Pray for All Believers in Christ, including any brought to mind

Ephesians 6:17-18 commands us, together, to do something both for ourselves and to and for each other. If I am praying for every believer close to me and every believer to which my concern is drawn, and I am listening to the Spirit and praying in the Spirit for every believer who comes to mind, I will have done my part. The Spirit will also be guiding other believers in my world, who will be praying for the people I missed and for me. My part is to listen and pray as directed and to not omit or refuse to pray for anyone God places before me or on my mind.

Now I recognize that I am about to discuss a single verse–itself only the last half of a sentence–out of context. The next four installments will build the context for the verse.

But, before starting the rest of the passage, I want to call attention to three things in verse 18.

First, notice all of the “alls” in this verse:

Ephesians 6:18 (WEB)

Whatever the action of this verse is, it is to be done while praying with all prayer and requests for all believers. This prayer–part of another activity not named in this verse–is at all times to be prayer in the Spirit–not in our earthly wisdom or understanding–and is not to be given up when it seems not to be working, but is to have all endurance. It should continue in the Spirit no matter what else happens.

Second, in this half sentence there is no inflected verb–no verb form that says that someone or something is, was, may or should be doing, saying or being something. Instead, there are only present participles (they end in ‘-ing’ in English) describing how the action from the first half of the sentence should be done. The inflected verb in the sentence is found in verse 17, which I will discuss later, and it is an imperative. In this passage it is often translated as a command to “take up” or “pick up” some pieces of armor, but its underlying meaning is merely to receive or to welcome. We are being commanded to receive and welcome these pieces of armor, and to do so in the way described by verse 18–that is, with all prayer and perseverance, praying for all believers attentively in the Spirit.

Finally, I note that all of the verb forms addressed to us in Ephesians 6:11-18, including the present participles in verse 18, are plurals. The inflected verb in verse 17, which governs verse 18, is in the second person plural. Its command to receive and welcome the armor given is not addressed to us individually (just “you” singular), but to all of us together (“you all”). The things we are commanded to do, we are commanded to do both for ourselves and to and for each other. This is particularly obvious in verse 18–which speaks of all of us (together) praying for all believers–that is, all of us praying for all of us.

This does not mean, of course, that I must remember the name of every other believer presently alive on earth, so that I can pray for them. This apparent problem is one of the things that makes it so important that all of us pray and rely on the Holy Spirit when we pray. If I am praying for every believer close to me and every believer to which my concern is drawn, and I am listening to the Spirit and praying for every believer who comes to mind, praying for all of these as the Spirit directs, I will have done my part. The Spirit will also be guiding other believers in my world, who will be praying for the people I missed and for me. We will cover each other’s backs. Then we, together, will be praying for all believers, as this verse anticipates.

My part is to listen and pray as directed and to not omit or refuse to pray for anyone God places before me or on my mind, not to remember everyone. God has us covered!

Email me: Ian Johnson.