EPHESIANS

CHAPTER  THREE

3:1

The words “for this cause” refer back to “the building together of the saints” of 2:20-22. That is, “seeing you are so builded together for a dwelling place of God” (Vincent). Then comes a parenthetical paragraph to verse 13, and the words, “for this cause” are resumed. The apostle began his prayer of 3:14-21 in verse one, but between 3:1 and 3:14, we have a digression, the purpose of which is to acquaint the Gentiles with their call and Paul’s knowledge of the mystery of Jew and Gentile in one body.

        The Prisoner
He is the prisoner of “the Christ Jesus,” the definite article appearing before Christ. Paul’s thought is, “the prisoner of the Messiah, who is now called Jesus.” The words are in the genitive case, probably, the genitive of originating cause, Paul was one made prisoner by Christ Jesus (Expositors). He is a prisoner “on behalf of you the Gentiles.” Not really the prisoner of Rome as the Romans would like to have thought. The same authority explains, “Paul was called especially to be a minister of Christ to the Gentiles (Acts 21:21,28; 22:21), and his preaching Christ as for the Gentiles equally with the Jews provoked the enmity of the Jews which led to his imprisonment. It was thus for the Gentiles that he was a prisoner; and there is probably also the further thought in the Huper Humon (on behalf of you) that Paul’s imprisonment was to be for their good, helpful to their Christian life, for the idea with which the paragraph closes is that his afflictions were their glory (v. 13).”         (Wuest)

3:2,3        Stewardship  -  The Responsibility

The “if” is “ei  ge”. It is a supposition that is taken for granted. The idea is, “if, indeed, as I may assume” (Expositors). Alford translates “assuming that.” He says, “The Ephesians Had heard all this, and Paul was now delicately reminding them.”

The word “dispensation” is “Oikonomia,” made up of “oikos,” :a house” and “nomos,” (law) thus, “the law of the house.” The word speaks in general of the oversight, management, or administration one has over something. Paul was given the responsibility of having oversight or management over the grace of God in the sense that he was to administer it in its publicity. He was given the revelation of the grace of God and the responsibility of properly preaching and teaching it. This grace given Paul for the gentiles, he defines in verse 6.

Then Paul explains his knowledge of this particular grace. It was given him by revelation. The word is “apokalupsis,” “an uncovering, a laying bare.”                                                                                                    (Wuest)

3:5        The Mystery

The mystery of the call of the Gentiles (of which Paul speaks here) was not unknown to the Old Testament prophets (Isaiah 56:6,7; 49:6). But they did not know it with the same explicit distinctness “as” it has been now known (Acts 10:19,20; 11:18-21). They probably did not know that the Gentiles were to be admitted without circumcision, or that they were to be on a level with the Jews in partaking of the grace of God. The gift of “the Spirit” in its fullness was reserved for the New Testament, that Christ might thereby be glorified. The epithet “holy,” marks the special consecration of the New Testament “prophets” (who are here meant) by the Spirit, compared with which even the Old Testament prophets were but “sons of men” (Ezekiel 2:3 and elsewhere)     (Jamieson, Fausset & Brown)

3:6

Paul now proceeds to make known the mystery. The contents of the mystery are a fact, not a purpose. 
The Gentiles are fellow-heirs with the Jews. They are “fellow-partakers of the promise.” 
The Gentiles inherit jointly with the Jews the blessings of salvation. 
They are fellow-members of the same body, the Mystical Body of Christ, which is a new creation in which the line of separation between Jew and Gentile is broken down.

The Scofield Bible has a valuable note: “that the Gentiles were to be saved was no mystery (Rom. 9:24-33; 10:19-21). The mystery ‘hid in God’ was the divine purpose to make of Jew and Gentile a wholly new thing -the Church, which is His (Christ’s) body,’ formed by the baptism with the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 12:12,13) and in which the earthly distinction of Jew and Gentile disappears (Eph. 2:14,15; Col. 3:10,11). The revelation of this mystery, which was foretold but not explained by Christ (Mt. 16:18), was committed to Paul.  In his writings alone we find the doctrine, position, walk, and destiny of the Church.”       (Wuest)

Paul was the one who really understood these but only because it was revealed to him (pp. 34).

