Ephesians 3:7

THE MESSAGE

This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details. When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God's way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities. And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ. My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. Through followers of Jesus like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels! All this is proceeding along lines planned all along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus. When we trust in him, we're free to say whatever needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to go. So don't let my present trouble on your behalf get you down. Be proud! My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you'll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God. God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us. Glory to God in the church! Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus! Glory down all the generations! Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes!

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
By God's special gift of grace, I became a servant to tell that Good News. He gave me that grace by using his power.

Revised Standard Version
Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace which was given me by the working of his power.

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
whereof I am made a minister by the gyfte of the grace of god geve vnto me thorow ye workynge of his power.

Hebrew Names Version
whereof I was made a servant, according to the gift of that grace of God which was given me according to the working of his power.

New American Standard Bible
of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of His power.

New Century Version
By God's special gift of grace given to me through his power, I became a servant to tell that Good News.

Update Bible Version
whereof I was made a servant, according to the gift of that grace of God which was given me according to the working of his power.

Webster's Bible Translation
Of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effectual working of his power.

English Standard Version
Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power.

World English Bible
whereof I was made a servant, according to the gift of that grace of God which was given me according to the working of his power.

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
Of which I have been made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effectual working of his power.

Weymouth's New Testament
in which I have been appointed to serve, in virtue of the work which God, in the exercise of His power within me, has graciously entrusted to me.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
whos mynystre Y am maad, bi the yifte of Goddis grace, which is youun to me bi the worchyng of his vertu.

English Revised Version
whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of that grace of God which was given me according to the working of his power.

Berean Standard Bible
I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace, given me through the working of His power.

Contemporary English Version
God treated me with kindness. His power worked in me, and it became my job to spread the good news.

Amplified Bible
Of this [gospel] I was made a minister by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of His power.

American Standard Version
whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of that grace of God which was given me according to the working of his power.

Bible in Basic English
Of which I was made a preacher, through that grace of God which was given to me in the measure of the working of his power.

Complete Jewish Bible
I became a servant of this Good News by God's gracious gift, which he gave me through the operation of his power.

Darby Translation
of which I am become minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me, according to the working of his power.

International Standard Version
I have become a servant of this gospelof it">[fn] according to the gift of God's grace that was given me by the working of his power.Romans 1:5; Ephesians 1:19; Colossians 1:20,23, 25;">[xr]

Etheridge Translation
of which I am made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of Aloha, which he hath given me by the operation of his power.

Murdock Translation
of which I have been a minister, according to the gift of the goodness of God, which was imparted to me by the operation of his power:

King James Version (1611)
Whereof I was made a Minister, according to the gift of the grace of God giuen vnto mee, by the effectuall working of his power.

New Living Translation
By God's grace and mighty power, I have been given the privilege of serving him by spreading this Good News.

New Life Bible
God asked me to preach this Good News. He gave me the gift of His loving-favor. He gave me His power to preach it.

New Revised Standard
Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God's grace that was given me by the working of his power.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Whereof I am made a minister by the gift of the grace of God giuen vnto me through the effectuall working of his power.

George Lamsa Translation
Of that very gospel, I have been a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effectual working of his power.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Of which I was made a minister, according to the free-gift of the favour of God which was given unto me, according to the energy of his power:

Douay-Rheims Bible
Of which I am made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God, which is given to me according to the operation of his power.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
Wherof I am made a minister, accordyng to the gyfte of the grace of God, which is geuen vnto me after the workyng of his power.

Good News Translation
I was made a servant of the gospel by God's special gift, which he gave me through the working of his power.

Christian Standard Bible®
I was made a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace that was given to me by the working of his power.

King James Version
Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.

Lexham English Bible
of which I became a servant, according to the gift of God's grace given to me, according to the working of his power.

Literal Translation
of which I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me, according to the working of His power.

Young's Literal Translation
of which I became a ministrant, according to the gift of the grace of God that was given to me, according to the working of His power;

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
wherof I am made a mynister acordynge to the gifte of the grace of God, which is geue me acordinge to the workynge of his power.

Mace New Testament (1729)
of this I was made a minister, according to the gracious gift God bestowed on me, by the effectual operation of his influence:

New English Translation
I became a servant of this gospel according to the gift of God's grace that was given to me by the exercise of his power.

New King James Version
of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of His power.

Simplified Cowboy Version
It's by God's grace and power that I get to go out and gather his crew by spreading this good news.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of His power.

Legacy Standard Bible
of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of His power.

