Ephesians 1:16

Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(16) Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers.—Almost all St. Paul’s Epistles are introduced by this union of thanksgiving and prayer, which is, indeed, characteristic of the right harmony of all Christian worship. (See Romans 1:8-9; Philippians 1:3-4; Colossians 1:3-4; 1Thessalonians 1:2-3; 2Timothy 1:3; Philemon 1:4.) In the Galatian Epistle the omission of both is characteristic; in the two Epistles to the Corinthians thanksgiving alone is explicit, though prayer may be implied. But the proportion of the two elements varies. Here the thanksgiving has already been offered, although in the widest generality. Accordingly all that follows is prayer. In the parallel Colossian Epistle (Colossians 1:3-13), which has no corresponding preface of thanksgiving, both elements are co-ordinate, with perhaps a slight predominance of thanksgiving.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

1:15-23 God has laid up spiritual blessings for us in his Son the Lord Jesus; but requires us to draw them out and fetch them in by prayer. Even the best Christians need to be prayed for: and while we hear of the welfare of Christian friends, we should pray for them. Even true believers greatly want heavenly wisdom. Are not the best of us unwilling to come under God's yoke, though there is no other way to find rest for the soul? Do we not for a little pleasure often part with our peace? And if we dispute less, and prayed more with and for each other, we should daily see more and more what is the hope of our calling, and the riches of the Divine glory in this inheritance. It is desirable to feel the mighty power of Divine grace, beginning and carrying on the work of faith in our souls. But it is difficult to bring a soul to believe fully in Christ, and to venture its all, and the hope of eternal life, upon his righteousness. Nothing less than Almighty power will work this in us. Here is signified that it is Christ the Saviour, who supplies all the necessities of those who trust in him, and gives them all blessings in the richest abundance. And by being partakers of Christ himself, we come to be filled with the fulness of grace and glory in him. How then do those forget themselves who seek for righteousness out of him! This teaches us to come to Christ. And did we know what we are called to, and what we might find in him, surely we should come and be suitors to him. When feeling our weakness and the power of our enemies, we most perceive the greatness of that mighty power which effects the conversion of the believer, and is engaged to perfect his salvation. Surely this will constrain us by love to live to our Redeemer's glory.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Cease not to give thanks for you - In the prosperity of the church at Ephesus he could not but feel the deepest interest, and their welfare he never forgot.

Making mention of you in my prayers - Paul was far distant from them, and expected to see them no more. But he had faith in prayer, and he sought that they might advance in knowledge and in grace. What was the particular subject of his prayers, he mentions in the following verses.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

16. (Col 1:9).

of you—omitted in the oldest manuscripts. Then the translation may be as English Version still, or as Alford, "making mention of them" (your "faith and love").

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Cease not to give thanks for you; for your faith and love, and all the spiritual blessings God hath bestowed upon you.

Making mention of you in my prayers; I not only acknowledge what ye have received, but pray that what is yet lacking in you may be made up.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Cease not to give thanks for you,.... On account of their faith and love; which were gifts of grace bestowed upon them, and not the produce of their own free will and power; and therefore thanks are given to God for them:

making mention of you in my prayers; which shows the apostle to be a praying person, and that he was constant at the throne of grace, where he prayed for others as well as for himself; and it points out the time and way, when, and in which he gave thanks to God for them; and is mentioned, not only to testify his great affection for them, but also to excite them, by his example, to the practice of those duties themselves.

Geneva Study Bible

Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Ephesians 1:16. Οὐ πσύομαι] a popular form of hyperbole. My thanksgiving—so full and urgent is it—can find no end. Comp. 1 Thessalonians 1:2; Luke 2:37; Herod, vii. 107: τοῦτον δὲ αἰνέων οὐκ ἐπαύετο.

εὐχαριστῶν ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν] to give thanks on your account. On the participle, see Herm. ad Viger. p. 771; Bernhardy, p. 477; and on ὑπέρ (super vobis), comp. Ephesians 5:20; Romans 1:8, Elz.; 1 Timothy 2:1.

μνείαν ποιούμενος ἐπὶ τῶν προσευχ. μου] accompanying definition to εὐχαριστῶν: while I make mention in my prayers. Comp. Romans 1:9; 1 Thessalonians 1:2; Php 1:3; Philemon 1:4. What Paul makes mention of is learned from the context, which furnishes not merely ὑμῶν (Elz.; see the critical remarks), but a more precise definition, namely: of what he has heard concerning the faith and love of the readers, and for which he gives thanks on their account. This μνείαν ποιούμενος κ.τ.λ., however, is not superfluous, and after εὐχαρ. ὑπὲρ ὑμ. self-evident; but it serves, through the close joining on to it of the following ἵνα κ. τ. λ. (after Ephesians 1:16 only a comma is to be placed), as a means of leading over from the thanksgiving to the intercession connected with it, and is thereby accounted for.

ἐπί] of the prevailing relations and circumstances, in or under which anything takes place. See on Romans 1:10.

