary truth that when people respond to the gospel of Jesus Christ with faith and repentance as the Thessalonians did, God begins to transform their desires, goals, ambitions, and activities. The person who previously pursued self-advancement and personal pleasure may have new desires to share the gospel with neighbors, to reach out to an acquaintance that recently lost a spouse, to start a Bible study in the work place.

Paul expects Christians to formulate new purposes for good, but he also realizes that good intentions and properly directed effort are nothing without God’s power. That is why Paul prays constantly for the churches. In 1 Thessalonians 1:3 the apostle thanked God for the Thessalonian believers’ work of faith, labor of love, and steadfastness of hope. Here he prays that God would exercise His power to fulfill or “bring to fruition” (2 Thess. 1:11, NIV) all their desires for good and every work of faith. The truth is that unless God works in us and through us, unless God empowers these good purposes of ours, they will not engender any enduring spiritual fruit; they will not display any life-transforming, people-changing power. Paul’s prayer summons us to reconsider our personal agendas and priorities and also to pray that God would fulfill our good purposes and deeds prompted by faith.

In verse 12 Paul reveals the two-part goal of his petitions. First, Paul desires to see Jesus glorified in the church. As the Westminster Shorter Catechism says, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.”³ The Christian’s finest and highest longing is that Jesus be praised; yet so often we secretly clamor for our own praise and advancement. This danger is particularly harmful for those actively engaged in Christian service, even pastors. Paul Tripp writes, “Perhaps there is no more powerful, seductive, and deceitful temptation in ministry than self-glory.”⁴ The apostle prays that the Thessalonian believers’ increasing maturity and fruitfulness would occasion greater fame for their Lord and Savior, “when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints” (1:10).

Paul’s second goal is rather startling: “so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him” (v. 12, emphasis added). Paul seeks the glorification of believers—but what does this mean? According to Romans 8:30, God glorifies everyone whom He calls and justifies. When we are finally glorified, all sin and decay will be removed and we will enjoy the perfection of God’s presence forever in the new creation. But even now, as we behold the glory of the Lord Jesus we “are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Cor. 3:18). Thus, for believers to be glorified is to be made like our glorious Lord. First John 3:2 says, “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” On the final day, the Lord Jesus will be glorified in us because of what we have become by His transforming grace, and we will be glorified in Him because of what He has done for us.

To sum up, in 2 Thessalonians 1:11–12 Paul’s eternal perspective and his regular practice of thanking God for signs of His work in other believers prompt his worthy petitions for the Thessalonian church. The apostle asks God to make these Christians worthy of His calling and to bring to fruition their ambitions and efforts for good. Paul prays to the end that Jesus would be glorified and praised and that believers would be glorified in Christ, transformed to be like their glorious Lord.

1. What two petitions does Paul constantly make for the Thessalonian believers?
2. Who are two or three believers you will commit to pray verses 11–12 for each day this week?
3. Prayerfully examine your motives in Christian service. Do your goals and heart desires align with those Paul expresses in 1 Thessalonians 1:12? Confess to God any way you have been pursuing self-glory, and pray that He would renew your focus on the glory of Jesus and the maturity of His people.

On July 4, 1952, Florence Chadwick endeavored to become the first woman to swim 21 miles across the Catalina Channel from Catalina Island to the California mainland. The weather was foggy and chilly, and she could scarcely see the boats that would accompany her. Chadwick swam for 15 hours. She pleaded to be taken out of the water, but her trainer urged perseverance, repeatedly telling her that the shore was not far away. Physically and emotionally exhausted, she finally gave up swimming and was pulled out, only a half mile away from shore. Later at a news conference she acknowledged that she could have finished if only she could have seen the land. Two months later she proved her point. On a bright and clear day she plunged back into the sea and swam the distance.

Paul has a clear vision of God and His present and future purposes for His people. This biblical perspective motivates and shapes Paul’s prayers for the Thessalonians, struggling with suffering and setbacks. Second Thessalonians 1 challenges us to align our petitions with God’s eternal priorities for His people and to persevere in our praying until we reach the goal God has set for us.

Warm Up

What is one specific way Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonians encouraged or challenged you?

Show Session 2 Video

Group Discussion

Spend the next several minutes engaging the discussion questions below. Try to avoid simple, pat answers and challenge yourself and the group to dig deeper into the truths that Paul presents to us.

1. What are some signs of God’s grace in your own life and in the lives of other people that you have recognized this week? Note these signs in the space below and then thank God for His saving, transforming, and equipping work.
2. How do you respond when you see Christian friends who are growing spiritually or who are steadfast in times of suffering? Does your response align with Paul’s response in 2 Thessalonians 1:3-4?
3. In your own words, what does it mean to pray that God might make other believers worthy of His calling and kingdom (vv. 5,11)?
4. What is one “resolve for good” that you have? Ask God to bring these plans and desires to fruition by His power and for His fame.

Wrap Up

• Paul sets an example by thanking God for signs of His grace in other Christians’ lives, specifically their growing faith and love and their faithful endurance of suffering.
• The apostle petitions God to fulfill believers’ every resolve for good and every faith-prompted work by His power.
• Paul’s ultimate goal in prayer is that Jesus’ name may be glorified in us and that we may be glorified in Christ.

Close in prayer. Thank God for signs of His grace and ask Him to grant you renewed biblical perspective in prayer and to make you worthy of His kingdom and calling. Make time for the Take-Home assignment below to enrich your experience with Paul’s prayers.

Make it a practice each day this week to recognize and thank God for signs of His grace in your life and in the lives of those around you. Record some of these things in the space provided.

“You do not have, because you do not ask,” according to James 4:2. One reason we do not ask on behalf of other people is that we do not love as we ought. Paul genuinely loved the Thessalonian believers that he led to Christ and began to disciple before he was abruptly forced out of town. He exhorted them as their spiritual father, and he loved and nurtured these believers like a mother caring for her children. Paul gushed with affection, joy, and thanksgiving when he heard news of the faith and love of these believers, evidence that they were spiritually alive.

In this session we’ll see that Paul’s passion for people motivated his petitionary prayers and pastoral concern for their spiritual maturity. If we are to learn from Paul’s model of prayer, we should cultivate practical, self-sacrificing love for the people around us—in our neighborhood, at our jobs, and especially in our churches. We’ll also see in 1 Thessalonians that Paul loved people and prayed for them with eternity’s values in view.

In this video D. A. Carson discusses 1 Thessalonians 3:6-13. He focuses on Paul’s attitude for the people he prays for. Paul doesn’t sit at a distance and prays for a group of people out of obligation. He expresses love for the people of Thessalonica because he genuinely wants the gospel to affect their lives.

6 Now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us, as we long to see you—

7 for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we have been comforted about you through your faith.

8 For now we live, if you are standing fast in the Lord.

9 For what thanksgiving can we return to God for you, for all the joy that we feel for your sake before our God,

10 as we pray most earnestly night and day that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith?

Paul’s passion for people fuels his petitionary prayers. In 1 Thessalonians Paul tells believers that he constantly prays for them and longs to see them again because of his profound love for them and concern for their spiritual well being. Here is a Christian so committed to the well-being of other Christians, especially new Christians, that he is simply burning up inside to be with them, to help them, to nurture them, to feed them, to stabilize them, to establish an adequate foundation for them. Small wonder, then, that he devotes himself to praying for them when he finds he cannot visit them personally. This is typical of Paul. He never descends to the level of the mere professional. Paul is a passionate man, deeply enmeshed in the lives of real people.

To understand and appreciate the apostle’s passion for these saints, it’s helpful to consider the circumstances around Paul’s initial ministry among the Thessalonians, which is recorded in Acts 17:1-9. After being unlawfully beaten and imprisoned at Philippi, Paul and Silas left for Thessalonica. Paul preached the gospel of Jesus Christ and persuaded some Jews from the synagogue as well as “a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women” (Acts 17:4). But after only three weeks of ministry, Paul and Silas encountered such opposition that they were forced to escape by night (see Acts 17:10), with no time to properly disciple the new believers and train leaders. So Paul resumed his gospel ministry in Berea and then Athens, but he didn’t forget about the Thessalonians. He writes in 1 Thessalonians 2:17–3:5:

2:17 Since we were torn away from you, brothers, for a short time, in person not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face,

18 because we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, again and again—but Satan hindered us.

19 For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you?

20 For you are our glory and joy.

3:1 Therefore when we could bear it no longer, we were willing to be left behind at Athens alone,

2 and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s coworker in the gospel of Christ, to establish and exhort you in your faith,

3 that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you yourselves know that we are destined for this.

4 For when we were with you, we kept telling you beforehand that we were to suffer affliction, just as it has come to pass, and just as you know.

5 For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain.

Paul’s labor was not in vain! Timothy returns with good news about the church (see 1 Thess. 3:6). The Greek term euangelizo, which the ESV renders “brought good news,” is initially surprising, since Paul elsewhere consistently uses this term to mean “proclaim the gospel” of salvation (as in our English term evangelize).¹ But Paul calls Timothy’s report “good news” or “gospel” to highlight that the church’s obvious faith and love are clear evidence that the gospel Paul first proclaimed is still powerfully at work in their lives. Timothy reports not only about the faith and love of the Thessalonians, but he also tells Paul that these believers have not forgotten the apostle who founded their church. Rather, they “always remember” and “long to see” Paul, matching his deep desire to see these friends. Paul regularly mentions his affectionate longing to see other believers, to be with them for their good and his joy (see Rom. 1:11; Phil. 1:8; 2 Tim. 1:4). But only here in his letters does Paul report that other believers express the same longing to see him.

Suffering and hardship marked the life of the apostle Paul. According to 2 Corinthians 6:4-5, his trials included “afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger.” Later Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 11:28–29, “And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?” Timothy’s report about the church’s spiritual progress and love for Paul brings the apostle comfort in his trials (v. 7). Paul lives not to maximize his own comfort or self-actualization but to glorify Jesus Christ by proclaiming the gospel and laboring for the faith of the churches. He calls these saints his “glory and joy” (1 Thess. 2:20) and would doubtless agree with the statement in 3 John 4, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” No wonder, then, that Paul was greatly encouraged and comforted by Timothy’s “good news” about the Thessalonians’ faith.

In verses 8-10 we see that Paul’s passionate love for other Christians energizes his joyous gratitude to God and constant intercession for the church. Paul’s thanksgiving and petitions for others aren’t empty, religious ritual or pious routine. Paul prays much because he loves much. To put the matter at its most basic, Paul’s prayer is the product of his passion for people. His unaffected fervency in prayer is not whipped-up emotionalism but the overflow of his love for brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. The implication of this passage is clear: if we desire to intercede for others more effectively, consistently, and passionately, then we must grow in consistent, self-denying love for other people.

