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"But that ye also may know my affairs" (ta kata eme, balancing in the first prayer
ten kath humos pistin), "and how I do, Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful
minister in the Lord, shall make known to you all things, whom I have sent unto you for
the same purpose, that ye might know our affairs, and that he might comfort your hearts"
(Eph. 6: 21-22).
In this passage we meet once more the two words for "know", oida and ginosko:
"In order that you may perceive the things according to me (my affairs), and what I
am doing."
"In order that you may know the things concerning me" (peri, around me, my
circumstances)."
What were Paul's affairs, doings, circumstances? We can only surmise in the light of
his epistles and the close of the Acts, from which we get some idea of the facts of his
imprisonment. The more we know of the conditions of prison life at that time, the more
urgent does Paul's need appear. Yet let us observe that before sending Tychicus to tell
them all his affairs, Paul had already limited the prayers of the Lord's people on his
behalf. He does not ask them to pray for his deliverance. Why? He was the prisoner of
the Lord, and such a prayer would therefore express dissatisfaction with his position and
consequent disloyalty to his Lord. Why does he not ask for assistance that his lot might
be made more tolerable? It was because of what he had already told the Philippians when
he said that he had learned a quieting and steadying lesson that made such prayers
superfluous.
"I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, to be independent. I know both how to be
abased, and I know how to abound; everywhere and in all things I am instructed to be
full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through
Christ which strengtheneth me" (Phil. 4: 11-13).
But if Paul asks prayer neither for deliverance, nor amelioration of his prison lot, for
what will he ask? The answer is that his great concern was his own faithfulness to the
ministry which God had given him.
He asked for "utterance", logos; he asked that he might open his mouth "boldly", his
great desire being "to make known the mystery of the gospel". He was a prisoner. Yes,
but that fact impinged upon his very ministry and their prayers. The only place that Paul
would allow his imprisonment to have in the prayers of the saints on his behalf was that
he might be enabled to live in full accord with its meaning and import.
"The mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds."
His language here is a glorious testimony to the power of faith. Where we might have
said "prisoner" he says "ambassador", and who would ask the prayers of the saints that
the Lord's ambassador be dismissed?
Here, then, is a third purpose of prayer. Prayer was not to be used to accomplish
deliverance from prison or soften its austerities, but rather to enable the servant of Christ
to triumph over them, and make them subserve the Lord's will and purpose.