Expositor's Greek Testament

Ephesians 1:16. οὐ παύομαι εὐχαριστῶν ὑπὲρ ὑμῶν: cease not to give thanks for you. The παύομαι is most naturally connected with the nearer participle. There is no reason why the remoter participle should be made the leading term, as some construe it, rendering it so—“I cease not, while giving thanks for you, to make mention,” etc. (Abbott). The verb εὐχαριστεῖν, which is used in later Greek both in the sense of feeling thankful and in that of giving thanks, occurs in none of the NT Epistles except in that bearing Paul’s name. In these it is found some twenty-six times. It also appears once in Revelation, twice in Acts, and more frequently in the Gospels.—μνείαν ὑμῶν ποιούμενος: making mention of you. Documentary evidence is against the insertion of ὑμῶν. Though it is supported by considerable authorities ([88] [89] [90] [91], Vulg., Syr., Boh., Orig., etc.), it has no place in [92] [93] [94] [95]1, etc., and is omitted by LTTrWH and the Revisers. The subject of the μνεία, therefore, must be understood. It may be ὑμῶν, or it may rather be the preceding πίστιν and ἀγάπην. In the phrase μνείαν ποιεῖσθαι the noun seems to have the sense of mention. In other connections it has the sense of mindfulness (μνείαν ἔχειν τινός, 1 Thessalonians 3:6) or that of remembrance (Php 1:3).—ἐπὶ τῶν προσευχῶν μου: in my prayers, On ἐπί as here = in see Blass, Gram. of N. T. Greek, p. 137; Win.-Moult., p. 470; Bernh., Synt., p. 246. The local reference proper to ἐπί (as the preposition answering the question Where?), however, is not wholly sunk in the temporal sense. See Ell. on 1 Thessalonians 1:2. Winer takes it to express the idea of something attaching itself to something else. The word for prayer used here is one of frequent occurrence in the NT, sometimes joined with δέησις (e.g., Ephesians 6:18; Php 4:6, etc.), and sometimes with ἔντευξις as well (1 Timothy 2:1). The most general term is προσευχή = precatio, and that term is not used but of prayer to God. Δέησις, which can be used also of addresses to men, has the more definite sense of petitio, rogatio; while ἔντευξις, which means a falling in with, conference, conversation, and goes beyond the idea of intercession (as our AV renders it), expresses prayer as the converse of the soul with God, with the notion of urgency and filial confidence. See Huther and Ell. on 1 Timothy 2:1; Win.-Moult., sub δέησις; Light. on Php 4:6; Trench, Syn., sub voce.

[88] Codex Claromontanus (sæc. vi.), a Græco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.

[89] Codex Mosquensis (sæc. ix.), edited by Matthæi in 1782.

[90] Codex Angelicus (sæc. ix.), at Rome, collated by Tischendorf and others.

[91] Codex Porphyrianus (sæc. ix.), at St. Petersburg, collated by Tischendorf. Its text is deficient for chap. Ephesians 2:13-16.

[92] Codex Sinaiticus (sæc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.

[93] Codex Vaticanus (sæc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.

[94] Codex Alexandrinus (sæc. v.), at the British Museum, published in photographic facsimile by Sir E. M. Thompson (1879).

[95] Codex Claromontanus (sæc. vi.), a Græco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

16. cease not, &c.] For similar thanksgivings cp. Romans 1:8; 1 Corinthians 1:4; Php 1:3; Colossians 1:3; 1 Thessalonians 1:2; 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Thessalonians 1:3; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; Philemon 1:4. The thanks were literally “unceasing” in principle, and, in practice, came out on every fit occasion.

making mention of you] For parallels, see the contexts of the passages just quoted, and 2 Timothy 1:3. The phrase implies the expression of individual remembrance. It might be literally “by name,” or not. How much of the Apostle’s work for his converts consisted in the holy labour of special intercessory prayer, with thanksgiving! In his Roman lodging this was the case, perhaps, even more than ever.

The recorded prayers of St Paul form in themselves one of the richest of Scripture studies. Most observable in them is their almost invariable intercessory direction. He thinks of others, not of self, upon his knees.—On that which now follows Bengel remarks, “Argumentum precum pro veris Christianis,” “heads of prayer for true Christians.”

Bengel's Gnomen

Ephesians 1:16. Οὐ παύομαι, I do not cease) Paul made mention of all the churches in his prayers; Colossians 1:9.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 16. - Cease not to give thanks for you. This clause expresses the continuation of a former action - the giving thanks for them had begun before the hearing of their faith and love - from the days, in short, of his personal intercourse. We notice as a remarkable feature of Paul's personal religion, as well as his pastoral care, the frequency of his thanksgiving, indicating the prevalence in him of a bright, joyous state of mind, and tending to increase and perpetuate the same. Constantly to recognize God's goodness in the past begets a larger expectation of it in the future. Making mention of you in my prayers. This seems additional to his giving thanks. "Prayers" (προσευχῶν) refers more to supplication and entreaty. While thankful for them, his heart was not satisfied regarding them; he wished them to forget the things behind, and reach forth to those before. The apostle's prayers for his spiritual charge are always remarkable. They are very short, but wonderfully deep and comprehensive; very rich and sublime in aspiration; powerful in their pleas, whether expressed or implied; and exhaustive in the range of blessings which they implore. Ephesians 1:16

Vincent's Word Studies

Making mention, etc.

As I make mention. The same expression occurs Romans 1:9; Philippians 1:4; Plm 1:4.