Paul directs his gratitude to God—not to the Thessalonians. However, he encourages these believers by telling them about his deep, joyous thanksgiving for God’s gracious work in their lives. Here the apostle offers us a model for God-centered thanksgiving and affirmation. Paul doesn’t overflow with constant flattery and compliments that may promote good feelings but rarely foster holiness in people or praise to God. He also doesn’t follow those sober, theologically precise types who, out of conviction that only God is ultimately worthy of praise, rarely dole out encouragement or praise to anyone. Instead, Paul’s God-centered gratitude gives praise where praise is due, while drawing attention to the spiritual growth of the believers’ in such a way that they are encouraged and humbled. Our churches and relationships would be transformed if we followed Paul’s practice of God-centered thanksgiving and encouragement.²

Paul intensely prays night and day “that we may see you face to face and supply what is lacking in your faith” (v. 10). He desires to be with the Thessalonian believers for their good. Paul isn’t after their accolades or appreciation but their advancement in the Christian life. He yearns to serve, not to be made much of. He longs to be reunited with these believers, from whom he was “torn away” (1 Thess. 2:17), so that he can finish the ministry begun among them. Paul has the heart of a true pastor. Paul wrote 1 Thessalonians to encourage these Christians to continue to live lives pleasing to God in view of the hope that they have in Christ’s return (see 4:1,18). But he knew that they needed personal instruction and hands-on discipleship, and he earnestly desired to be with them to serve in this way.³

To sum up, 1 Thessalonians 3:6-10 makes explicit the link between Paul’s passion for people, his petitionary prayers for them, and his pastoral purpose to supply what is lacking in their faith.

1. What happened during Paul’s initial ministry among the Thessalonians, according to Acts 17:1–10?
2. How does this background help explain why Paul responds as he does to Timothy’s report in 1 Thessalonians 3:6–10?
3. Who has recently demonstrated faith and love in some way? Thank God for signs of His grace and take time this week to affirm God’s work in this person’s life.

11 Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you,

12 and may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you,

13 so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

In 1 Thessalonians 3:5-10 Paul offers joyful thanksgiving and unceasing petitions because he loves the Thessalonian believers and has pastoral concern for their maturity in faith. After stating that he prays night and day for these believers, Paul pens a remarkable prayer for these saints in verses 11-13. The apostle makes two petitions to “our God and father himself, and our Lord Jesus,” and then states his specific goal for these saints when Jesus returns.

Paul directs his prayer to God the Father and the Lord Jesus. This recalls the very first verse of the letter: “To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (emphasis added). Jesus taught His disciples to pray, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,” and He continued to address God as “Father” in His darkest suffering at Gethsemane and Golgotha. But it’s somewhat surprising that Paul in the same breath prays to “our Lord Jesus.” He also does this in 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17: “May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word” (NIV). In these passages, Paul doesn’t launch into theological argument for the divine status and sovereignty of Jesus; nevertheless, his prayer offers a window into his profound understanding of the risen, reigning, returning Lord Jesus. As John Calvin writes, “We must take notice that he assigns the same office to God and to Christ, as, unquestionably, the Father confers no blessing upon us except through Christ’s hand. When, however, he thus speaks of both in the same terms, he teaches that Christ has divinity and power in common with the Father.”⁴

First, Paul asks God the Father and the Lord Jesus to “direct our way to you” (v. 11). In 3:10 the apostle wrote that he and his fellow workers earnestly pray night and day for an opportunity to see and serve the Thessalonian believers. Paul was torn away from this church and repeatedly hindered by Satan from returning to them, and so he asks for divine intervention to “clear the way” (NIV) so that he may see and serve the Thessalonians once again. The narrative of Acts and Paul’s letters suggest that God granted Paul’s request and allowed him to return to Macedonia—where Thessalonica was the largest and most important city—and encourage the churches that he had founded.⁵ Two Thessalonian believers, Aristarchus and Secundus, then joined Paul as traveling companions and fellow workers (see Acts 20:4).

Second, in verse 12 Paul prays that these believers would overflow in love: “May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, as we do for you.” The Thessalonian church required further teaching and discipleship in important theological and practical matters, but they had “been taught by God to love one another” (1 Thess. 4:9). Yet the burden of Paul’s prayer isn’t that these believers grow in their understanding of sound doctrine—as vital as that is—but that they abound in love. Love is Paul’s burden because, “Love never fails” (1 Cor. 13:8, NIV). Love endures into the age to come. As Jonathan Edwards famously wrote, “Heaven is a world of love.”⁶

Such “love for one another and for all” was quite different from the deeply ingrained practices of patronage in Greco-Roman society. Wealthy citizens provided gifts and benefits to their clients, such as employment, social advancement, or financial support. Clients would then reciprocate by offering loyalty, gratitude, honor, and service of various kinds. But Paul writes that “our Lord Jesus Christ … though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Cor. 8:9). Jesus Christ by His radical love, generosity, and service toward undeserving sinners transforms how His followers conceive of their relationships toward those within the community and those outside. This is a hard, brutal world. There are many protestations of affection, many forms of pseudo-love, whether in ancient Greco-Roman civilization or in our own. But Christian love— mature, deep, and unqualified—is a rare commodity. When it is displayed, it speaks volumes to a society that gorges itself in self-interest, lust, mutual-admiration pacts, even while it knows very little of love.

In verse 13 Paul states his ultimate goal for the church “at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.” This verse describes Jesus’ return using the language of Zechariah 14:5: “Then the Lord my God will come, and all the holy ones with him.” Notice that Paul substitutes “our Lord Jesus” with “the Lord my God” in Zechariah’s prophecy. This underscores Jesus’ divine position and authority as end-time judge.

Jesus’ return as divine Judge and King is profoundly good news for believers. According to 1 Thessalonians 5:9-11, “God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.” Paul prays that the Lord Jesus “may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father” (v. 13) in view of His glorious return. In Scripture, the heart often refers to the center of a person’s whole inner life, including thoughts, emotions, and will. God knows and tests people’s hearts, and so Paul prays that the Lord will establish or strengthen believers’ hearts to ready them for the last day.⁷

When Paul prays for and instructs the church, he does so with eternal values in mind. Earlier Paul sent Timothy to “strengthen and encourage” them in their faith (3:2, NIV). But as commentator Gordon Fee observes, the apostle now “prays to the one who can ultimately cause it to happen.”⁸ He longs for Christians to be “blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation” (Phil. 2:15). Paul’s passion for people compels him to pray that God’s purposes would be fully realized in their lives. When we pray for people, we must do so knowing that these people, and we ourselves, are inevitably moving toward the last day. When we pray with eternity’s values in view, we are driven to pray for people because people like you and me are the ones who must give account to God on the last day.

1. How does the prayer in 1 Thessalonians 3:11-13 offer a window into Paul’s profound understanding of Jesus?
2. What is the burden of Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonians?
3. How does this relate to your own concerns and patterns of prayer?

Email, social media, and smart phones have dramatically changed how people communicate with one another. Many of us process hundreds of emails each week. Technology allows us to connect with others around the world with remarkable speed and efficiency. But one negative side effect of our digital revolution is that many of us are far less intentional and thoughtful about what we write than previous generations. Every so often, write a personal, hand-written letter to a family member, friend, pastor, or missionary. Include a word of gratitude or affirmation, verses of Scripture, or a short prayer or blessing. Life is busy and filled with various concerns and anxieties, and so such thoughtful, timely letters offer needed encouragement, renewed perspective, and hope. As Proverbs 15:23 says, “A word in season, how good it is!” In 1 Thessalonians 3 Paul’s love for the church motivates him to thank God for specific signs of grace, to pray for their ongoing spiritual progress, and to encourage and humble the Thessalonians by telling them about these prayers and thanksgivings. Paul offers us a powerful example of God-centered thanksgiving and affirmation.

Warm Up

1. In 1 Thessalonians 3 how does Paul’s passion for people affect his prayers?
2. What is one specific way you are personally encouraged or challenged by Paul’s example of affection and intercession for other believers?

Show Session 3 Video 

Group Discussion

Spend the next several minutes engaging the discussion questions that follow. Try to avoid simple, pat answers and challenge yourself and the group to dig deeper into the truths that Paul presents to us.

1. Read aloud 1 Thessalonians 1:2–3; 2:13–16; and 2 Thessalonians 1:3–4. What does Paul thank God for in these verses?
2. Why does Paul tell the Thessalonian believers the reasons he constantly thanks God for them?
3. How might we follow Paul’s example of God-centered thanksgiving?
4. Paul demonstrates genuine love for the Thessalonians and prays that they would abound in love. How might we cultivate our love for fellow Christians and those outside the church in practical, self-sacrificing ways?
5. What is Paul’s source of joy, according to 1 Thessalonians 2:19–20; 3:9?
6. What is your source of joy? How is that related to what you pray for?
7. Share one specific personal application from your study of 1 Thessalonians 3.

Wrap Up

• If we are to follow Paul’s example of prayer, we must cultivate our love for people in practical, self-sacrificing ways.
• Paul longs to be with people he loves so that he can serve them and supply what is lacking in their faith.
• Paul prays that these believers might increase and abound in genuine love for one another and for those outside the church.

Close in prayer. Thank God for signs of His work over the past week and pray that the Lord will make your fellow group members “increase and abound in love for one another and for all.”

Commit to pray regularly for someone for whom you do not now pray. Write down several specific thanksgivings and petitions for this person adapted from Paul’s prayers that we have studied thus far (1 Thess. 3:9–13; 5:23–24; 2 Thess. 1:11–12). After you have been praying for several weeks, let this person know that you have been praying for him or her. Then continue to thank God for and pray for this individual.

Our prayers reveal what we believe about God and what we really value and desire. If you were given a record of every petition you made over the past week, what prayers would be at the top of the list as the most frequent? Many of us probably pray regularly for good health, safe travel, material provision, and flourishing for our children. It’s perfectly appropriate to pray about all these concerns. But how regularly and earnestly do we pray for God’s name to be hallowed, for His kingdom to come and His will to be done, for God to open a door for His Word in challenging places, for believers to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord? Such ongoing concerns do not seem to us as urgent as funds to pay the mortgage or a good report from the oncologist. Yet the apostle Paul regularly prays these sorts of petitions for churches he knows well, like the Philippians and Thessalonians, and for churches he has never met, like the Colossians.

This session will consider Paul’s gospel-centered prayer in Colossians 1. We’ll see that Paul persistently thanks God for His work in Christians’ lives and constantly prays that believers would know God’s will so that they may live transformed lives that please and glorify God. This prayer challenges us to examine our priorities in prayer for others—even those we may not know personally—and to reflect on the way the gospel motivates our prayers of thanks and intercession.

In this video D. A. Carson discusses Colossians 1:3-14. In this passage Paul is praying for people he has never met, but he has made it a priority to place these people at the forefront of his heart. Paul asks God to give these Colossian believers wisdom and the knowledge of God’s will. This isn’t a head knowledge but a deep understanding of what God desires from them so that they may honor Him with their lives. In this video D. A. encourages us to pray in this same way.

3 We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you,

4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints,

5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel,

6 which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing—as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth,

7 just as you learned it from Epaphras our beloved fellow servant. He is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf

8 and has made known to us your love in the Spirit.

Our prayers offer a profound window into our functional theology. What do we regularly pray for at the dinner table, in small-group gatherings, and in the quiet moments of the day? We must consider how far our typical petitions are in step with what the apostle Paul prays for. Suppose, for example, that 80 or 90 percent of our petitions ask God for good health, recovery from illness, safety on the road, a good job, success in exams, the emotional needs of our children, success in our mortgage application, and much more of the same. How much of Paul’s praying revolves around equivalent items? In the challenging prayer in Colossians 1, we see that Paul constantly thanks God for His work in believers’ lives and continually entreats the sovereign Lord to fill believers with His will, to the end that they live transformed lives that please and glorify God.

