The Power of Helping Together Through Prayer

Paul's exhortation in 2 Corinthians 1:11—"Ye also helping together by prayer for us"—establishes that authentic Christian labor requires mutuality, not isolation. As Joseph S. Exell observed in The Biblical Illustrator (1887), "All help is dangerous for any of us when there is absence of mutuality." Consider a household where one daughter bears all the work while others remain idle; such arrangement breeds neither health nor wholeness. The apostle refuses to think of himself as a passenger in a boat excursion where some sit idle at the stern while another rows.

Exell identified six critical dimensions of helping together. First, we must not hinder—the Pharisees exemplified this sin by blocking others from entering the Kingdom (Matthew 23:13). Second, we nerve ourselves to triumph over hindrances, like a river flowing around obstacles rather than surrendering to them. Third, helping together brings pleasure, though critics inevitably emerge—note Nehemiah's opposition during wall-rebuilding.

The power of prayer accomplishes what human effort alone cannot: it honours the Holy Spirit as the supreme agent in Gospel success, awakens the attention of beholders, and aligns our petitions with God's revealed will in Scripture. When Christians intercede for their ministers, they participate in destroying Satan's empire, restoring order to a broken world, bringing glory to Christ, and preparing souls for heaven. Prayer disciplines the intercessor and secures Divine approbation. As Exell concluded, "He who prays as he ought will endeavour to live as he prays."