Bible Commentaries
Ephesians 3

Verses 1-3

GETTING A GRIP ON A GREAT MYSTERY

For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles – Surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you… Ephesians 3:1-2

Through the Book of Ephesians so far Paul has spoken in an almost breathless excitement. He even strings his remarks with commas and not with periods, giving us some of the longest sentences in all of literature. He has already shared several mysteries but he longs to share more. He begins to pray here, but is detracted by the glory of one great revelation. He simply must stop his prayer and share that glory more fully with us.

We should note that Paul is now a prisoner because of God's great revelation to him (3:1). He could have lived as a Jew among the Jews with little problem. He could have lived comfortably among the Gentiles. But he could not live very well among either by openly proclaiming the great divine secret in his heart. It was this great truth that made up the essential gospel that he preached. It was this great truth that brought his imprisonment and finally resulted in his death.

Truth is like that. When we really get hold of it, we will find that truth is difficult to handle. When we really find truth, the real truth, it will cost us plenty. If we take a stand for the truth in this truth-denying age it will probably cost us some friends, even some church friends. It may cost us some business associates, or it could ultimately cost us our lives. Yes, truth is such a rare commodity that, in its refined form, it is powerful enough to kill us. Marie Curie helped discover the secrets of radium, but that discovery cost her life. She died from her long exposure to the mysterious substance.

In previous chapters Paul has been leading up to the full revelation of this great mystery that God entrusted to him. Now when we speak of mystery in our western culture we generally think of something that is dark, obscure or even puzzling. The Greek word mysterion has little to do with these ideas.^(F1) Mysterion (3:3) has to do rather with something that has been hidden by God for ages but is now revealed for all to understand. We must realize that in Christianity there are no esoteric, hidden, mysteries that are reserved for the spiritual elite.^(F2) All of God's revealed truth is available to all of us. As Deuteronomy 29:29 puts it, "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever…"

Here Paul wants to make a clarification. He wants us to know that he has already introduced this mystery. He speaks of it as "the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly" (3:3). No doubt he is probably making reference back to Ephesians 2:11-22, where he has already spoken about it and developed the mystery to some degree.

Verses 4-6

PAUL'S UNDERSTANDING OF THE MYSTERY

In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets. Ephesians 3:4-5

It is important that we understand the critical role of the original apostles and prophets in the matter of revelation. Many of these had been with Jesus in the flesh. They had heard him speak of wonderful things. Others like Paul had received powerful revelations of Christian truth. On one occasion Paul was caught up to the heavens and heard unspeakable things. In 2 Corinthians 12:2-4, he tells of this great spiritual experience, "I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know – God knows. And I know that this man…was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell" (cf. Acts 26:12-18).

It seems that Paul is almost teasing us by dangling this great revelation before us. By this time he almost has us breathless. We are almost standing on our tiptoes asking, "For heaven's sake, what is this great mystery?" At last he gives it to us in capsule form so that no one can miss it, "This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus" (3:6). The first thing we note about this mystery is that there are a lot of "togethers" in it.^{synkleronoma), 'concorporate' (syssoma) and 'co-sharers' (symmetocha) of the promise…To sum up, we may say that 'the mystery of Christ' is the complete union of Jews and Gentiles with each other through the union of both with Christ."">(F3)} God's hidden plan was always to make a new creation out of Jews and Gentiles. His great forever plan was to make of the two one new human race, one new household, one new and glorious temple where he could dwell and reveal his presence forever. This is his plan in a nutshell.

In some ways this is not a new plan at all, but an old, old plan. The Bible had taught for ages that God would seek the Gentiles and that non-Jews could join with his people Israel. We see in passages like Genesis 12:3; 22:18; and 28:14 that the blessing of Israel was to go out to Gentile nations. Actually the prophets talked a great deal about Gentiles joining with Israel and about Israel being a light to the nations (Isaiah 56:6-7; 49:6). We immediately think of Rahab the Harlot at Jericho who united with Israel (Joshua 6:17-25), and Ruth of Moab who actually became a mother in the messianic line (Ruth 4:13-22). These women were surely types and shadows of what was coming. Also many non-Jews fought valiantly in David's army. Some were in very high positions of authority (2 Samuel 15:18-22; 18:2).^(F4)

Yes, Israel was quite used to the idea that God would bless the Gentiles and that certain Gentiles could even unite with the nation and become a part of it. What is new here is that Jews and Gentiles will now be joined together to form a new humanity, to form one new body. We should note here that Jew and Gentile together will form this new humanity. Some have spoken of this miracle in a generic sense where God will just draw all nations together into a new unity. Such an idea has some truth in it but almost totally omits the Jews and their vital part in this unity.