Most of Paul’s letters open with a greeting followed by a carefully crafted prayer of thanksgiving that orients readers to the apostle’s fundamental concerns. In session 2 of this study (on 2 Thess. 1:3-12), we saw that Paul expresses gratitude to God for specific signs of His grace in the lives of believers, and this thanksgiving provides a framework for Paul’s worthy petitions. Here in Colossians, Paul’s God-centered thanksgiving is motivated by a report that the gospel has produced in this church evident faith and love, which are motivated by their secure hope (1:4-5). In many respects, faith, love, and hope serve as a shorthand summary of the Christian life. Consider the following texts (emphasis added):

Galatians 5:5–6 Through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

1 Corinthians 13:13 Faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Ephesians 1:15–18 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you.

1 Thessalonians 1:2–3 We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Faith refers to our trust and reliance on God, who justifies sinners and faithfully strengthens and sustains His people. Hope is our confident expectation that God will never disappoint us but will fulfill all His promises in Christ. Our ongoing faith in God works out practically in our relationships, as we love other people as Christ loved us. So when Paul thanks God for the clear demonstrations of faith, love, and hope in these believers, he is highlighting evidence that God is truly and unmistakably at work in their lives.

Notice that Paul says in verses 4 and 9, “We heard,” not “We saw.” Paul had never personally met these believers in Colossae. His friend and faithful coworker Epaphras, a native of Colossae who was likely converted through Paul’s ministry in Ephesus, probably founded the church there.¹ Thus the Colossian believers were in a sense Paul’s spiritual grandchildren, who were constantly on his mind and heart and prayer list, even amid very trying personal circumstances.

It’s striking to consider the circumstances in which Paul wrote this challenging prayer. Paul writes to the Colossian believers from prison, “in chains” on account of the mystery of Christ (4:3, NIV). In the ancient world, prisons were dark, overcrowded, and lacking in basic necessities like bedding, adequate clothing, and the opportunity to bathe. Decent food and drink needed to be provided from outside by friends, who would have experienced significant social pressure to dissociate from prisoners.² Despite such distressing conditions, Paul prays unceasingly for these believers he has never met, thanking God for their faith, love, and hope and praying for their spiritual maturity. Do we go on thanking God when trials come? When facing personal distress ourselves, do we unremittingly pray for other people?

The Colossian church was embroiled in theological controversy. False teachers had come to Colossae and emphasized human traditions, rules, and mystical experiences rather than Jesus Christ (see 2:23). Paul doesn’t want this church to be deceived or to shift from the hope of the gospel that they heard. So the apostle writes to encourage the believers to continue living out the true Christian message that they were taught and to resist deceptive and destructive teachings that are contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Paul’s thanksgiving prayer ties in closely to these larger themes in the letter to the Colossians. Paul thanks God for this church’s spiritual fruit in response to “the word of truth, the gospel” (1:5), and in doing so he reorients them back to the gospel that has been proved to be true and powerful. The apostle reminds his readers how they “received Christ Jesus the Lord” and urges them to continue to “walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving” (2:6-7). Paul directs their attention away from “philosophy and empty deceit” (2:8) to the gospel that they know and have experienced as true and transformative (see 1:6-8).

1. Honestly reflect on your current prayer habits. For whom or what do you regularly petition or thank God?
2. What surprises or challenges you about how Paul prays in Colossians 1:3–8?

9 From the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.

11 May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy,

12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,

14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Prayer is God’s chosen means for giving us the blessings He promises to give us in Christ Jesus. We need God’s blessings all the time, and as we consistently ask God for these blessings, so He consistently supplies our every need. Paul declares that he prays “always” and unceasingly for the Colossian believers that he has not met face to face (see 1:3,9). What he means is that since hearing about the birth of this church in response to the gospel preaching of Epaphras, Paul has made it a point to intercede with God on their behalf in his disciplined, regular times of prayer. What does Paul repeatedly pray for on behalf of these Christians, as if the supply must be constantly renewed?

Paul’s one request for these saints is “that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding” (1:9). The initial Greek phrase in verse 9, translated “and so” (ESV) or “for this reason” (NIV), indicates that Paul’s petition is directly linked to his thanksgiving in verses 3-8. Thus, after thanking God because the church has understood God’s grace and evidenced spiritual fruit, Paul now prays that they might continue in this same course. Paul’s thanks to God and his intercession before God drive us to a very important conclusion: Although we’re typically disposed to pray for people and circumstances only when things have become desperate, Paul regularly prays that the church would continue to grow in knowledge of God and spiritual maturity. Said another way, while our prayers often reflect the urgent needs of the moment, Paul consistently prioritizes those things that are most important and carry eternal weight.

Paul states the purpose or aim of his prayer in verse 10: “so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him.” He then illustrates what it means to live a life pleasing to the Lord, using four Greek participles (“bearing fruit,” “increasing,” being “strengthened,” “giving thanks”). These four characteristics are typical (though not exhaustive) marks of the maturing Christian life.

First, Christians please God by “bearing fruit in every good work” (v. 10). This first quality recalls verse 6, where Paul thanks God that the gospel “is bearing fruit and increasing” (emphasis added) in the whole world and also among these dear brothers and sisters in Colossae. We are saved “by grace” and “through faith,” but believers are created anew “in Christ Jesus for good works” (Eph. 2:8,10; emphasis added). Fruitfulness isn’t the same thing as gifting or productivity. Rather, true spiritual fruit glorifies God and gives evidence of an ongoing, transformative relationship with Jesus Christ. As Jesus Himself says in John 15:5,8: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.”

Second, we please the Lord by increasing in the knowledge of God (see 1:10). Paul thanks God that the Colossians “heard it and understood the grace of God in truth” (v. 6), but he’s not content with simply maintaining the status quo. Increasing knowledge of God is inseparably linked to obeying God’s revealed will. We must learn something of that will to obey it; discovery of more of that will is contingent on obeying what we know of it.

Third, conduct worthy of the Lord is to be achieved through divine empowerment, what Paul later describes as “his energy that he powerfully works within me” (Col. 1:29). The New Testament teaches that God demonstrates His supreme power in various ways. God created all things by His eternal power.³ God clearly demonstrates His supreme power in creation. According to Romans 1:16, the gospel is “the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” God powerfully works signs and wonders by the Holy Spirit and also destroys spiritual strongholds.⁴ God raised Jesus from the dead and one day will raise us also by His death-conquering power.⁵ But Colossians 1:11 highlights an essential but often overlooked way that God powerfully works in our lives. Paul asks God to continually strengthen His people “for all endurance and patience.” Endurance and patience are not often extoled in our culture that prizes success, independence, and quick solutions. Nevertheless, these virtues enable the believer to survive with joy when persecuted, to triumph in self-composure and contentment when insulted, to trust God’s all-wise and all-gracious providence when one is suffering like Job.⁶

Fourth, the Lord Jesus is pleased when Christians joyfully give thanks to the Father (see v. 12) because we have received a glorious salvation and inheritance at His hand (see 1:12-14).⁷ Our greatest need wasn’t political stability, economic prosperity, education, good health, or entertainment, and so God didn’t send a politician, economist, teacher, physician, or artist. Rather, God knew that our most profound problem was our sin, rebellion, and estrangement from Him; and so He sent us Jesus who came to “save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:21). Believers who grasp that God has rescued us from darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son should respond with joyful gratitude. The apostle’s boundless thanksgiving and earnest intercession for the saints while sitting in a dark, dingy Roman prison makes clear to us that the gospel—not our temporal circumstances—must govern our priorities and practice in prayer.

1. In verse 9 what does Paul mean by “spiritual wisdom and understanding”?
2. How is this different from worldly wisdom? Look up the references to wisdom in Colossians 1:28; 2:3,23; 3:16; 4:5.
3. What connection does Colossians 1:9–14 make between knowledge and bearing fruit?

Young children constantly ask their parents for what they need and want, firmly believing that their parents have the resources and willingness to address their concerns (usually right away!). Likewise, Jesus taught His disciples to petition God as “Our Father in heaven” (Matt. 6:9), who has immeasurable love for His people and possesses infinite power to respond to their requests. As the Heidelberg Catechism says, “He is able to do so as almighty God, and willing also as a faithful Father.”⁸ In Colossians we see that the apostle Paul’s understanding of God motivates him to thank God and intercede constantly for his spiritual grandchildren, the Colossian believers. Paul’s priorities and practice in prayer provide a powerful model for us as we consider our own prayer habits and seek to grow in Christian maturity.

Warm Up

1. What have you prayed most about over the past month?
2. How have you seen God work in response?

Show Session 4 Video

Group Discussion

Spend the next several minutes engaging the discussion questions that follow. Try to avoid simple, pat answers and challenge yourself and the group to dig deeper into the truths that Paul presents to us.

1. How do you pray for believers you have never met? How can you improve in this area?
2. What does it mean to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will? Compare Colossians 1:9; Romans 12:2; 1 Thessalonians 4:3; 5:18.
3. What is a specific trial or difficulty you have recently faced?
4. Do you typically pray for deliverance from trials for you and loved ones or for divine empowerment for endurance and patience through challenging times?
5. Read aloud Colossians 1:12–14. How does this text describe our life apart from Christ and God’s work on our behalf?
6. Have you joyfully given thanks to God recently for your salvation and glorious inheritance?
7. Pray for one another and for believers in another part of the world, using Colossians 1:9–12 as a model.

Wrap Up

• Paul prays for believers he has never met personally and thanks God for His evident work in their lives.
• Paul constantly prays that believers would increasingly be filled with the knowledge of God’s will so as to live transformed lives pleasing to the Lord Jesus.
• The gospel motivates Paul’s thanksgiving and fundamentally shapes Paul’s priorities in prayer for other believers.

Close in prayer, thanking God for evidences of His gospel work and asking God that each group member might know and live out God’s will this week. Make time for the Take-Home assignment below to enrich your experience with Paul’s prayers.

Commit to pray for believers in a different part of the world every day this week. Write to a cross-cultural missionary from your church or denomination to find out about that person’s ministry focus. Learn more about the situation and concerns of the church in that part of the world, using Jason Mandryk’s Operation World or the website www.operationworld.org.

Many Christians thank God in good times, pray urgently in hard times, and forget to pray in busy times. It may strike us as strange that the apostle Paul overflows with thanksgiving and prayers for other people while he is confined to a dingy, dark Roman prison cell. Even in the most challenging and uncertain personal circumstances, Paul expresses his deep gratitude and joy to God for the believers’ partnership in the gospel and his unflagging confidence that the sovereign God will finish the good work He began in their lives. Paul’s short prayer in Philippians 1 can help us overcome our spiritual dryness and excuses for prayerlessness.

In this session, we’ll see that the gospel should define our relationships with other Christians and guide our priorities in prayer. Paul’s prayer will also encourage us to overcome the obstacle of perfectionism and self-fulfillment by refocusing our attention on “what is excellent” (Phil. 1:10) according to God’s standards.

In this video D. A. Carson discusses Philippians 1:3-11. He starts by addressing Paul’s pursuit toward excellence for God. We then see how Philippi was very close to Paul’s heart. Paul expresses joy for the relationships and partnerships he has with the people there. This passage forces us to answer the question “Do you pray for communal love for brothers and sisters in Christ, all for the praise and glory of God?”

