1 Corinthians 14:19

14:19 but in the church I want to speak five words with my mind to instruct others, rather than ten thousand words in a tongue.

John 4:23-24

4:23 But a time ¹  is coming – and now is here ²  – when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks ³  such people to be ⁴  his worshipers. ⁵  4:24 God is spirit, ⁶  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 ⁷  of his Son, is my witness that ⁸  I continually remember you

Ephesians 5:17-20

5:17 For this reason do not be foolish, but be wise ⁹  by understanding ¹⁰  what the Lord’s will is. 5:18 And do not get drunk with wine, which ¹¹  is debauchery, ¹²  but be filled by the Spirit, ¹³  5:19 speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music ¹⁴  in ¹⁵  your hearts to the Lord, 5:20 always giving thanks to God the Father for each other ¹⁶  in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Ephesians 6:18

6:18 With every prayer and petition, pray ¹⁷  at all times in the Spirit, and to this end ¹⁸  be alert, with all perseverance and requests for all the saints.

Colossians 3:16

3:16 Let the word of Christ ¹⁹  dwell in you richly, teaching and exhorting one another with all wisdom, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, all with grace ²⁰  in your hearts to God.

Jude 1:20

1:20 But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith, by praying in the Holy Spirit, ²¹ 

[4:23]  ¹ tn Grk “an hour.”

[4:23]  ² tn “Here” is not in the Greek text but is supplied to conform to contemporary English idiom.

[4:23]  ³ sn See also John 4:27.

[4:23]  ⁴ tn Or “as.” The object-complement construction implies either “as” or “to be.”

[4:23]  ⁵ 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.

[4:24]  ⁶ tn Here πνεῦμα (pneuma) is understood as a qualitative predicate nominative while the articular θεός (qeos) is the subject.

[1:9]  ⁷ tn Grk “whom I serve in my spirit in the gospel.”

[1:9]  ⁸ tn Grk “as.”

[5:17]  ⁹ tn “become wise by understanding”; Grk “understanding.” The imperative “be wise” is apparently implied by the construction of vv. 15-21. See the following text-critical note for discussion.

[5:17]  ¹⁰ tc ‡ The best witnesses read the imperative here (so Ì⁴⁶ א A B P 0278 33 81 1739 pc). The participle is found primarily in the Western and Byzantine texttypes (D² Ψ 1881 Ï latt [D* F G are slightly different, but support the participial reading]). But the participle is superior on internal grounds: The structure of v. 17 almost requires an imperative after ἀλλά (alla), for this gives balance to the clause: “Do not become foolish, but understand…” If the participle is original, it may be imperatival (and thus should be translated just like an imperative), but such is quite rare in the NT. More likely, there is an implied imperative as follows: “Do not become foolish, but become wise, understanding what the will of the Lord is.” Either way, the participle is the harder reading and ought therefore to be considered original. It is significant that seeing an implied imperative in this verse affords a certain symmetry to the author’s thought in vv. 15-21: There are three main sections (vv. 15-16, v. 17, vv. 18-21), each of which provides a negative injunction, followed by a positive injunction, followed by a present adverbial participle. If συνίετε (suniete) is original, this symmetry is lost. Thus, even though the external evidence for συνιέντες (sunientes) is not nearly as weighty as for the imperative, both the transcriptional and intrinsic evidence support it.

[5:18]  ¹¹ tn Grk “in which.”

[5:18]  ¹² tn Or “dissipation.” See BDAG 148 s.v. ἀσωτία.

[5:18]  ¹³ tn Many have taken ἐν πνεύματι (en pneumati) as indicating content, i.e., one is to be filled with the Spirit. ExSyn 375 states, “There are no other examples in biblical Greek in which ἐν + the dative after πληρόω indicates content. Further, the parallel with οἴνῳ as well as the common grammatical category of means suggest that the idea intended is that believers are to be filled by means of the [Holy] Spirit. If so there seems to be an unnamed agent. The meaning of this text can only be fully appreciated in light of the πληρόω language in Ephesians. Always the term is used in connection with a member of the Trinity. Three considerations seem to be key: (1) In Eph 3:19 the ‘hinge’ prayer introducing the last half of the letter makes a request that the believers ‘be filled with all the fullness of God’ (πληρωθῆτε εἰς πᾶν πλήρωμα τοῦ θεοῦ). The explicit content of πληρόω is thus God’s fullness (probably a reference to his moral attributes). (2) In 4:10 Christ is said to be the agent of filling (with v. 11 adding the specifics of his giving spiritual gifts). (3) The author then brings his argument to a crescendo in 5:18: Believers are to be filled by Christ by means of the Spirit with the content of the fullness of God.”

[5:19]  ¹⁴ tn See BDAG 1096 s.v. ψάλλω.

[5:19]  ¹⁵ tn Or “with.”

[5:20]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “for all.” The form “all” can be either neuter or masculine.

[6:18]  ¹⁷ 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.

[6:18]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “and toward it.”

[3:16]  ¹⁹ tc Since “the word of Christ” occurs nowhere else in the NT, two predictable variants arose: “word of God” and “word of the Lord.” Even though some of the witnesses for these variants are impressive (κυρίου [kuriou, “of the Lord”] in א* I 1175 pc bo; θεοῦ [qeou, “of God”] in A C* 33 104 323 945 al), the reading Χριστοῦ (Cristou, “of Christ”) is read by an excellent cross-section of witnesses (Ì⁴⁶ א² B C² D F G Ψ 075 1739 1881 Ï lat sa). On both internal and external grounds, Χριστοῦ is strongly preferred.

[3:16]  ²⁰ tn Grk “with grace”; “all” is supplied as it is implicitly related to all the previous instructions in the verse.

[1:20]  ²¹ 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.