Ephesians 4:4

4:4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you too were called to the one hope of your calling,

Ephesians 6:18

6:18 With every prayer and petition, pray ¹  at all times in the Spirit, and to this end ²  be alert, with all perseverance and requests for all the saints.

Zechariah 12:10

12:10 “I will pour out on the kingship ³  of David and the population of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication so that they will look to me, ⁴  the one they have pierced. They will lament for him as one laments for an only son, and there will be a bitter cry for him like the bitter cry for a firstborn. ⁵ 

Romans 8:15

8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery leading again to fear, ⁶  but you received the Spirit of adoption, ⁷  by whom ⁸  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, ⁹  but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings. 8:27 And he ¹⁰  who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit ¹¹  intercedes on behalf of the saints according to God’s will.

Romans 8:1

The Believer’s Relationship to the Holy Spirit

8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ¹² 

Colossians 1:13

1:13 He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son he loves, ¹³ 

Jude 1:20

1:20 But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith, by praying in the Holy Spirit, ¹⁴ 

[6:18]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Grk “and toward it.”

[12:10]  ³ tn Or “dynasty”; Heb “house.”

[12:10]  ⁴ tc Because of the difficulty of the concept of the mortal piercing of God, the subject of this clause, and the shift of pronoun from “me” to “him” in the next, many mss read אַלֵי אֵת אֲשֶׁר (’ale ’et ’asher, “to the one whom,” a reading followed by NAB, NRSV) rather than the MT’s אֵלַי אֵת אֲשֶׁר (’ela ’et ’asher, “to me whom”). The reasons for such alternatives, however, are clear – they are motivated by scribes who found such statements theologically objectionable – and they should be rejected in favor of the more difficult reading (lectio difficilior) of the MT.

[12:10]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew term בְּכוֹר (bÿkhor, “firstborn”), translated usually in the LXX by πρωτότοκος (prwtotokos), has unmistakable messianic overtones as the use of the Greek term in the NT to describe Jesus makes clear (cf. Col 1:15, 18). Thus, the idea of God being pierced sets the stage for the fatal wounding of Jesus, the Messiah and the Son of God (cf. John 19:37; Rev 1:7). Note that some English translations supply “son” from the context (e.g., NIV, TEV, NLT).

[8:15]  ⁶ tn Grk “slavery again to fear.”

[8:15]  ⁷ 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).”

[8:15]  ⁸ tn Or “in that.”

[8:26]  ⁹ tn Or “for we do not know what we ought to pray for.”

[8:27]  ¹⁰ 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).

[8:27]  ¹¹ tn Grk “he,” or “it”; the referent (the Spirit) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[8:1]  ¹² tc The earliest and best witnesses of the Alexandrian and Western texts, as well as a few others (א* B D* F G 6 1506 1739 1881 pc co), have no additional words for v. 1. Later scribes (A D¹ Ψ 81 365 629 pc vg) added the words μὴ κατὰ σάρκα περιπατοῦσιν (mh kata sarka peripatousin, “who do not walk according to the flesh”), while even later ones (א² D² 33^vid Ï) added ἀλλὰ κατὰ πνεῦμα (alla kata pneuma, “but [who do walk] according to the Spirit”). Both the external evidence and the internal evidence are compelling for the shortest reading. The scribes were evidently motivated to add such qualifications (interpolated from v. 4) to insulate Paul’s gospel from charges that it was characterized too much by grace. The KJV follows the longest reading found in Ï.

[1:13]  ¹³ tn Here αὐτοῦ (autou) has been translated as a subjective genitive (“he loves”).

[1:20]  ¹⁴ 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.