3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you,

4 always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy,

5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.

6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

7 It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.

8 For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.

Paul is at it again. Here in Philippians, as in so many of his other letters, the apostle launches immediately into expressions of profound gratitude to God for the ongoing work of grace among “all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi” (v. 1). In our study of Colossians 1 (session 4), we saw that Paul’s is not a fair-weather sort of thanksgiving, for he writes to those believers facing doctrinal threats while he endures the daily discomforts and uncertainty of imprisonment. Paul again writes from prison and he reassures the Philippian church that “what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel” (v. 12).

Why, when his personal circumstances seem so abysmal, is Paul overflowing with joy? Verse 5 gives the reason: “because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now.” Partnership translates the Greek word koinonia, commonly rendered “fellowship” elsewhere in the New Testament (see Acts 2:42; 1 John 1:3). Christians today often use the word fellowship to mean warm friendship with other believers—a nice chat during the coffee break after church or meeting together for a meal. But in the ancient world, koinonia often conveyed the idea of a financial or business partnership. Indeed, Paul explains that earlier in his ministry only the Philippian church “entered into partnership [koinonia] with me in giving and receiving” (Phil. 4:15). They financially supported the apostle “once and again” while he was in Thessalonica and in recent days they sent Paul more gifts, supplying his needs while in prison and likely prompting him to write this letter. The Philippian believers shared Paul’s trouble, giving sacrificially to meet the apostle’s needs and to promote the advancement of the gospel, and they were also partakers with him of grace. So Paul thanks God for the church’s true gospel koinonia.

When missionaries write to their home churches and individual supporters, they regularly express gratitude for financial partnership and urge readers to partner with them in prayer. These expressions point us to the true nature of distinctly Christian fellowship. Indeed, by sharing in their troubles, giving joyfully and sacrificially, and regularly petitioning God on their behalf, we may have a profound “partnership in the gospel” with these missionaries—a partnership like Paul and the Philippians shared.

Paul again and again brings us back to the gospel—the good news that through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ God has saved us from our sins and reconciled us to Himself. The term gospel is used nine times in the four chapters of Philippians, making this arguably the most gospel-focused of all of Paul’s 13 letters. Paul has a “partnership in the gospel” with the Philippians, and he calls them to let their “manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ” (1:5,27). Paul brought the gospel to Philippi, and now he is in prison for the defense, confirmation, and advancement of that gospel. Paul also labors in gospel ministry alongside his friends such as Timothy, Euodia, Syntyche, and Clement. Thus we see that the gospel defined Paul’s relationships, calling, and aspirations.

This relentless gospel focus challenges us to consider what ties our relationships together. What is the focus of our conversations after church, in small-group settings, and around the dinner table? It’s natural to talk about our work, families, and the latest game, but these things aren’t central to true Christian fellowship. Only the gospel is strong enough to bring people together from different ethnicities, social classes, employment sectors, personality types, and life circumstances. The gospel should be preeminent in our relationships with other believers and should direct our priorities, conversations, and prayers. A new or renewed gospel focus in our lives and relationships will help us overcome the hurdles of spiritual dryness and antipathy in prayer.

In Philippians 1:6 Paul expresses confidence in God’s ongoing work in the lives of these believers: “I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” Similarly, in Philippians 2:13 Paul asserts that God is at work among these believers “both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” We can often grow discouraged when we consider our relative lack of progress in certain areas of our Christian life. This is particularly true for many of us when it comes to our practice of prayer (or lack thereof). Paul’s declaration that God has begun and will complete His good work in our lives should engender confidence in those who feel that they can’t change, that they will never learn to pray effectively. Be encouraged—God always finishes what He starts.

Thus far we have seen that Paul’s joyful thanksgiving is motivated first by the Philippians’ longstanding gospel partnership with him and, second, by his confidence that God will complete the good work He has started among these saints. In Philippians 1:7–8 Paul offers a third reason he prays for the church in this way: his heartfelt love for them. The apostle declares, “I hold you in my heart. … God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.” Paul’s deep emotion for these friends exceeds natural human love because it flows from his own profound experience of the love of God in Christ. Commentator Walter Hansen writes, “Paul’s life in Christ Jesus brings all his relationships within the sphere of Christ’s love. … his longing … is really the love of Christ motivating and empowering him.”¹ During times of spiritual dryness and prayerlessness, we need God to grant us a fresh understanding and experience of the love of Christ for us and for our fellow Christians.

1. Why does Paul thank God for the Philippian church?
2. What about this prayer do you find most challenging or encouraging?
3. In your own words explain what Christian fellowship or partnership is.
4. What was the focus of Paul’s fellowship with the Philippians?

9 It is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment,

10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,

11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

In verses 3–8 we saw how Paul prayed for the Philippians (with gratitude and constant joy) and why he prayed this way for them (their gospel partnership, God’s faithful work, and Paul’s heartfelt love). Verses 9–11 explain what specifically Paul petitioned God for, the content and aim of his intercession for these beloved believers.

We begin with the content of Paul’s request in verse 9: “that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment.” Paul doesn’t specify the object of their love—does he intend that they abound in love for God, for one another, or both? The context suggests that love for one another is likely the emphasis here. First, Paul has thanked God for gospel fellowship with the Philippians (1:5) and expressed his heartfelt affection and love for these saints (1:7-8). Further, the repeated emphasis on Paul’s prayers and love for “all” the Philippians probably anticipates the repeated call for unity among the whole community in Christ, which alongside the gospel is one of the great themes of this letter.² Similarly, Paul prays in 1 Thessalonians 3:12, “May the Lord make your love increase and overflow for each other and for everyone else, just as ours does for you” (NIV, emphasis added). So Paul prays that this church that he dearly loves and who has shown noteworthy kindness and loyalty to him, may abound or “keep on growing” (v. 9, HCSB) in their love for each other. The phrase “abound more and more” emphasizes that love isn’t static but continually growing and increasing in its quality, affection, and expression.

The apostle links “knowledge and all discernment” with abounding love. In 1 Corinthians 8:1 Paul declares, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” But here “knowledge” and “discernment” refer to knowledge of God and understanding of His will, which is revealed above all in Jesus Christ. According to Philippians 3:8, “the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord” is vastly superior to any other gain or pursuit. In 2:6–11 Paul offers a profound theological exposition of Jesus’ humiliation and exaltation in order to lead his friends to have the same mindset as Christ, to love and serve others and seek their interests as their Lord did. Thus, increasing knowledge of Jesus multiplies love. If we made this our regular prayer, how might God be pleased to transform our churches, small groups, and Christian friendships?

Philippians 1:10 explains Paul’s aims in this prayer for abounding love: “so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.” What does it mean to approve what is excellent or as the NIV puts it, “discern what is best”? Paul uses the same phrase in Romans 2:18, where he says to the Jews that they “know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law.” Then in Romans 12:2 we read, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Thus, we see that excellence (“what is best”) is defined by God’s standards and accords with knowing God’s perfect will.

Returning to Philippians 1, we see that approving what is excellent flows from abounding love for other people. Love seeks what is excellent, what is best, for another person. Parents sometimes use this language—“Your mother and I love you and only want your best”—to defend decisions that in the parents’ judgment have significant long-term benefits even though they may be unpopular with the child in the short term. So it’s deemed best for the child to practice long hours at the piano, go to church with the family, eat vegetables at dinner. But for Paul, “what is best” is that which prepares someone for the day of Christ and brings glory and praise to God. The apostle regards everything as loss and rubbish in comparison to the “surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus,” such that what is best for him includes sharing Christ’s sufferings (see Phil. 3:8,10). Paul isn’t content with maintaining the status quo. Rather he presses on “toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus,” and he urges all “who are mature think this way” (3:14-15). In summary, believers will “approve what is excellent” when their hearts, minds, and value systems are reordered around God’s purposes in Christ.

The second aim or goal of Paul’s prayer for abounding love is that believers may “be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God” (Phil 1:10-11). When Paul prays for these saints, he doesn’t lose sight of the long view—what they will be on the day of Christ. These believers “at Philippi” are citizens of heaven, who will one day be perfectly pure and blameless, abounding in righteousness unto His glory. The church is to see itself as a heavenly, missionary outpost in a lost, dying, and decaying world.

As the apostle writes in Philippians 2:14–16, “Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.” So we see that Paul expresses confidence that God will bring to completion His good work in the lives of these believers. This sure hope guides his prayers and exhortations for them to live now in light of what they will one day be.

Paul’s prayer forces us to face some uncomfortable but important questions. Do I pursue excellence to bolster my own self-image or to magnify God’s name? What is my heart motivation for wanting what is “best”? How do I respond when what I value is taken away or when my dreams are unfulfilled? Many of us have perfectionist tendencies—we expect our homes to be immaculate, our children to be impeccable, and our spouses and coworkers to fall in line with our ideals. We also set impossibly high standards of excellence in our own vocations, even in our ministries. Paul’s prayer helps us overcome the hurdles of perfectionism and self-fulfillment by directing our focus to what God considers best, that which brings glory and praise to Him and which flows from increasing knowledge of Him and love for His people.

1. Explain in your own words the difference between knowledge that puffs up (see 1 Cor. 8:1) and knowledge that increases and motivates love for other people (see Phil. 1:9).
2. What is one particularly challenging relationship or situation in your life right now?
3. Ask God to help you view this person or situation in light of the day of Christ.

Our world celebrates high achievement by athletes, students, and corporate executives. Even in the church, we expect excellent, inspiring performance week after week from our pastors and worship leaders, as well as perfect behavior from our children in the pews. According to Broughton Knox, the long-time principal of Moore Theological College in Australia, “God is not interested in one hundred percentism.”³ Of course, God does want our total allegiance, worship, and service! But what Knox meant is our “one hundred percentism” is often simply a reflection of our perfectionist tendencies toward self-fulfillment and even idolatrous self-worship. We need a healthy dose of Paul’s eternal perspective and gospel priorities so that we might “approve what is excellent” in God’s eyes.

Warm Up

What is one specific way Paul’s prayer in Philippians 1 challenges you?

Show Session 5 Video

Group Discussion

Spend the next several minutes engaging the discussion questions below. Try to avoid simple, pat answers and challenge yourself and the group to dig deeper into the truths that Paul presents to us.

1. What excuses have you made for relative prayerlessness or spiritual dryness?
2. What is one specific way Paul’s prayer in Philippians 1 may help us overcome our excuses or hurdles?
3. Paul prays constantly for the Philippians while in prison. What motivates Paul to remain joyful and thankful while enduring much personal adversity?
4. How might Paul’s example encourage you to persevere in prayer during difficult circumstances in your own life?
5. In your own words, what does it mean to “approve what is excellent” (v. 10)?
6. How does the excellence Paul prays for relate to your own standards and desires for excellence?
7. The gospel is one of the great themes of Philippians. Consider the following verses: Philippians 1:5, 7, 12, 16, 27; 2:22; 4:3, 15. How did the gospel impact Paul’s relationships, priorities, and prayers?
8. What would it look like practically for some of your relationships to be characterized by “partnership in the gospel” (v. 5)?

Pray for one another using Philippians 1:9–11 as a model.

