Word Live: Grace From Afar
If you were a prisoner writing to friends, what would you request prayer for?
Bible passage
Ephesians 6:19–24
19 Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.
Final greetings
21 Tychicus, the dear brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will tell you everything, so that you also may know how I am and what I am doing. 22 I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage you.
23 Peace to the brothers and sisters, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.
Holy Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Explore
Verses 19,20. Paul’s prayer request is consistent with what he has been writing about. If God’s kingdom purposes are supreme, then it goes without saying that explaining those purposes to the world should be paramount. Why is Paul especially concerned here with fearless declaration (see also Colossians 4:1–4)? And what about the meaning of ‘mystery’ (see Ephesians 3:6 and the note for 7 August). What do you think Paul means by being ‘an ambassador’? Notice how he ties this role of great status and honour with the dishonour of being ‘in chains’.
After decades of public speaking, I rarely get nervous now. What does give me the jitters is when I know a message is controversial or unpopular. That is when I need courage. As Nelson Mandela wrote: ‘The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.’* To which Paul might add, it is the power of the Lord that makes this truly possible.
Verses 21–23. As ever, Paul’s conclusion reinforces a point from his letter. Intriguingly these words are almost identical to those in Colossians 4:7,8. Through his dear friend, Tychicus, the Ephesians will be reassured about Paul. He truly has peace – with God, his circumstances, his ministry – despite his imprisonment. He wants them to know the same grace.
*Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: the autobiography of Nelson Mandela, Little Brown & Co, 1994
Author
Mark Meynell
Respond
Think through your calendar for the coming week or month. Are there events that particularly demand God’s strength? Start praying now!
Deeper Bible study
‘Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers … will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus’.1
These are Paul’s final words. Tychicus, one of Paul’s companions in Asia Minor,2 carried the first copy of the letter to the first of its destinations. The fact that Paul had previously sent Tychicus to Ephesus3 may account for the tradition that this letter was written to Ephesus, but here, in this brief final greeting, Paul names no one in Ephesus and, as we have seen earlier, hoped the readers understood his special calling as an apostle.4 Paul describes himself as an ‘ambassador in chains’ (v 20), a striking paradox, since he could travel only in spirit. Paul asks for prayer for them first and then for himself, that even on death row he may have the courage to witness to the gospel. If Paul had not been executed before Tychicus took his letter around the scattered Christian communities, he probably was by the time the letter reached them.
Because of the circumstances of this letter, which include that it does not address the people and problems of a particular church, there is a certain timelessness about it. It speaks to all Christians everywhere, in all places and times, even in today’s remote and unimagined future. God’s people, thought into being before the world began, are the children of the one Father, redeemed for God by the death and rising of his Son. This immense truth surpasses all circumstances, no matter if we face persecution, death or martyrdom. However, there are consequences for how, as God’s children, we live in the world. We must live with transformed minds.
Paul’s final prayer for all Christians is that God’s grace will always be with us and that our love for Christ will never die throughout all the ages to come.
‘The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with [us] all’, now and always.5
1Rom 8:38,39 2Acts 20:4 32 Tim 4:12 4Eph 3:2,3 52 Cor 13:14 (alt)
Author
John Harris
