Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the {l} Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

(l) That holy prayers may proceed from the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 6:18 Parallel Commentaries

The Panoply of God
'Take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.'--Eph. vi. 13. The military metaphor of which this verse is the beginning was obviously deeply imprinted on Paul's mind. It is found in a comparatively incomplete form in his earliest epistle, the first to the Thessalonians, in which the children of the day are exhorted to put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. It reappears, in a slightly …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians, Peter,John

'The Girdle of Truth'
'Stand, therefore, having girded your loins with truth.'--Eph. vi. 14 (R.V.). The general exhortation here points to the habitual attitude of the Christian soldier. However many conflicts he may have waged, he is still to be ever ready for fresh assaults, for in regard to them he may be quite sure that to-morrow will bring its own share of them, and that the evil day is never left behind so long as days still last. That general exhortation is followed by clauses which are sometimes said to be cotemporaneous …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians, Peter,John

'The Sword of the Spirit'
'The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.'--Eph. vi. 17. We reach here the last and only offensive weapon in the panoply. The 'of' here does not indicate apposition, as in the 'shield of faith,' or 'the helmet of salvation,' nor is it the 'of' of possession, so that the meaning is to be taken as being the sword which the Spirit wields, but it is the 'of' expressing origin, as in the 'armour of God'; it is the sword which the Spirit supplies. The progress noted in the last sermon from subjective …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians, Peter,John

Peace, Love, and Faith
'Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith.'--Eph. vi. 23. The numerous personal greetings usually found at the close of Paul's letters are entirely absent from this Epistle. All which we have in their place is this entirely general good wish, and the still more general and wider one in the subsequent verse. There is but one other of the Apostle's letters similarly devoid of personal messages, viz. the Epistle to the Galatians, and their absence there is sufficiently accounted for by the severe …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians, Peter,John

The Wide Range of God's Grace
'Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.'--Eph. vi. 24. In turning to the great words which I have read as a text, I ask you to mark their width and their simplicity. They are wide; they follow a very comprehensive benediction, with which, so to speak, they are concentric. But they sweep a wider circle. The former verse says, 'Peace be to the brethren.' But beyond the brethren in these Asiatic churches (as a kind of circular letter to whom this epistle was probably sent) …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture Ephesians, Peter,John

The Sword of the Spirit
Difficulties meet us even in standing our ground; for the apostle, two or three times, bids us--"Stand." In the rush of the fight, men are apt to be carried off their legs. If they can keep their footing, they will be victorious; but if they are borne down by the rush of their adversaries, everything is lost. You are to put on the heavenly armor in order that you may stand; and you will need it to maintain the position in which your Captain has placed you. If even to stand requires all this care, …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 37: 1891

Strong Christians.
(Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity.) EPHESIANS vi. 10. "My brethren, be strong in the Lord," A weak and cowardly soldier is a pitiful object, but a weak-kneed, cowardly Christian is still more so. S. Paul told the Ephesian Christians to be strong in the Lord, and in these days especially we need strong Christians, strong Churchmen. I do not mean that we want men to presume on their strength, to repeat the sin of the Pharisee of old, and talk of their righteousness, or condemn their neighbours. …
H. J. Wilmot-Buxton—The Life of Duty, a Year's Plain Sermons, v. 2

Third Day for all Saints
WHAT TO PRAY.--For all Saints "With all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons, and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all saints."--EPH. vi. 18. Every member of a body is interested in the welfare of the whole, and exists to help and complete the others. Believers are one body, and ought to pray, not so much for the welfare of their own church or society, but, first of all, for all saints. This large, unselfish love is the proof that Christ's Spirit and Love is …
Andrew Murray—The Ministry of Intercession

"But if Ye have Bitter Envying," &C.
James iii. 14.--"But if ye have bitter envying," &c. The cunning of Satan, and the deceitfulness of our own hearts, are such that when a grosser temptation will not prevail with conscience in some measure enlightened, then they transform themselves into angels of light, and deal more subtilely with us. And there is no greater subtilty of Satan, nor no stronger self deceit, than this, to palliate and cover vices with the shadow of virtue, and to present corruptions under the similitude of graces. …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning