In the greek language in which the New Testament was recorded, a verb written in what is called the imperfect tense “always indicates an action continually or repeatedly happening in past time. It portrays the action as going on for some extended period of time in the past.”
You will recall that when Jesus was being crucified, he prayed, ‘Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do’.” Reading that in just our English Bibles would lead us to be believe that he made that appeal just once and that was it. But as one scholar pointed out, “Jesus seems to have prayed for his tormentors actually while the iron spikes were being driven through his hands and feet; indeed the imperfect tense suggests that he kept praying, kept repeating his entreaty.”
And then he adds, “If the cruel torture of crucifixion could not silence our Lord’s prayer for his enemies, what pain, pride, prejudice or sloth could justify silencing [our prayer]?” (John Stott)
