"19 and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.
21 So that you also may know how I am and what I am doing, Tychicus the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord will tell you everything. 22 I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage your hearts.
23 Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 24 Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible."
Ephesians 6:19-24
The third thing Paul says about prayer is to ask the Ephesians' prayers 'for me' (19). This is not an evidence of Paul's selfishness, or an indication that he thinks that his battles are more important than theirs. Rather, he is coveting their prayers because he is in the forefront of the battle. 'Here is the spearhead', he means, and 'I am out there preaching the gospel. Stand with me in the battle, let us fight together, and pray that I may have utterance in the preaching of that gospel'. And after twenty centuries, this is still the only effectual way for gospel work to be done. God give us all grace to see that this is the real and true participation for God's people in His work in the world.
The closing verses of the epistle contain a good deal of teaching for us and there are three main points which call for comment. The first of these is what Paul calls 'utterance' (19). What does he mean by this? He is not asking them to pray that he might have 'eloquence in preaching' or facility and felicity in words. Rather, what he has in mind is the kind of utterance that is fraught with spiritual power and that does things, changing lives and breaking the power of sin. What the Apostle says in 1 Corinthians 2:4, 'My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power' is a good example of what is meant by the word 'utterance'. In older days, the way it was described was to say that a man's preaching had an unction upon it - a word that simply means an anointing. Years ago, a booklet from the pen of a man called E.M. Bounds, with the title 'Power through Prayer', spoke of unction as
'the indefinable in preaching which makes it preaching. It is that which distinguishes and separates preaching from all mere human addresses. It is the divine in preaching. This unction vitalises God's revealed truth, makes it living and life-giving. Even God's truth spoken without this unction is light, dead and deadening. Though abounding in truth, though weighty with thought, though sparkling with rhetoric, though pointed by logic, though powerful by earnestness, without this divine unction it issues in death and not in life.'
That is a solemn and challenging statement for every preacher of the Word, and one that we can never ever take for granted.