STRIVE TOGETHER WITH ME IN YOUR PRAYERS TO GOD FOR ME

Paul regularly asked his readers to pray for him.

These requests were never casual or formal. They were detailed and earnest, e.g., 2 Cor. 1. 11; Eph. 6. 19; Col. 4. 3; 1 Thess. 5. 25; 2 Thess. 3. 1. The Ephesian example is especially impressive, ‘that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel’. His concern was not for the opening of the prison door, but for the opening of his mouth in witness! Mighty Apostle though he was, he never felt that he could manage without the prayers of his fellow saints.

Our passage begins, ‘Now I beseech you, brethren’, which can be rendered, ‘I implore you’. He strengthens his appeal by adding, ‘for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake’. He wants the Lord to be glorified through the answers to the Romans’ prayers. He goes on, ‘and for the love of the Spirit’, which probably means the love the Spirit kindles in believers, cp. ‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love’, Gal. 5. 22. Such love motivates prayer for others.

In our text Paul urges his readers to ‘strive together with me in your prayers to God for me’. He wants them to join him in his struggle. This is the language of conflict. LEON MORRIS quotes E. STAUFFER, ‘“The form of the battle is prayer. In prayer there is achieved unity between the will of God and that of man, between human struggling and action and effective divine operation In prayer one man becomes the representative of the other, so that there is here opened up the possibility of one standing in the breach for all, and all for one’ (TDNT, I, p. 139)“.¹

Paul knew that in approaching Jerusalem he was likely to encounter many Jewish enemies. He gave his readers three vital prayer topics: (1) deliverance form his unbelieving enemies in Judaea; (2) acceptance by the saints of the financial gift he brought from the Gentile believers; and (3) an unimpeded journey to Rome with the opportunity for fellowship with the Roman believers. These prayers were granted ultimately, though the answers were not all predictable. They rarely are!

¹

L. MORRIS, The Epistle to the Romans, W. B. Eerdmans.