Wrap Up

• Paul perseveres in joyful prayer for the Philippians even while in prison because of his gospel partnership with them, his heartfelt love for them, and his unshakable faith that God will finish the good work He has begun in their lives.
• The gospel should be central in our relationships with other believers and should guide our priorities in prayer.
• We will “approve what is excellent” (v. 10) when our hearts, minds, and entire value systems are reordered around God’s purposes in Christ.

Close in prayer, asking God that the gospel be central to your relationships and your prayer life. Pray that your love abound more and more, with the result that you may approve what is excellent according to God’s standards and priorities.

Missionaries often express gratitude for financial partnership and urge friends back home to partner with them in prayer. Write an email to a missionary you know. Share some way Philippians 1 has encouraged or challenged you. Ask about specific needs or concerns that he or she has. Pray intentionally for this missionary, thank God for this partnership in the gospel, and consider ways God might be calling you to share in the missionary’s trouble as the Philippians did with Paul.

Prayer uniquely captures the tension between God’s sovereignty and our responsibility to act. Jesus tells us that “Your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matt. 6:8), and James insists that “You do not have, because you do not ask” (Jas. 4:2). God is both personal (our Father) and transcendent (in heaven), and He carries out His sovereign work through personal means, particularly the prayers of His people. We must hold together the biblical truths that God is all-powerful and in total control and that we’re responsible to act in accord with His revealed will. When we do so, these truths give us remarkable confidence to pray and also direction for how to pray to the sovereign God and what sorts of things to ask for.

In this session we’ll see that Ephesians 1 highlights three facets of God’s sovereign work and serves as a model for praying to the sovereign, personal God. Paul’s prayer stimulates us to reflect deeply on God’s powerful work in raising Jesus from the dead and in transforming Christians from the inside out. We’ll also be challenged to pray that we might see foundational spiritual truths with enlightened eyes.

In this video D. A. Carson discusses Ephesians 1:15-23. So far we have looked at prayers that were primarily petitions to God, but this video examines Paul’s adoration toward God. D. A. talks through how praying changes us more so than it changes the mind of God. But this makes it even more important to pray. He talks about how this kind of praying engenders praise because we’re given the ability to pray from God’s perspective. D. A. then examines God’s affection towards us and our reciprocating affection towards Him.

15 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints,

16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers,

17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him,

18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,

19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might

20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places,

21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church,

23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

The Christian discipline of prayer uniquely highlights the tension of God’s sovereignty and human responsibility. Many affirm the slogan, “Prayer changes things,” insisting that God dynamically responds to the persistent, faith-filled prayers of His people. Indeed Scripture asserts, “You do not have, because you do not ask” and “The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (Jas. 4:2; 5:16). At the same time, Scripture presents God as absolutely sovereign. God removes and sets up kings, not even a lowly sparrow falls apart from His will, and He knows what we need before we even ask.¹ Some people reason that, since God is sovereign and has already determined what He will do, prayer really changes things for the individual who through prayer learns to align himself or herself with God’s purposes. Thus the most theologically correct prayer is “not my will, but yours be done” (Luke 22:42). But this is a wrong application of the truth of God’s sovereignty, resulting in an approach to prayer that is more akin to Stoic philosophy than biblical Christianity. God is both transcendent and personal; He is utterly sovereign, and we are no less morally responsible creatures. These twin truths in Scripture, when rightly understood and held together, serve as powerful incentives to pray and ask direction for the manner in which we approach God. We pray to “our Father in heaven” (Matt. 6:9), a remarkable address that binds together an intimate, personal term “Father” with a stress on God’s sovereignty and transcendence (“in heaven”).

The solution may be stated briefly: the sovereign God works through personal means. The all-powerful, sovereign God invites—indeed demands— His people to participate in bringing about His glorious purposes through His chosen means, particularly our petitions. Thus, Paul’s praise to the sovereign God “all things according to the counsel of his will … to the praise of his glory” (Eph. 1:11,14) motivates him “for this reason” (v. 15) to petition this sovereign God to carry out His glorious purposes in the lives of these Ephesian believers.

Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1 highlights three aspects of God’s sovereignty and offers us a model for addressing the sovereign and personal God. First, Paul thanks God for His gracious intervention in believers’ lives. “For this reason” in verse 15 links Paul’s prayer that follows his praise in verses 3–14, which rehearse the gracious, sovereign work of God to the praise of His glory. The sovereign God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ. He has chosen, predestined, and redeemed His people in Christ and has sealed us by the Spirit, who guarantees our heavenly inheritance. But how does Paul know that God has blessed the Ephesian church in this way? The apostle continues, “For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you” (1:15–16). The conversion and transformation of these believers offer specific evidence of God’s powerful, gracious work in their lives. Thus, when Paul praises and thanks God for His sovereign power and saving love, he has in mind the testimonies of people whose lives God has changed. He thinks of Onesiphorus, who often encouraged and helped Paul while he was in prison, even at great risk to his own reputation (see 2 Tim. 1:16-17). Paul considers God’s work in the lives of Trophimus and Tychicus, dear friends who traveled with him and on his behalf and served as faithful ministers.² They probably grew up worshiping Artemis, the patron goddess of Ephesus, but then they believed the glorious gospel message that Paul preached and their lives began to change.

They found their identity in Christ, new love for other believers was ignited in their hearts, and they sacrificed comfort and security and risked persecution and marginalization to proclaim the gospel of Christ crucified and risen. Like Paul, we should give thanks to God for His sovereign, gracious work when people close to us believe in the Lord Jesus and show genuine love for the saints, and also when we hear similar reliable reports and testimonies from Christians in other places.

Second, Paul intercedes with the sovereign God to accomplish His glorious purposes. Specifically, the apostle asks God to give believers the spiritual wisdom and understanding necessary to know him more: “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him” (v. 17). The first petition on Paul’s list is that these believers grow in their knowledge of God. He prays similarly in Colossians 1:9-10: “asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.” According to Ephesians 4:13, God intends for the church to “attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”

And so Paul asks in Ephesians 1:17 for God to give believers wisdom and revelation, mediated by the Spirit, to the end that they might know God more. In Scripture, the term revelation sometimes refers to the full disclosure of God’s purposes that find their climax in Jesus Christ, and in other places “revelation” means spiritual illumination or enlightenment of one’s mind to understand and embrace God’s revealed truth and standards.³ Paul here has in mind the second usage—spiritual illumination that enables believers to grow in their knowledge of God.

Paul’s prayer is spelled out further in verses 18–19. Interpreters have understood the meaning of verse 18 in several ways. Some understand this verse to be a prayer requesting illumined eyes. Others explain that “having the eyes of your heart enlightened” refers to believers’ present status, which enables them to know God. Paul explicitly states that they have been sealed with the promised Spirit when they believed (see Eph. 1:13). Thus as commentator Clinton Arnold explains, the apostle “is praying that the already-present Spirit of God will work to reveal God to them in more profound ways.”⁴

Verses 18–19 highlight three fundamental spiritual truths that Paul prays Christians will see with enlightened eyes. First, he wants the church to know “what is the hope to which he has called you” (v. 18). Formerly, the Ephesians lived “without hope and without God in the world” (Eph. 2:12, NIV). But now they have put their hope in Christ and await a glorious inheritance, which is ultimately nothing less than life in God’s presence forever. Christians confidently anticipate and wait for the glorious return of Jesus as our Savior and King, when Christ will “present the church to himself in splendor” (5:27). We far too quickly lose sight of our future consummation of our salvation and fail to live in a way that reflects eternity’s values. Thus we need help from God to illuminate the eyes of our hearts so that we might understand the true nature of our great hope.

Additionally, Paul prays that believers may know through the Spirit’s enlightening work “what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints” (1:18). Christians hope for the return of Christ and for our future inheritance in God’s kingdom (see 1:14; 5:5). But notice here that Paul refers to God’s inheritance in His saints. In John 17:9 Jesus prays for those people whom the Father has given Him, and the Psalms frequently refer to God’s people as His chosen heritage.⁵ We need to know who we are, as God sees us. We have been chosen and redeemed and called God’s inheritance, and we need God’s help to perceive our glorious new identity and to live to God’s praise.

Paul asks further that Christians will see with enlightened eyes the incomparable power of God, which He puts to work for believers. Ephesians 3:14-21 (the focus of session 7) elaborates significantly on what God’s power accomplishes as it operates in our lives, and in Ephesians 6:10 Paul exhorts the church, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.” In verse 15 he gives thanks for tangible evidences of God’s powerful work in a Christian’s faith and love. Now he prays that they might recognize that God’s power is still operative in their lives. “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:13).

We have seen that Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1 highlights various aspects of God’s sovereignty and illustrates how we may pray to the sovereign and personal God. First, Paul thanks God for His sovereign and gracious work in believers’ lives (vv. 15-16). Second, he petitions God to accomplish His glorious, sovereign purposes (vv. 17-19). Now third, in verses 20-23 Paul rehearses three dramatic illustrations of God’s sovereign power. The Bible contains no shortage of material on the incomparable power of God. One need look no further than Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” As Isaiah observes, God brings out and names the heavenly bodies “by the greatness of his might” (Isa. 40:26). The sun is over 864,000 miles in diameter, with a surface temperature of 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit—and it is only an average-sized star, joined by billions of others that God set in place. The psalmist declares, “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host,” and then summons the earth’s inhabitants to “stand in awe of him!” (Ps. 33:6,8). The power of God’s breath summons fiery balls of gas into being and perfect order, leaving us breathless with wonder.

However, for an omnipotent God there cannot be degrees of difficulty. Thus, in Ephesians 1:19-23 Paul appeals Jesus’ resurrection, His exaltation, and His appointment as head over all as three events that reveal the glorious power of God at work toward believers. Paul notes first the demonstration of God’s death-defeating power in Jesus’ resurrection— “his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead” (vv. 19-20). Remarkably, God now exercises this same resurrection power for the church. This is why Paul prays, “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead” (Phil. 3:10-11, NIV).

Next, Paul highlights the great might of God on display in Jesus’ exaltation, when God “seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places” (v. 20). There are levels of authority and power in our world, from the branch manager to the CEO, from the local mayor to the commander in chief. In the first-century world, the Roman emperor was unquestionably at the top of the power pyramid, with various officials hierarchically arranged underneath him. But early Christians confessed that the risen and exalted Jesus was “Lord” (kurios) and “King,” thereby relativizing the absolute claims of Caesar.⁶ Elsewhere Paul also mentions heavenly, invisible rulers and authorities, which Christ created and then triumphed over at the cross (see Col. 1:16; 2:15). Thus, Jesus is exalted “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come” (Eph. 1:21). Paul spells out the implications of these basic theological truths in Ephesians 2:5-6: God “even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” God’s power overcomes our sin and spiritual death and gives us new spiritual life and a new standing and identity in Christ. Paul prays that the Ephesian believers will have divine illumination to grasp the profound ways that God’s great power is at work in believers’ lives.

Finally, God demonstrates His glorious and great power by subjugating everything under Christ and appointing Him as head over all things for the church. The opening line of verse 22—“He put all things under his feet”— is a quotation of Psalm 8:6, which reflects on humanity’s humble dignity in God’s creation. According to 1 Corinthians 15:25-27, God has subjected all things to the risen, exalted Jesus, who will reign until all His enemies, even death, are destroyed. To be sure, the nations still rage. “The fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’ ” (Ps. 14:1). “The poor are plundered, because the needy groan,” (Ps. 12:5), while the righteous cry out, “How long O Lord?” (Ps. 13:1).. Some may wonder why, if Jesus declared that the kingdom of God is at hand, the brokenness, violence, injustice, and godlessness of our world continue on. Hebrews 2:8–9 points out, “At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor.” This is what Paul prays that the church will “see” in Ephesians 1. He longs for believers to have their spiritual faculties tuned to recognize that the crucified and risen Jesus is presently reigning as head over all things in the midst of this broken world that He will one day make new.