Contextual Overview

¹This is why I, Paul, am in jail for Christ, having taken up the cause of you outsiders, so-called. I take it that you're familiar with the part I was given in God's plan for including everybody. I got the inside story on this from God himself, as I just wrote you in brief. ⁴As you read over what I have written to you, you'll be able to see for yourselves into the mystery of Christ. None of our ancestors understood this. Only in our time has it been made clear by God's Spirit through his holy apostles and prophets of this new order. The mystery is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of him all their lives (what I've been calling outsiders and insiders) stand on the same ground before God. They get the same offer, same help, same promises in Christ Jesus. The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board. ⁷This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details. When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God's way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities. And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ. My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. Through followers of Jesus like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels! All this is proceeding along lines planned all along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus. When we trust in him, we're free to say whatever needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to go. So don't let my present trouble on your behalf get you down. Be proud! My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you'll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God. God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us. Glory to God in the church! Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus! Glory down all the generations! Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes! ⁹The Secret Plan of God This is why I, Paul, am in jail for Christ, having taken up the cause of you outsiders, so-called. I take it that you're familiar with the part I was given in God's plan for including everybody. I got the inside story on this from God himself, as I just wrote you in brief. As you read over what I have written to you, you'll be able to see for yourselves into the mystery of Christ. None of our ancestors understood this. Only in our time has it been made clear by God's Spirit through his holy apostles and prophets of this new order. The mystery is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of him all their lives (what I've been calling outsiders and insiders) stand on the same ground before God. They get the same offer, same help, same promises in Christ Jesus. The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board. This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details. When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God's way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities. And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ. My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. Through followers of Jesus like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels! All this is proceeding along lines planned all along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus. When we trust in him, we're free to say whatever needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to go. So don't let my present trouble on your behalf get you down. Be proud! My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his Spirit—not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength—that Christ will live in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet planted firmly on love, you'll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God. God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us. Glory to God in the church! Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus! Glory down all the generations! Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes! ¹⁰The Secret Plan of God This is why I, Paul, am in jail for Christ, having taken up the cause of you outsiders, so-called. I take it that you're familiar with the part I was given in God's plan for including everybody. I got the inside story on this from God himself, as I just wrote you in brief. As you read over what I have written to you, you'll be able to see for yourselves into the mystery of Christ. None of our ancestors understood this. Only in our time has it been made clear by God's Spirit through his holy apostles and prophets of this new order. The mystery is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of him all their lives (what I've been calling outsiders and insiders) stand on the same ground before God. They get the same offer, same help, same promises in Christ Jesus. The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board. This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details. When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God's way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities. And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ. My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. Through followers of Jesus like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels! ¹¹All this is proceeding along lines planned all along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus. When we trust in him, we're free to say whatever needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to go. So don't let my present trouble on your behalf get you down. Be proud!

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

I: Ephesians 3:2, Romans 15:16, 2 Corinthians 3:6, 2 Corinthians 4:1, Colossians 1:23-25

according: Ephesians 3:8, Romans 1:5, 1 Corinthians 15:10, 1 Timothy 1:14, 1 Timothy 1:15

by: Ephesians 3:20, Ephesians 1:19, Ephesians 4:16, Isaiah 43:13, Romans 15:18, Romans 15:19, 2 Corinthians 10:4, 2 Corinthians 10:5, Galatians 2:8, Colossians 1:29, 1 Thessalonians 2:13, Hebrews 13:21

Reciprocal: Psalms 145:12 - make known Luke 1:2 - and Luke 15:5 - he layeth John 3:27 - A man John 17:18 - General Acts 9:15 - to bear Acts 10:28 - but Acts 13:2 - the work Acts 26:16 - a minister Acts 26:17 - the Gentiles Romans 12:3 - I say Romans 15:15 - because 1 Corinthians 15:9 - the least Colossians 2:12 - the faith 1 Timothy 2:7 - a preacher 2 Timothy 1:11 - General Hebrews 6:4 - and have

Cross-References

Genesis 3:10
He said, "I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked. And I hid."

Genesis 3:11
God said, "Who told you you were naked? Did you eat from that tree I told you not to eat from?"

2 Kings 6:20
As they entered the city, Elisha prayed, "O God , open their eyes so they can see where they are." God opened their eyes. They looked around—they were trapped in Samaria!

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Whereof I was made a minister,.... That is, of the Gospel, not by men, but by God: and he is a true minister of the Gospel who is called of God to the work of the ministry, and is qualified by him with grace and gifts for it; and who faithfully discharges it according to the ability God has given; and such an one was the apostle:

according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me; not according to his natural capacity, his liberal education, or acquired learning; but according to a gift, a ministerial gift bestowed upon him, for such service: for this gift of grace does not design the grace of God wrought in his soul; nor the doctrines of grace, the subject of the Gospel ministry; nor the efficacious grace of God, which makes that successful and useful to the souls of men; but a gift of interpreting the Scriptures, and of explaining the truths of the Gospel to the edification of men; and which is a distinct thing from natural abilities, human learning, or internal grace; for there may be all these, and yet a man not fit to be a minister of the Gospel; what qualifies men for that is the above gift, which God, of his sovereign good will and pleasure, gives to some of the sons of men:

by the effectual working of his power; the power of God is seen in working grace in the hearts of men, thereby making them believers in Christ; and it is also displayed in the gifts of the Spirit bestowed on men, which is called a being endued with a power from on high; thereby making men, and not angels, and these oftentimes the meanest and weakest, ministers of Christ; and likewise in assisting them in their work, and in carrying them through it, and in making them successful in it, to the conversion of sinners, and the edification of saints.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Whereof I was made a minister - see the notes at Ephesians 3:2.

According to the gift of the grace of God - It was not by my own seeking or merit; it was a free gift.

Of the grace of God - The sentiment is, that throughout it was a mere matter of grace that he was called into the ministry, and that so important an office was entrusted to him as that of bearing the gospel to the Gentiles.

By the effectual working of his power - Not by any native inclination which I had to the gospel, and not by any power which I have put forth. It is by “the energy of his power;” compare notes, Galatians 2:8. Locke understands this of the energy or power which God put forth in converting the Gentiles under his ministry. But it seems to me that it refers rather to the power which God put forth in the conversion of Paul himself, and putting him into the ministry. This is clear from the following verse. The meaning is, that such was his opposition to the gospel by nature, that nothing but the “energy of God” could overcome it, and that his conversion was to be traced to that alone.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 7. Whereof I was made a minister — διακονος. A deacon, a servant acting under and by the direction of the great Master, Jesus Christ; from whom, by an especial call and revelation, I received the apostolic gifts and office, and by την ενεργειαντηςδυναμεωςαυτου, the energy, the in-working of his power, this Gospel which I preached was made effectual to the salvation of vast multitudes of Jews and Gentiles.