Now, how are we handling this new and mysterious plan of God? Certainly the Jews have not handled it very well. They relentlessly persecuted Paul and even to this day many Jews mistrust Paul more than they mistrust Jesus. Today, a lot of Jews wish to keep a safe distance from Christians altogether and that with some good reasons. Actually for many Jews, they are probably no longer even aware of Paul's great mystery.

The church has not handled it well either. In the early centuries of Christianity a subtle anti-Semitism began to slip into church theology and into preaching. As early as the second century famous church fathers like Ignatius, Justin, Irenaeus and Cyprian began to make inflammatory statements about the Jewish people. Irenaeus, the renowned Bishop of Lyon (AD 130-202), actually declared the Jews "disinherited from the grace of God."^(F5) The gangrene spread and was reflected in the great Council of Nicea in AD 325, where the Jews were referred to as "polluted wretches…blinded in their minds…most odious fellowship…parricides and murderers."^(F6)

The infectious plague continued through the centuries. Probably the greatest preacher early Christianity produced was John Chrysostom (347?-407). Yet, he viciously attacked the Jews. For his great oratory he was called the "Golden Tongue" but he used his golden tongue to call the Jews "most miserable of all men" "lustful rapacious, greedy perfidious bandits." This great preacher ended by saying "I hate the Jews."^(F7)

The dark, dark pages of Christian history bear witness that we have not understood Paul's mystery and neither do we understand it today. Christian history is full of Christian crusades against the Jews, blood libels, repressions, expulsions, inquisitions and murders. Finally the great Martin Luther with his raving against the Jews set the stage of the Nazi "final solution." Luther said that their synagogues and schools should be burned, their houses destroyed, prayer books taken away and that their money be confiscated.^(F8) Adolph Hitler was happy to oblige and fulfill all of Luther's wishes.

Today after a guilty church has stained its hands with the blood of millions of Jews, we are farther than ever from learning Paul's mystery. In much of the church today there remains a persistent and unexplainable coolness and hardness toward the Jewish people, often even toward messianic Jews. Strangely there is a similar hardness expressed toward the new nation of Israel. We have just not understood. How vastly different the history of Christianity would have been had we understood.

It is time to make this our prayer:

Heavenly Father, open our eyes to see this great mystery that the church has somehow lost. Let us see that Jews and Gentiles must now come together to make one new creation in the Messiah. Show us how to become good stewards in understanding and sharing this mystery, regardless of the personal cost to us. And please forgive us Heavenly Father for all our hateful attitudes toward the Jewish people and toward Israel. In the name of Jesus our Messiah we pray. Amen.

Verses 7-9

PAUL – JUST A SERVANT

I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power. Ephesians 3:7

Paul has just dealt with some of the most astounding mysteries in all of creation. He has reeled them off to us as if he were reciting the "A-B-Cs." Such a spiritual genius should want to bask for a while in the glory of all his revelations. Instead, Paul's desire is just to be a servant. The servant (Gk. diakonos) in New Testament times was merely a table waiter who was totally at the bidding of his customers.

The Lord had long before taken care of Paul's pride by giving him a loathsome "thorn in the flesh," lest he become lifted up over all these very revelations (2 Corinthians 12:7). So Paul is now just a servant, and becoming a servant is such a necessary thing in the building of God's great body and temple. We remember that Jesus became a servant to Israel and to us. He was even willing to become a suffering servant, to take up the shameful cross and to die upon it so that he could raise up this new temple (Mark 14:58).

We see here that the apostle has been so thoroughly dealt with by God that he almost loathes himself. He says, "Although I am less than the least of all the Lord's people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ …" (3:8). Here he does something impossible linguistically. He takes the Greek word elachistos meaning "least" or "smallest," and turns it into elachistoteros, meaning "leaster." It has been suggested that he might have been playing on the meaning of his Roman name "Paulus," which does mean "little" or "small" in Latin. Tradition has always held that he was a person small of stature.^(F9)

Paul has been given the task of proclaiming the "boundless riches of Christ." This great assignment and great grace were given to Paul by God. It was not something he attained by his own efforts or discovered by his own wisdom. In his letters Paul makes it plain that the revelation he received was given by the Lord and did not originate through the agency of man (Galatians 1:11-12). He even says in Galatians 1:15-17 that he was set apart from birth for this task as we see spelled out further in Acts 9:15-16.