Not a drop of rain can fall outside the orb of Jesus’ sovereignty. All our days—our health, our illnesses, our joys, our victories, our tears, our prayers, and the answers to our prayers—fall within the sweep of the sovereignty of One who wears a human face, a thorn-shadowed face. All of God’s sovereignty is mediated through One who was crucified on our behalf. The mysteries of prayer remain, but they dissolve in worship and gratitude. It is far easier to accept the mysteries of divine sovereignty when the divine love is as great as the divine sovereignty.

1. What three aspects of God’s sovereignty does Paul’s prayer draw attention to in Ephesians 1?
2. What is one way Paul’s prayer to the sovereign and personal God encourages or challenges you in your own life of prayer?

Scripture presents God as sovereign and all-powerful. God is the Creator of solar systems and subatomic particles. God declares the end from the beginning and accomplishes all His purposes (see Isa. 46:10). And yet this sovereign God hears and responds to His people’s prayers. According to Exodus 2:23-25, Israel’s “cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel— and God knew.” Manasseh “prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea” (2 Chron. 33:13). Daniel perceived from Jeremiah’s writings that God promised to bring the exile to an end after 70 years, and so he turned his face to the Lord God, “seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes” (Dan. 9:3). God then sends His angel to give Daniel insight and understanding, and He brings Judah’s exile to an end. The prayers of God’s people are a crucial means by which He chooses to execute His sovereign purposes. In Ephesians 1, Paul moves seamlessly from praising God who accomplishes “all things according to the counsel of his will, … to the praise of his glory” (vv. 11,14) to petitioning God to carry out His glorious purposes in the church (vv. 22-23).

Warm Up

How might the biblical truth that God is sovereign and “works everything according to the counsel of his will” (v. 11) serve to increase our confidence and motivation to pray?

Show Session 6 Video

Spend the next several minutes engaging the discussion questions below. Try to avoid simple, pat answers and challenge yourself and the group to dig deeper into the truths that Paul presents to us.

1. Verse 15 begins, “For this reason …” Explain in your own words the connection between Paul’s praise in verses 3-14 and his prayer in verses 15–23.
2. In Ephesians 1 Paul prays that God would give believers “the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation” (v. 17) only a few verses after he declares that they “were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit” (v. 13). How would you explain in your own words what Paul is asking for?
3. What foundational spiritual truths does Paul want believers to see with enlightened eyes?
4. Which of these truths has God impressed on your heart in a fresh way this week?
5. Paul concludes his prayer in a remarkable and surprising way: “God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way” (vv. 22–23, NIV). How might these verses inform and shape our prayers to the sovereign God?

Pray for one another and for others in your church using Ephesians 1:15-24 as a model.

Wrap Up

• Paul gives thanks to the sovereign God for His intervening, sovereign grace in the lives of believers.
• Paul prays that Christians might know God better and grasp with enlightened eyes truths concerning their glorious hope, their new identity as God’s inheritance, and God’s continuing, powerful work in their lives.
• Ephesians 1 rehearses the sovereign God’s dramatic displays of power in Jesus’ resurrection, exaltation, and sovereign rule over all things, which He exercises for the church.

Close in prayer, thanking God for evidences of His sovereign, gracious work and asking Him to grant you spiritual insight and understanding into your future hope, your new identity in Christ, and God’s power at work in you. Make time for the Take-Home assignment below to enrich your experience with Paul’s prayers.

Carefully read and meditate on Ephesians 1–2 and make a list of God’s actions and purposes. Turn these statements of biblical truth into simple prayers to the sovereign God, using the three Rs (rejoice, repent, request).

Prayerlessness is often a warning light indicating our ignorance of God. Genuine and vibrant knowledge of God not only instructs us what to pray, but it also encourages us to let our requests be made known to the all-holy, all-loving, all-wise triune God, our Creator, Savior, and Lord. In Ephesians 3 Paul grounds his petitions in his understanding of God’s revealed character as Father and the salvation He accomplished through Jesus Christ.

In this session we’ll consider Paul’s two prayers for power and his doxology that celebrates the matchless, praiseworthy power and glory of God. We’ll see that God must empower us by His Spirit so that we might be increasingly transformed into the likeness of Christ. Further, we need God’s power so that we might comprehend the limitless love of God for us in Christ. When we pray for God to strengthen us and other believers in this way, we should recognize that God is able to do abundantly more than we can ask or think and thus respond by praising our all-powerful, glorious God.

In this video D. A. Carson discusses Ephesians 3:14-21, unpacking Paul’s two central petitions in his prayer. These petitions are essentially requests for power focused in a way that is honoring to God.

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father,

15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,

16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being,

17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,

18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,

19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

We learn to pray by listening to the prayers of others, particularly Christian parents, mentors, or pastors. If you grew up in a Christian tradition that utilizes the King James Version, you may petition God reverently in Shakespearean English, “Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.” Alternatively, if your formative discipleship took place in high school or college through a parachurch ministry, you may pray more casually, “Jesus, thank You for this day” or “Daddy, we love You.” Regardless of our spiritual heritage, we should look to the prayers of the Bible for sure models and guides for why and how to pray to the all-holy, all-loving, all-wise God, our Creator, Savior, and Lord.

In Ephesians 3:14–21 the apostle Paul offers a model prayer that has two remark- able requests and a concluding doxology. First, Paul asks God to strengthen believers with power through His Spirit (3:16–17a); second, he prays that the church may have power to comprehend the limitless dimensions of Christ’s love (see 3:17b– 19). This intercessory prayer report is closely tied to the apostle’s first prayer in 1:15–23, which we studied in session 6. In both passages, Paul asks God to grant the church increased understanding mediated by the Holy Spirit.

Before considering Paul’s petitions, a few comments are in order on verses 14–15. First, “For this reason” takes up and completes the sentence begun in 3:1, “For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles,” which builds on Paul’s articulation of how the Ephesian Gentiles who were once alienated from God’s presence and promises have been brought near by the blood of Christ (see 2:13) and are now members of God’s household (see 2:19). Paul interrupts this thought in 3:2–13 to clarify his apostolic role and the mystery of Christ with which he has been entrusted.¹ Thus, we see that Paul’s prayers are motivated and informed by God’s purposes in Christ and His work in the lives of the Ephesian believers.

Second, Paul mentions his posture of prayer when interceding for the church: “I bow my knees before the Father” (v. 14). Jews and Christians in the first century often stood to pray. Kneeling to pray communicates reverence, humility, and submission to the will of God. In Isaiah 45:23 the Lord declares, “Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear” (NIV), and Paul’s kneeling posture may communicate his homage to the sovereign King of all.

Third, Paul prays to “the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named” (3:14–15). Addressing God as “Father” conveys a relationship of love and a role of authority and recalls Jesus’ model prayer in Matthew 6:9 as well as earlier references in Ephesians (see 1:2-3,17; 2:18). In our passage, Paul uses a word play in Greek to describe “the Father” (pater) from whom every “family” (patria) is named. As the sovereign Creator, God “names” and thus classifies and determines the identity for every grouping of human beings on earth and also the angels and spirits of the heavenly realm. This is significant for the Ephesians, who have been assigned a new identity and vocation “in Christ” (2:10,13) and who need not fear the name of any spiritual powers. Thus, God’s character and identity as “Father” motivate Paul to humbly, boldly intercede for the Ephesians.

Paul makes two petitions of God the Father. First, he prays in verse 16 “that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being.” This request for power recalls 1:19, where Paul asked that believers might know “what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe.” In 3:13 Paul urged the Ephesians not to lose heart over his sufferings, and he now prays for God to meet this need by strengthening these believers inwardly by His power.² Second Corinthians 4:16 makes this connection explicit: “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.”

Verses 16–17 highlight the divine supply and purpose of the first petition. Paul asks for God to strengthen believers “according to the riches of his glory.” God’s glory is the expression of who He is in His holiness, splendor, and power. According to Ephesians 1:14, God does what He does “to the praise of his glory.” The apostle uses a similar phrase in Philippians 4:19 when he confidently declares, “My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” In short, Paul appeals to God’s limitless resources to fulfill his bold request.

Paul prays that believers may be strengthened by God’s power through the Spirit to the end that they may experience more of Christ’s presence by faith, “so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (v. 17). It is striking to observe the trinitarian shape of the apostle’s prayer that the Father may strengthen us inwardly by His Spirit, that Christ might dwell in our hearts through faith. Paul has in view not Christ’s initial indwelling at one’s conversion, but His continual, permanent residence with believers. Peter O’Brien explains, “The implication of the apostle’s prayer, then, is that the more the Spirit empowers their lives the greater will be their transformation into the likeness of Christ.”³

Let me illustrate Paul’s image of Christ dwelling in believers’ hearts. Let’s imagine several years ago you purchased your first house. You probably immediately began to make it your home. Repainted rooms, laid tile, ripped up old carpet, hung pictures and curtains, and moved in furniture. Then over time you might finish off the basement, build a deck, install new carpet, remodel the kitchen, and replace the furnace and various other things. A substantial amount of work would be done in every room and in every corner in your home.

When Christ takes up residence in the hearts of believers, He finds our inner lives to be a complete mess—vastly worse than your first home. Christ patiently gets to work cleaning up and transforming us so that we are characterized by His presence. In 1876 Jean Sophia Pigott wrote a poem that captures the truth of Ephesians 3:17:

Make my life a bright outshining

Of Thy life, that all may see

Thine own resurrection power

Mightily put forth in me.

Ever let my heart become

Yet more consciously Thy home.⁴

Paul makes his second petition in verses 17–19a: “that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.” As in verse 16, Paul prays for divine empowerment. Here he asks that we might have power to grasp the boundless breadths of Christ’s love.

Later in Ephesians 5:2 Paul appeals to self-giving love of Christ as the ethical standard for believers: “Walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” Romans 8:39 emphatically asserts that nothing “will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Children in Christian homes learn to sing from an early age, “Jesus loves me! this I know, / For the Bible tells me so.” God’s love in Christ is a foundational truth that Paul wants believers to be “rooted and established in” (v. 17, NIV), so that when trials and testing come, the church will not be “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine” (4:14). But knowing the love of Christ cannot be merely an intellectual exercise.

Paul asks God to empower believers to grasp the limitless love of Christ that they “may be filled with all the fullness of God” (v. 19). In Ephesians 1:23 Paul describes the church as “his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” Later in 4:13, he explains that God has given leaders to equip the church “until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (emphasis added). These parallels suggest that to be filled with God’s fullness is a theologically rich way of referring to full-orbed spiritual maturity. Genuine spiritual maturity is not equivalent to education, theological precision, years of experience, a position of leadership, or publishing books. Paul prays as he does because he is convinced that God must strengthen us to grasp more and more of the profound love of Christ and thereby grow up into spiritual maturity.

