PRESSING TOWARD THE MARK
1. Fight for God by praying with all kinds of prayer.
Verse 18 is strictly speaking not a command, but two participles, praying and staying alert, which are dependent on the imperative stand at the beginning of verse 14 (F. F. Bruce, The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians [Eerdmans], p. 411). So the idea is, “Stand firm by praying and by staying alert.”
Paul often links the two words translated prayer and petition. For example, in Philippians 4:6 he writes, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” (Supplication translates the same Greek word behind petition. Also, see 1 Timothy 2:1, where entreaties translates the same Greek word.) It is difficult to draw any clear distinction between the words, except to say that prayer is perhaps the more general word, whereas petition may refer to prayer for particular benefits (R. C. Trench, Synonyms of the New Testament [Eerdmans], p. 189). In our text, the effect of Paul’s piling up these synonyms for prayer (petition is repeated twice), along with the participle, praying, is to emphasize the priority of prayer in spiritual warfare and perhaps also the fact that there are different kinds of prayer that we are to use in the battle.
The Lord’s Prayer gives us a helpful outline of different kinds of prayer. “Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name” (Matt. 6:9), points us toward worship as we pray for God’s glory. “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10) points to prayer for missions, evangelism, and discipleship. “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matt. 6:11), is prayer for our personal needs. “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matt. 6:12), is confession of sins and prayer for our relationships. “Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil” (Matt. 6:13) is prayer for holiness, both for others and for ourselves. The prayers in the Psalms and in other Scriptures may give us other types of prayer. But Paul’s point is that we fight for God against the enemy as we use all types of prayer.