The "unsearchable riches" conveys the ideas of "unfathomable" or "trackless." Someone has described it as if we were exploring what we thought was a lake and suddenly realized it was but an outlet opening into a vast sea.^(F10) These unsearchable riches cannot be explored by humans unless God chooses to reveal them to us.

Paul's task is "to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things" (3:9). The word "administration" (oikonomia) is taken from two Greek words, oikos (house) and nomos (law). It is from this that we get our word "economy." The word in Greek means "the law of the house" and it refers to the matters of stewardship and management.^(F11) Paul was charged with the stewardship of dispensing the Gospel to the Gentiles. We see him use the same word in 1 Corinthians 9:17, "…I am simply discharging the trust [Gk. oikonomian] committed to me."

The Apostle has the task of making this mystery plain for all to see. The normal word for preaching or evangelizing is not used here but instead we have the Greek word photizo. The idea behind this word is to "turn the light on," or to have the eyes of the heart enlightened as we saw in 1:18.^(F12) "It was given to Paul to bring to light the arrangement, the way this mystery was administered, namely, the admission of the Gentiles on equal terms with the Jews."^(F13) Obviously we could all sit in a completely dark room and guess about what items of furniture were there. We could also guess about the color of the drapes and carpets, or even how large or small the room actually was. However, when someone comes to the door and switches on the light all the guesswork is over. Everyone can see plainly. So it is with the great mysteries of the gospel. The light is now switched on. All we have to do is open our eyes and take it all in.

Verses 10-13

GOD'S MANIFOLD WISDOM THROUGH THE CHURCH

His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms… Ephesians 3:10

The first three chapters of Ephesians illustrate for us the biblical centrality of the church. It has been said that "Ephesians gives more attention to and makes loftier statements about the church than any other letter."^(F14) We begin to realize that one of the purposes of God all along was to show forth his great wisdom through the church. When we look at the confusion, bewilderment and defeat we often see in the church today we may wonder how God could show anything through us. Still God chooses to work in spite of our weaknesses and even in spite of our many failures.

This wisdom of God is described in Greek as "many-colored," or "variegated" (polupoikilos). God's wisdom, as shown throughout the creation and the church, quietly weaves a beautiful and glorious pattern. No doubt, parts of this pattern are the many nationalities and skin colors that are brought together through the sacrifice of Christ.

We realize by Paul's statement that God is in a sense "showing off" his beautiful church to a host of spiritual beings. We see in 1 Peter 1:12 that even angels long to look into the things of our salvation. Indeed they are created to be ministering spirits in regard to this salvation (Hebrews 1:14). Paul speaks of the angels watching the activities of the assemblies (1 Corinthians 11:10). In 1 Corinthians 4:9, he even speaks of himself and the other apostles as being made spectacles before the angels.

As one commentator put it, "the history of the Christian church becomes a graduate school for angels."^(F15) The cosmic intelligences, principalities and powers in heavenly places are surely watching and learning from the church. "Thus it is through the old creation (the universe) that God reveals his glory to humans; but it is through the new creation (the church) that he reveals his wisdom to angels."^(F16)

We might wonder what kinds of things the angels are learning from the church. Wuest suggests that they are pondering all the mysteries of redemption. He suggests that it is only in the church that angels are able to come to an adequate comprehension of God's great grace.^(F17) In regard to evil angels who may be looking on, we may wonder what wisdom they can gain. For one thing, they may be learning that Satan, their leader, has no wisdom.^(F18)

What a paradox it is that "unsaved men, including wise philosophers, look at God's plan of salvation and consider it 'foolishness' (1 Corinthians 1:18-31). But the angels watch the outworking of God's salvation, and they praise his wisdom."^(F19)

With these things in mind we must always be careful to praise our glorious God just as the angels do and to rejoice in the works of his hands, including perhaps his most mysterious and important work, the church itself. We must remember to lift our voices in witness to our great God. There is a very real sense in which "without our voices the truth remains hidden and even unreal."^(F20)

God is instructing both men and angels "according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence" (3:11-12).

