Malachi 1:11

1:11 For from the east to the west my name will be great among the nations. Incense and pure offerings will be offered in my name everywhere, for my name will be great among the nations,” ¹  says the Lord who rules over all.

John 4:23-24

4:23 But a time ²  is coming – and now is here ³  – when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks ⁴  such people to be ⁵  his worshipers. ⁶  4:24 God is spirit, ⁷  and the people who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Romans 1:9

1:9 For God, whom I serve in my spirit by preaching the gospel ⁸  of his Son, is my witness that ⁹  I continually remember you

Romans 7:6

7:6 But now we have been released from the law, because we have died ¹⁰  to what controlled us, so that we may serve in the new life of the Spirit and not under the old written code. ¹¹ 

Romans 8:15

8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery leading again to fear, ¹²  but you received the Spirit of adoption, ¹³  by whom ¹⁴  we cry, “Abba, Father.”

Romans 8:26-27

8:26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know how we should pray, ¹⁵  but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings. 8:27 And he ¹⁶  who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit ¹⁷  intercedes on behalf of the saints according to God’s will.

Ephesians 6:18

6:18 With every prayer and petition, pray ¹⁸  at all times in the Spirit, and to this end ¹⁹  be alert, with all perseverance and requests for all the saints.

Jude 1:20

1:20 But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith, by praying in the Holy Spirit, ²⁰ 

¹ sn My name will be great among the nations. In what is clearly a strongly ironic shift of thought, the Lord contrasts the unbelief and virtual paganism of the postexilic community with the conversion and obedience of the nations that will one day worship the God of Israel.

² tn Grk “an hour.”

³ tn “Here” is not in the Greek text but is supplied to conform to contemporary English idiom.

⁴ sn See also John 4:27.

⁵ tn Or “as.” The object-complement construction implies either “as” or “to be.”

⁶ tn This is a double accusative construction of object and complement with τοιούτους (toioutous) as the object and the participle προσκυνοῦντας (proskunounta") as the complement.

⁷ tn Here πνεῦμα (pneuma) is understood as a qualitative predicate nominative while the articular θεός (qeos) is the subject.

⁸ tn Grk “whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel.”

⁹ tn Grk “as.”

¹⁰ tn Grk “having died.” The participle ἀποθανόντες (apoqanonte") has been translated as a causal adverbial participle.

¹¹ tn Grk “in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.”

¹² tn Grk “slavery again to fear.”

¹³ tn The Greek term υἱοθεσία (Juioqesia) was originally a legal technical term for adoption as a son with full rights of inheritance. BDAG 1024 s.v. notes, “a legal t.t. of ‘adoption’ of children, in our lit., i.e. in Paul, only in a transferred sense of a transcendent filial relationship between God and humans (with the legal aspect, not gender specificity, as major semantic component).”

¹⁴ tn Or “in that.”

¹⁵ tn Or “for we do not know what we ought to pray for.”

¹⁶ sn He refers to God here; Paul has not specifically identified him for the sake of rhetorical power (for by leaving the subject slightly ambiguous, he draws his audience into seeing God’s hand in places where he is not explicitly mentioned).

¹⁷ tn Grk “he,” or “it”; the referent (the Spirit) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁸ tn Both “pray” and “be alert” are participles in the Greek text (“praying…being alert”). Both are probably instrumental, loosely connected with all of the preceding instructions. As such, they are not additional commands to do but instead are the means through which the prior instructions are accomplished.

¹⁹ tn Grk “and toward it.”

²⁰ tn The participles in v. 20 have been variously interpreted. Some treat them imperativally or as attendant circumstance to the imperative in v. 21 (“maintain”): “build yourselves up…pray.” But they do not follow the normal contours of either the imperatival or attendant circumstance participles, rendering this unlikely. A better option is to treat them as the means by which the readers are to maintain themselves in the love of God. This both makes eminently good sense and fits the structural patterns of instrumental participles elsewhere.