1. How does Paul refer to the triune God in Ephesians 3:14–21?
2. What do these verses tell us about the work of the God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit? Compare Ephesians 1:3–14.
3. What does Paul mean when he prays that believers “may be filled with all the fullness of God” (3:19)? Refer to Ephesians 1:23; 4:13.

20 To him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,

21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

In Ephesians 3:14–19 Paul humbly and boldly petitions God the Father to exercise His omnipotent power on behalf of the church, that they may experience the blessing of Christ’s presence by faith and grasp more of Christ’s limitless love so that they may be filled with God’s fullness. In verses 20–21 the apostle puts these extraordinary requests in proper perspective with a closing word of praise that stresses two themes: the power of God and the glory of God.

The New Testament includes many doxologies—brief declarations of praise to God in joyful response to His glorious and gracious work of salvation. These short words of praise often follow prayers, as in Ephesians 3:20-21, or conclude sections of letters, as in Romans 11:33-36 and 16:25-27. Doxologies typically have the following three parts: the one worthy of praise (“to God”), the word of praise (“glory”), and a reference to time (“for ever and ever”) and often conclude with “amen.”⁵ Elsewhere Paul directs such bursts of joyful worship “to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel … the only wise God” (Rom. 16:25,27, NIV), “to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God” (1 Tim. 1:17, NIV), and “to our God and Father” (Phil. 4:20, NIV).

Returning to Ephesians 3:20, notice first that Paul directs his praise “to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us.” The apostle has boldly asked God to empower believers that they may “know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge” and so “be filled with all the fullness of God.” Such divine blessings eclipse all our human categories, and so perhaps some sophisticated readers may be tempted to conclude that Paul is being overly optimistic or simply speaking rhetorically. However, Paul goes further and insists that we cannot request or even conceive of blessings that are beyond God’s ability to give His children.

The doxology continues Paul’s focus in Ephesians on God’s abundant power, which exceeds all other power. In 1:19 the apostle extolled “the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe,” the same power exerted in raising Jesus from the dead. In 3:7, Paul highlighted “the gift of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of his power.” Then he petitioned the Father to grant believers “to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being” (3:16). Now in verse 20 Paul declares that this same life-giving, knowledge-surpassing power of God, is “at work within us”—not only the apostle but all believers—to accomplish His purposes that vastly exceed what we could ask or even conceive of.

Verse 20 stresses the power of God, and verse 21 again highlights God’s glory. Paul has stressed that God carries out His full-orbed saving work—including election, predestination, redemption, forgiveness, revelation of His purposes, sealing by the Spirit, and guaranteeing our inheritance—for one purpose, repeated emphatically in 1:6,7, and 14: “to the praise of his glorious grace,” “in accordance with the riches of God’s grace,” “to the praise of his glory.” Thus, in his first prayer report in 1:17 the apostle addresses God as “the Father of glory” (ESV) or “the glorious Father” (NIV). The doxology in 3:21 brings this theme of divine glory to its fitting climax: “To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.” To give glory to God isn’t to add something to Him that He doesn’t already possess; rather, it’s an active recognition or celebration of who God is or what he has done. As the psalmist declares, “Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness” (Ps. 29:2).

The doxology of Ephesians 3 also confronts our sinful human tendency to usurp God’s rightful place in pursuit of our own glory. This God-centered word of praise forces us to examine even our motivation in prayer: Do we make our requests to God both with the immediate goal of receiving what we need and with the ultimate goal that God receive the glory due His name? The ultimate aim of Paul’s prayer is thus the same as God’s aim in everything He does, to ascribe glory to God, the Father of glory, “in the church and in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 3:21). Believers are blessed “in Christ” (Eph. 1:3), give thanks to God “in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph. 5:20), and here are summoned to join Paul in living for and declaring God’s supreme glory and majesty as Jesus Christ is exalted in Christians’ thoughts, speech, and conduct. Here, then, is how we shall reform our praying. We shall learn to pray with the apostle not only in his petitions but also in his words of praise, in his ultimate goal, in his profound God-centeredness.

1. What are the two key themes of the doxology in Ephesians 3:20–21?
2. How do these themes relate to Paul’s prayer in 3:14–19?
3. Honestly reflect on your public and private prayers over the past week: Is the ultimate goal of your petitions that God will be praised and glorified? What is one step you can take to make God’s glory the central concern of your life?

Two children are born in the same hospital on the same day, but their lives quickly take very different turns. One child, Joseph, is born to a single mother whose life is marked by substance abuse, financial instability, and a revolving door of relationships. The second child, James, is the first child of a godly Christian couple who have been married for 10 years. As Joseph grows up, he is neglected by his mother and verbally abused by her boyfriends. Alternatively, James grows up with an attentive, loving mother and father who provide for his every need. Joseph quickly learns not to ask for much from the authority figures in his life out of self-preservation, while James knows that his parents will hear and respond to his requests. The point of this analogy is simple: Our patterns of prayer reflect our basic understanding of God’s character, like a child’s requests reflect the character of his parents. If we are confident that God is our Heavenly Father who gives good gifts to His children, we will continually petition Him for whatever we need. The more we reflect on the kind of God who is there, the more we shall be encouraged to pray. Prayerlessness is often an index to our ignorance of God. Real and vital knowledge of God not only teaches us what to pray, but gives us powerful incentive to pray.

Warm Up

1. How did you learn to pray?
2. What have been the major influences on your prayer habits?

Show Session 7 Video

Group Discussion

Spend the next several minutes engaging the discussion questions below. Try to avoid simple, pat answers and challenge yourself and the group to dig deeper into the truths that Paul presents to us.

1. How do you typically address God in prayer?
2. How does Paul’s address to God in 3:14–15 inform or motivate what he prays for in the next verses? Compare Matthew 7:7–11.
3. In your own words, explain what Paul means when he prays “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith” (Eph. 3:17).
4. Ephesians 1:19 refers to “the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us whobelieve.” In 3:14–21 how does Paul ask God to exercise His power?
5. How do you typically assess your own or others’ Christian maturity?
6. According to Paul’s prayer, what is one fundamental way believers grow up into true spiritual maturity and are “filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:19)?

Pray for one another, using Ephesians 3:14–21 as a model.

Wrap Up

• Paul’s petitions flow directly from his understanding of God’s revealed character as “Father” and His saving work through Christ among the Ephesian believers (see Eph. 3:14–15).
• In Ephesians 3:16-19 Paul makes two central petitions to God the Father: first for inner strengthening by the Spirit, and second for the power to grasp the limitless love of Christ.
• Paul concludes his prayer in verses 20–21 with a word of God-centered praise that highlights God’s power and glory, which His people will celebrate forever.

Close in prayer, humbling yourselves before God and asking Him to strengthen you in your inner being and to empower you to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, all to the glory of God. Make time for the Take-Home assignment to enrich your experience with Paul’s prayers.

Paul prays that believers, “being rooted and grounded in love,” will “know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge” (Eph. 3:17,19). Look up the following verses in Paul’s letters that further explain how and why Jesus Christ loves His people: Romans 5:6–8; 8:35–39; 2 Corinthians 5:14–15; Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 5:2,25–27; 1 Timothy 1:13–15. Meditate, journal, and pray over these verses, asking God for strength to understand and experience afresh the magnificent love of Christ for you.

Even apostles need prayer. As Paul proclaimed the gospel to the nations, he saw lives transformed and churches planted but also encountered constant opposition, controversies, hardships, and setbacks. Having preached the gospel from Jerusalem to Illyricum, Paul planned to travel to Rome and then Spain to share the gospel with those who have never heard of Christ. But first he intended to risk his life and his reputation to return to Jerusalem, bringing a financial gift from Gentile churches to the impoverished Jewish believers. So in Romans 15 Paul exhorted fellow believers to intercede for him and his ministry.

In this session we’ll consider five important lessons from Paul’s request for intercession in Romans 15:30-33. This passage informs how we can strategically pray for pastors, missionaries, and other Christian leaders. Paul also offers us an important example of maintaining a broader, long-term ministry vision while requesting timely prayers for present ministry challenges.

In this video D. A. Carson discusses Romans 15:14-33, explaining the context of this passage in which Paul prays. Although Paul has hardship surrounding him, but God’s love in Christ motivates him as He struggles to pray.

14 I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.

15 But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, because of the grace given me by God

16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

17 In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God.

18 For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience— by word and deed,

19 by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ;

20 and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else’s foundation,

21 but as it is written, “Those who have never been told of him will see, and those who have never heard will understand.”

22 This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you.

23 But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and since I have longed for many years to come to you,

24 I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while.

25 At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints.

26 For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem.

27 For they were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings.

28 When therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will leave for Spain by way of you.

29 I know that when I come to you I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ.

30 I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf,

31 that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints,

32 so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company.

33 May the God of peace be with you all. Amen.

Thus far our study has focused on Paul’s prayers and priorities for the churches to which he writes. The apostle gives thanks constantly for evidences of divine grace at work in these believers. He intercedes for the saints that they might continue to bear spiritual fruit, abounding in faith, hope, and especially love. Paul prays that they might grow in their knowledge of God’s will and power and grasp the limitless love of Christ and that God might make them worthy of His calling and bring His work in their lives to completion. At the same time, we noted in session 1 that Paul’s rock solid conviction that God fulfills His purposes in response to the prayers of His people motivates the apostle not only to pray for the saints but also to urge them, “Brothers, pray for us” (1 Thess. 5:25).

Paul regularly asks believers to intercede for him and his ministry, as suggested by the following passages (emphasis added):

2 Corinthians 1:11 You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

Ephesians 6:16–20 In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.

Philippians 1:19 For I know that through your prayers and God’s provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ what has happened to me will turn out for my deliverance (NIV).

Colossians 4:2–4 Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.

2 Thessalonians 3:1–2 Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith.

Philemon 1:22 At the same time, prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping that through your prayers I will be graciously given to you.

Paul recognizes that if his dreams for effective ministry are to be realized, he must be utterly dependent on God’s help, which will come through the faithful and earnest prayers of many. This session focuses on Paul’s request for the church to pray for him and his ministry in Romans 15:30–33.

Paul appeals for intercession in Romans 15:30–33 after discussing his apostolic aims and specific travel plans. First, in Romans 15:14-21 Paul summarizes his goal to proclaim the gospel where Christ has not yet been named, in fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah 52:15. Next, in verses 22–24 Paul stresses that on his way to Spain he desires to spend time in Rome, which he has longed to do for many years. But first, he must travel to Jerusalem to bring the impoverished Jewish believers there a financial gift from their Gentile brothers and sisters in Macedonia and Achaia (see 15:25–27). The apostle then urges the church to pray for him (v. 30). He makes two specific requests (see v. 31), highlights his goal to visit Rome according to God’s will (see v. 32), and then prays that the God of peace may be with the community of believers in Rome (see v. 33).

Here we consider five important lessons from Paul’s appeal for intercession in Romans 15:30–33. First, in verse 30 Paul urges the believers in Rome to join him in his struggle through prayer: “I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf.” “To strive together with” (ESV) or “to join me in my struggle” (NIV) is translated a single Greek word (synagonisasthai) used only here in the New Testament. However, Paul uses similar expressions elsewhere to describe the earnest struggle and labor of Christian ministers. In Colossians 4:12 Paul writes that Epaphras is “always struggling on your behalf in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God.” Similarly, Paul informs the church that he struggles greatly on their behalf, referring to his ministry of prayer for these believers that he hasn’t yet met face to face (see Col. 2:1). Elsewhere this word group is associated with “toiling” and with the strenuous discipline of an athlete engaged in a great contest.¹ The sort of intercession that Paul undertakes himself and commends in others entails strenuous, disciplined, spiritual struggle. He explains in Ephesians 6:12 that “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” Thus, when Paul entreats the Romans “to strive together with me in your prayers,” he is urging them to join him in this supernatural conflict and to further his apostolic work through their vital work of intercession.