Paul has all the marks of a great soul. Although he was in prison he dared not think about himself. His concerns centered in the believers scattered in the province of Asia. We can imagine that if we were in Paul's place we would have had to share some small complaints about the cold cell, the chafing chains, or the poor food. Instead, Paul has this request, "I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory" (3:13). It is amazing that Paul is concerned only about their possible suffering and not about his own.

Verses 14-21

ANOTHER GREAT PRAYER

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. Ephesians 3:14-15

Paul now resumes the prayer which he left off in 1:23 and possibly started again in 3:1. The Greeks rarely knelt to pray, and it was actually not so common for Jews to kneel.^(F21) We know that in the Old Testament, Jews often stood in their prayers but particularly in the New Testament, Jewish believers knelt. The Hebrew root barak, which has the meaning of blessing, praising or thanking God, also has "kneeling" within the scope of its meaning. In fact it is from this same Hebrew root of "blessing" or "praising" that we get berek, the word for knee. One writer remarks here that when Paul bowed his knees it must have been quite an experience for the Roman soldier who was chained to him.^(F22)

It has been noted that this prayer of Paul greatly resembles Solomon's prayer of dedication for the temple (2 Chronicals 6:1ff). We see that Solomon also knelt down before God and before the congregation of Israel. Just as Solomon dedicated the old temple Paul now dedicates the new one.^(F23)

We cannot help but notice Paul's preoccupation with spiritual requests rather than natural ones. While Paul's first prayer had centered on enlightenment, the focal point of this new prayer is on love. Unfortunately, today much of our praying seems to focus on the natural things rather than on the spiritual ones that Paul dealt with.

Paul mentions that "every family in heaven and on earth derives its name" from the Father (3:15). This family surely includes the saints on earth and the saints in the heavens. Some go so far as seeing this family including angels who are termed as our "brethren" (Revelation 19:10) and the "sons of God" as we see in Job 38:7, but this is probably not the case..

As his prayer continues Paul gets on with his requests regarding inner spiritual things. He says, "I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being…" (3:16). In our materialistic age we would naturally think that God would give us some quick cash or some other material benefit from all his glorious riches. Here we see that strength and power deposited by God in our inner beings is much better for us and even more profitable in the long run. This is indeed the true riches. Since this transaction is made through the agency of the Holy Spirit we realize what a very rich deposit the Lord has already given us by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.

Next Paul prays "so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith" (3:17a). The Greek word for "dwell" used here is katoik"sai. This word is made up of oikeō, which means "to live in as a home," and kata, the word for "down." Thus what we have here is the idea of settling down and being at home.^(F24) This should be the desire of our hearts that Christ would feel so at ease with us that he wouldn't just visit us on occasions as some wayfarer might do, but that he would feel comfortable enough to move in with us and stay permanently.

Paul goes on, "And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ…" (3:17b-18). The apostle has been praying that God would give us this inner spiritual power. Now we see that one purpose of this spiritual power is that we might grasp the deep love of our Master. Actually real love requires a lot of inner strength. When we love with God's love, it causes us to reach out to other people who are many times unlike ourselves and sometimes even repulsive to us. Jesus wants us to be "rooted" and "established" in his love. One writer has described the great dimensions of God's love in this way:

God's love is wide enough to include every person.
God's love is long enough to last through all eternity.
God's love is deep enough to reach the worst sinner.
God's love is high enough to take us to heaven.^(F25)

The great apostle desires us to "…know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God" (3:19). The following third stanza of Frederick Lehman's beautiful and modern hymn, The Love of God, was actually composed in 1096 by a Jewish songwriter, Rabbi Mayer, of Germany. The stanza so well expresses the cosmic dimensions of God's love with these words:

Could we with ink the ocean fill
and were the skies of parchment made,
Were ev'ry stalk on earth a quill
and ev'ry man a scribe by trade
To write the love of God above
would drain the ocean dry,
Nor could the scroll contain the whole
tho stretched from sky to sky.^(F26)

How can we know the love that surpasses knowledge? This has been called a "glorious contradiction." Yet by knowing Jesus, who is the fullness of the Godhead bodily (Colossians 2:9), and by being in him, we are filled with the fullness of God. What a thought! It is likely for this reason that this prayer of Paul is sometimes called "the boldest prayer ever prayed."^(F27)

Paul closes his great prayer saying, "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen" (3:20-21). In our requests to God we see that we are not bound just by what we can ask. God is able to do more than we can even think or imagine.