Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.
Phil 4:6-7
Don’t worry about anything;
instead, pray about everything.
Tell God what you need,
and thank him for all he has done.
You will remember I am sure that I have given you two propositional analyses of this passage in the Gems. Just what are you up to Ian?
- You thought Propositional Analysis was a scientific, grammatical ,almost mathematical approach, where there is only one answer, or only one way to divide the passage.
- I have noticed these two verses can be read two different ways.
- I have explained already: “If you want to compare the differences, simply open my website twice in two different windows, with each contrasting PA.”
The simple reason for the complexity is Paul and the way he writes or speaks. There is debate among the commentators and Greek experts as to what is meant here. The Greek is a little complicated:
μηδὲν μεριμνᾶτε, ἀλλ᾿ ἐν παντὶ τῇ προσευχῇ καὶ τῇ δεήσει μετὰ εὐχαριστίας τὰ αἰτήματα ὑμῶν γνωριζέσθω πρὸς τὸν Θεόν.
{no thing} {be anxious} but in everything the prayer and the petition with thanks the requests {of you} {make known} to the God.
The elements above could be verbal or they could be a string of nouns relating to prayer. In other words, Paul’s intention could have been to contrast these words as I told you in the last Gem or he could have meant something different or even been playing with words and meant a combination of the two. To really understand what Paul meant you will have to ask him. But in order to do that you will have to join him where he is and not vice versa. Although I can never rule out the supernatural with God. In which case if that happens I insist on you calling me and telling me Paul is with you. I have some other questions I would like to talk about with him.
- Some commentators see the “in everything” above as referring to situations we face which we then commit to prayer.
- Other commentators see the “in everything” referring to the kinds of prayer that we pray.
If so, then it mirrors the notion of what Paul wrote in Ephesians 6.
as you pray at all times, with all kinds of prayers and requests, in the Spirit, vigilantly and persistently, for all God’s people. (Complete Jewish Bible)
Eph 6:18
I attempted to align Paul’s thoughts in the propositional analysis above on this string but it is difficult to do because not all translations allow for the possibility because the words have been translated as verbs. However there is a sense in which the words can be understood as nouns. In which case we end up with a listing of types of prayer. If that is the case then there is another way of looking at this passage which we will deal with in the next Gem. Hey don’t blame me for the complexity. Blame Paul or blame God, and I would suggest the latter is not an option.
All that to say we appear to have a string of types of prayer.
- Proseuchē – Prayer
- Deēsis – Supplication
- Eucharistia – Thanksgiving
- Aitēma – Requests
Proseuchē
This is the standard word used for prayer in the New Testament. It occurs 127 times in the New Testament in all of its forms. The basic idea is us talking to God by conversing with Him. Many have looked at it over the years as being in conversation with God. (e.g. Rosalind Rinker and Mark Virkler). Us talking to God and making known our matters of concern. For many of us, that is all prayer is – us talking to God. But sadly we don’t stop to listen for God’s response. What it ends up being is us speaking in a soliloquy (a Shakespearean term for a long speech made by one person in a play) and no one else gets a word in.
Those of you who know me, know I have an amusing way of both presenting that idea or an effective way to get a word in edge wise if need be. Ask me about it if you wish.
The point in brief, is Prayer is talking with God. But the word proseuchē is made up of two parts. Pros and euchē. Pros has the idea “to be with” as in “in the beginning the Word was with God”. It is a preposition which means “toward” but indicates closeness, to be face to face with, up close, in intimate contact with someone. Euchē is an old Greek word which means “desire”, “wish”, “to make a vow”, or even as a substitute for “prayer”. You could regard it as a synonym for prayer but at the heart of the word is the common Greek word for prayer. It originally had the sense of someone who had made a vow to God as a result of a strong desire in their life. This person would make a vow to God in exchange for something they wanted in return. “If you do X, I will do Y.”
Deēsis
This is the word for “supplication” found in the ACTS mnemonic. Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication. The idea of Supplication is our requests poured out normally on behalf of others, not ourselves. The basic sense of the word is a desire, need or lack which prompts a person to ask, beg or plead with someone else who can meet that need. The sense is there is a willingness to subjugate one’s self or one’s pride and humbly ask, request, beg, beseech the other to give heed to your need or better yet the needs of another. There is a degree of passion or earnestness involved which is emotive, an impassioned plea. Deēsis is the word used in James 5:16 which is translated as “the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man”. I am sure you are getting the idea.
Eucharistia
This is the standard word for “thanksgiving” in Greek. It too is a compound made up of eu and charis. Eu is the Greek word for “good” or “well” as in ‘well being’. The idea is to be in a good state of mind, feeling good about something, indicating a good general disposition toward life and your mental state. The word charis is the standard Greek word for ‘grace’. The outpouring of goodness and benefit, a response to someone which is both benevolent, well-meaning or well-intentioned and given without merit or sense of being deserved. i.e. it is not wages or recompense which has been earned. It is a totally benevolent act intended to bless or bestow happiness on the recipient. But it goes without saying that the response in the receiver to such a well intentioned act is one of thankfulness, deserving of gratitude and a corresponding feeling of good will to the one who initiated the feeling.
The act of thankfulness takes on a different meaning when set in the context of our responses to God when given His constant well-intentioned grace toward us, we come to expect such benevolent acts. In human terms we can come to take for granted the person who is constantly doing something good for us. Where this response relates to God it can descend into “taking God’s favour for granted” but it should trigger faith and understanding that because God is love, his response will always involve our good and not our harm.
Enough said.
Aitēma
This word comes from the common Greek verb [aiteo] ‘to ask‘ or ‘to ask for something’. What is interesting in this case where Paul uses the word here in his letter to the Philippians is the fact that it is the one time he uses it as a noun and not a verb. In fact if I am not wrong and I have checked my Greek Concordance (Moulton) which bears this out, it is the only such usage in the New Testament of this word in this way. It is almost like we could call it our “askings”. Yes a better word is requests, but that masks the specific use of the word here. It is used also in Luke 23:24 and in 1 John 5:15 but those two references are both verbal uses, unlike this one.
Allow me to place the emphasis on the use of this word here in the right place. This is the normal word (verb) for “ask”. Our requests of any and every sort. It is not a religious term emphasising our humble requests to God where we must come with due humility and a sense of being unworthy. No, it is a perfectly normal word to use in Greek for asking for something. Let me add further explanation here to ensure you get the correct sense of this word. Aitema (our askings or our requests) are perfectly normal in the context in which they are made. Allow me to combine proseuchē and aitēma together. If the former is the natural process of intimacy with Our Father in Heaven then our requests are also the natural process of our asking our Heavenly Father for something.
Allow me to repeat what I heard years ago and it has always stuck in my mind. I can’t remember Who said it, but I remember clearly what was said. It is like us going to Queen Elizabeth with a request. If it were you and I, there would be a mammoth amount of state protocol before we could even approach the throne. Once there, we would have to bow or curtsey in the appropriate way with the appropriate degree of bending the knee in order to indicate our sufficient state of humility. But then imagine a young Charles, or a younger William coming in and running up to his mother in the first case, or his grandmother in the second case, and the child being so well received; it would all be so perfectly natural.
Now you have the idea of aitēma.
I will develop this further in the next Gem. It’s time to stop now.