Second, Paul’s understanding of the triune God informs his appeal for the church’s prayers. The phrase “by our Lord Jesus Christ” in verse 30 “introduces the authority by which Paul makes his request.”² According to Romans 1:5–7, Paul’s apostolic call and mission come though Jesus Christ, and the believers to whom he writes belong to Jesus Christ and receive grace and peace from their Lord. In verse 30 Paul also makes his appeal “by the love of the Spirit.” Love among Christians is a key theme in Romans 12–15: “Let love be genuine.” “Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”³ Such sincere one-another love flows downstream from the headwaters of God’s love poured into believers’ hearts through the Holy Spirit and responds to Jesus’ perfect demonstration of divine love “while we were still sinners” (Rom. 5:8). Earlier in this study, we saw that Paul’s passionate love for people stems from his own profound experience of the love of Jesus (see Phil. 1:8) and motivates his constant intercession for others (see 1 Thess. 3:6–10). Here in Romans 15:30 Paul urges believers to pray “to God on my behalf” as an expression of their Spirit-motivated love in response to the saving work and supreme authority of the Lord Jesus.

Third, the apostle asks believers to intercede for him and his ministry in two specific ways: “that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints” (v. 31). The Book of Acts illustrates how Paul’s ministry in every city prompted resistance and opposition from unbelieving Jews and Gentiles.⁴ Some Jews opposed Paul because he proclaimed Jesus to be the Son of God, which they perceived to be theological heresy. Further, Paul’s message that Christ was the end of the law for all Jewish and Gentile believers threatened the Jews’ exclusive claims to be God’s distinct people marked by obedience to the Mosaic law. Alternatively, many Gentiles dismissed Paul’s gospel of Christ crucified and raised from the dead as strange and foolish, but they persecuted Paul because his teaching had significant political, religious, and social ramifications. The Christian message—that Jesus is Lord of all—challenged Caesar’s supreme authority, threatened traditional Roman worship customs, and thus upset the structure and equilibrium of Roman society. Thus, in Romans 15:31 Paul asks the church to pray for divine safety and deliverance from such opposition as he travels to Jerusalem to deliver a financial gift to the impoverished church from the saints in Greece. Paul isn’t pursuing a path of self-preservation and avoidance of suffering at all costs. Rather, he puts himself in harm’s way and appeals for prayer that God would rescue him from his opponents so that he might fulfill his ministry of love in Jerusalem.

Paul asks the Romans to pray that the collection he brings for the Jerusalem church might be “acceptable.” Though the key term “acceptable” is rarely used in the New Testament, it occurs in the previous passage at Romans 15:16, where Paul describes his calling “to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit” (emphasis added). The connection between verses 16 and 31 is significant. Because Gentile believers are “acceptable” to God and sanctified by the Spirit, Paul longs for the financial gift from the Gentile churches to be “acceptable” to the largely Jewish church in Jerusalem. The generous collection for Jerusalem illustrates the genuine love of Gentile believers for their Jewish brothers and sisters and the unity of God’s people in Christ, across ethnic and geographic barriers.

Fourth, Paul requests prayer for present, specific challenges and opportunities, with the broader goal of further ministry. This is the implication of the purpose clause in verse 32: “so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company” (emphasis added). The apostle again asserts his intention to visit Rome, while submitting his plans to the will of God. We see here a large, visionary view of prayer. Paul requests intercession for present challenges (in Jerusalem), while constantly dreaming and planning for new opportunities to encourage the saints (in Rome) and to bring the gospel to places that do not know the name of Christ (in Spain).

Fifth, the Book of Acts illustrates how God answered these prayer requests, but not as Paul or the Roman believers expected. Paul did travel to Jerusalem, and the church apparently received the offerings presented by Paul (see Acts 24:17). But while Paul was in Jerusalem, a violent Jewish mob seized him and dragged him from the temple, beat him, and tried to kill him, before Roman soldiers intervened (see Acts 21:27–33). Paul finally reaches Rome in Acts 28:16, but only after enduring numerous dangers, detours, and delays. After waiting for two years in prison in Caesarea on false charges leveled by Jewish adversaries, Paul heads for Rome only when he appeals to Caesar for justice. On the way he experiences substantial travel setbacks and a shipwreck. Again and again God protected and preserved Paul’s life no matter how fierce the opposition was or how great the challenges. Thus, the apostle declared that “the Lord rescued me” (2 Tim. 3:11) from every persecution and “to this day I have had the help that comes from God” (Acts 26:22).

After appealing to the believers to intercede for him and his ministry, Paul offers a closing benediction for church in Rome in verse 33: “May the God of peace be with you all. Amen.” Paul refers to “the God of peace” three other times in his letters (emphasis added):

Romans 16:20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Philippians 4:9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In Romans this divine title recalls 5:1, where Paul celebrates the peace with God that results from justification by faith. In 14:17,19 he explains that “righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” are essential features of God’s kingdom and then exhorts Christians in Rome to “pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.” So God makes peace with sinners justified and reconciled through the blood of Jesus, and then God’s ongoing presence by the Spirit begins to produce harmony between Christians from different backgrounds (Jews and Gentiles) with different convictions (strong and weak).

Paul’s specific request for intercession has clear implications for how we might pray for pastors, missionaries, and other Christian leaders. First, we should ask God to preserve and protect Christian leaders from outsiders who oppose and threaten their ministries. Opposition, harassment, and overt persecution constantly threaten missionaries who labor in parts of the world with very few Christians. Sometimes this opposition or resistance is very subtle, taking the form of denied visa applications or work permits or restrictive laws. Other times, Christians in these places are faced with false accusations, smear campaigns, violent threats, vandalism to property, kidnapping, beating, imprisonment, or worse. In the West faithful Christian leaders may be subjected to vitriolic media attacks or be maligned for their intolerant, narrow-minded, or bigoted positions. Such pressure now comes not merely from the secular media and political arena, which we should expect to be hostile to the things of God. Alas, even leaders of established church denominations oppose sound doctrine and sound gospel preaching, as they adopt an intolerant version of tolerance and stress cultural conformity over biblical orthodoxy. As Paul warned the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:30, “From among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things, to draw away the disciples after them.” Thus, believers should pray that God might protect, preserve, and deliver faithful Christian leaders from opposition and threats that seek to hinder faithful gospel ministry.

Second, we should pray that believers might accept and benefit from the service of pastors, missionaries, and others who labor for God’s kingdom. Hebrews 13:17 calls Christians to, “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.” Unfortunately, some Christians evaluate their pastors and leaders according to unbiblical standards—say, desiring sermons that entertain and encourage but that do not urge repentance and holy living. Others compare their pastor’s sermons with those of well-known, exceptionally gifted preachers who write books, speak at conferences, and top the charts for podcast downloads. We need to pray that God will send us under shepherds who are wise, spiritual, godly, disciplined, informed, prayerful, and faithful to Scripture. But we also need to pray that their ministry will be acceptable to the saints. It is an enormous tragedy when there are too few faithful, anointed, visionary leaders; it is a terrible indictment on the church when those the Lord sends are treated like dirt. This is a lamentable situation, and we should respond by praying that God would make the ministry of His most faithful, spiritual Christian workers acceptable to the churches they serve.

1. Review the following passages where Paul asks for prayer from the churches: Romans 15:30-32; 2 Corinthians 1:11; Ephesians 6:16–20; Philippians 1:19; Colossians 4:2–4; 2 Thessalonians 3:1–2. What specific prayer concerns does Paul mention?
2. What prayer requests do you typically offer in small groups or prayer meetings?
3. How do these requests compare with Paul’s list of prayer concerns in the passages listed?

The English pastor Andrew Fuller helped found the Baptist Missionary Society in 1792, and for 21 years he tirelessly led this organization that mobilized and supported missionaries to advance the cause of Christ in new, unreached areas. The following year, the society’s first missionary William Carey left everything to travel to India with Dr. John Thomas in dependence on God and on the prayers of committed friends. Before departure, he told Fuller and others:

Our undertaking to India really appeared to me, on its commencement, to be somewhat like a few men, who were deliberating about the importance of penetrating into a deep mine, which had never before been explored, we had no one to guide us; and while we were thus deliberating, Carey, as it were, said, “Well, I will go down, if you will hold the rope.”⁵

William Carey’s departure to India was a key turning point in the Protestant missions effort and would not have been possible without Christians who committed to “hold the ropes” for Carey and other pioneer missionaries. Fuller kept hold of Carey’s rope through faithful support and intercession, persevering through significant personal suffering, doctrinal controversies, and overwhelming ministry responsibilities.

Similarly, Paul frequently asked believers to support him in his apostolic work of establishing and strengthening churches by joining his struggle through their prayers. Romans 15:30-33 challenges us to consider the strategic importance of earnest, intentional, spiritual intercessory prayer support for the sake of gospel ministry.

Warm Up

1. Paul appeals to the church to strive with him in their prayers (v. 30), and in Colossians 4:12 he describes Epaphras struggling in prayer for the church. What do these passages tell us about the nature of intercessory prayer?
2. What obstacles keep us from praying this way for others?

Show Session 8 Video

Group Discussion

Spend the next several minutes engaging the discussion questions that follow. Try to avoid simple, pat answers and challenge yourself and the group to dig deeper into the truths that Paul presents to us.

1. What motivation and direction does Paul offer believers to strengthen our intercessory praying for those engaged in gospel ministry?
2. How does Paul’s understanding of the triune God shape prayer requests and his closing benediction in Romans 15:30–33?
3. What specific prayer requests does Paul make in Romans 15:30–32?
4. How does God answer these prayers in unexpected ways in Acts 21–28?
5. What specific challenges are leaders in your church and missionaries you know currently facing? How does Romans 15:30–33 (and Paul’s other requests for prayer) inform how you might strive with them in prayer?

Wrap Up

• Paul urges believers to struggle with him in intercessory prayer for his apostolic ministry, as an expression of their Spirit-motivated love and in response to Jesus’ saving work and supreme authority.
• Paul requests prayer as he travels to Jerusalem with the financial collection from the Gentile churches, asking for protection from opponents and for his ministry of love to be acceptable to Jewish believers.
• While Paul appeals for prayer support for present ministry challenges in Jerusalem, he maintains a broader ministry vision and makes plans to encourage Christians in Rome and to proclaim the gospel in places like Spain where Christ is not yet named.

Close by praying for pastors and leaders in your churches and for specific missionaries you know. Ask God to protect and deliver them from opponents, to grant them effective and acceptable ministry, and to give them fresh, broad vision for future Christian service.

This week write a note of encouragement to a pastor or missionary you know. Share with this leader some specific things you have learned from your study of Paul’s prayers that have been challenged and deepened your own prayer life. Begin regularly interceding for his or her ministry, using Romans 15:30–33 as a model, and ask for specific prayer requests.