…and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel. — Ephesians 6:19
Paul is in prison in Rome when he writes this letter to the Ephesians. And as he closes, he asks them to pray for him. What he asks for is remarkable.
You might reasonably expect a man writing from prison to ask for prayer for his release, or for his safety, or for some relief from his circumstances. But Paul is a man of a completely different calibre. What he asks for is what he considers most important — not his physical comfort or freedom, but that utterance would be given to him to make known the mystery of the gospel with boldness.
Such a request can only come from someone who has settled, once and for all, what the purpose of his life is. He had already written to the Philippians:
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. — Philippians 1:21
When life itself is Christ, then the sharing of the gospel becomes the highest and most urgent priority — more pressing than personal comfort, more important than freedom, more valuable than anything the world could offer or threaten to take away.
The Real Reason We Do Not Share the Gospel
This prayer also reveals something instructive about us. When we are asked why we do not share the gospel more, we offer many reasons. We say we do not want to be confrontational, or that we do not want to intrude into other people’s lives. We say we are too busy, or that we do not know our theology well enough, or that we are not qualified. The list is long and familiar.
But when you look closely at what Paul is actually asking for, you begin to see that all of those reasons can be traced back to one root issue — a lack of boldness. Paul, the greatest missionary the church has ever known, the man who had already preached across the known world and led countless people to Christ, still felt the need to ask others to pray that he would have boldness when he opened his mouth.
When we think about sharing the gospel, we become hesitant and weak. We worry about our reputation, about how we will be perceived, about the labels others might attach to us. And so we hold back.
Boldness Found in the Gospel Itself
But here is what is truly remarkable — the boldness we need to share the gospel is actually found within the gospel itself. Paul writes to the Romans:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. — Romans 1:16
The gospel is the power of God. And so the very boldness we need in order to share it is contained within the message we are called to proclaim.
This means that before we go out to share the gospel with others, we need to preach it to ourselves. We need to remind ourselves continually of what this gospel actually is — the perfect life that Jesus lived on our behalf, the sinner’s death He died on the cross, the glorious victory of His resurrection on the third day. We need to remind ourselves that we were once helpless enemies of God — and that Christ died for us while we were still in that condition:
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. — Romans 5:8
When these truths are alive in our hearts, we find ourselves with something to say — and with the confidence to say it. We also find freedom from the pressure of results, because we remember that it is not our persuasion that saves people. It is God who quickens dead souls and raises them to eternal life. All we are commanded to do is go and speak.
Paul has this in mind when he writes to Titus:
He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the renewing of the Holy Spirit. — Titus 3:5
It is God who saves. We are simply messengers.
The Same Prayer
I pray for the very same thing Paul asked the Ephesians to pray for him — that utterance may be given to us in the opening of our mouths, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel.
Grace and peace.
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