3:7,8        The Gift

The gift of the apostleship was “according to the working of His power.” Vincent says: “The gift was bestowed in accordance with that efficiency which could transform Saul and persecutor into Paul the apostle to the Gentiles.” Expositors says: “The thought of the dignity of the office he had received at the cost of such grace and power at once evokes the sense of his own utter unworthiness, to which he gives stronger expression here than even in I Cor. 15:9, or II Cor. 12:11.” The words “less than the least” are ‘elachestoteros,’ a comparative formed on a superlative; literally, “more least” than all the saints.

        Unsearchable Riches
The word “unsearchable” is ‘anexichniaston,’ from ‘exichniazo,’ “to trace out,” and Alpha privative which negates the word, making it mean, “that which cannot be traced out.” The riches of Christ here “ are the riches that Christ has or which are in Him. The ‘ploutos’ (wealth) thus contained in Christ is the whole wealth of the salvation He bestows; and this in “unsearchable” not in the sense of ‘inexhaustible,’ but rather in that of unfathomable, “past finding out,” such as cannot be fully comprehended by men”   (Expositors).     (Wuest)

The word is exceedingly well chosen here: it refers to the Footsteps of God, the Plans He had formed, the Dispensations which He had published, and the innumerable providence’s which He had combined, to prepare, mature, and bring to full effect and view his miraculous designs in the salvation of a ruined world, by the incarnation, passion, death, and resurrection of his Son. There were in these schemes and providences such RICHES - such an abundance, such a variety, as could not be comprehended even by the naturally vast, and, through the Divine inspiration, unparalleled capacious mind of the apostle.

Yet he was to proclaim among the Gentiles these astonishing wonders and mysteries of grace; and as he proceeds in this great and glorious work, the Holy Spirit that dwelt in him opens to his mind more and more of those riches - leads him into those footsteps of the Almighty which could not be investigated by man nor angel, so that his preaching and epistles, taken all in their chronological order, will prove that his views brighten, and his discoveries become more numerous and more distinct in proportion as he advances. And had he lived, preached, and written to the present day, he had not exhausted the subject, nor fully declared to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ - the endless depths of wisdom and knowledge treasured up in him, and the infinity of saving acts and saving power displayed by him.         (Clarke)

3:9         His Power

God’s creation of the world and all things therein is the foundation of the rest of the “economy,” which is freely dispensed according to the universal power of God. As God created “the whole range of things” (so the Greek), physical and spiritual alike, He must have an absolute right to adjust all things as He will. Hence, we may see His right to keep the mystery of world-wide salvation in Christ “hidden in Himself,” till his own good time for revealing it.         (Jamieson, Fausset & Brown)

         His University

        His Manifold Wisdom
THE MANIFOLD WISDOM OF GOD: ‘E  polnpoikilos sophia’ That multifarious and greatly diversified wisdom of God; laying great and infinite plans, and accomplishing them by endless means, through the whole lapse of ages; making every occurrence subservient to the purposes of his infinite mercy and goodness. God’s gracious design to save a lost world by Jesus Christ, could not be defeated by any cunning skill or malice of man or devils: whatever hindrances are thrown in the way, his wisdom and power can re remove; and his infinite wisdom can never want ways or means to effect its gracious designs.      (Clarke)

ACCORDING TO THE ETERNAL PURPOSE:  “According to the purpose concerning the periods.” This seems to refer to the complete round of the Jewish system, and to that of the Gospel. I have often observed, that though the proper grammatical meaning of the word is “ever-during,” or “endless duration,” yet it is often applied to those systems, periods, governments, which have a complete duration, taking in the whole of them, from their commencement to their termination, leaving nothing of their duration unembarrassed. So, here, God purposed that the Jewish dispensation should commence at such a time, and terminate at such a time; that the Gospel dispensation should commence when the Jewish ended, and terminate only with life itself; and that the Results of both would be Endless. This is probably what is meant by the above phrase.

WHICH HE PURPOSED IN CHRIST JESUS: “which he made or constituted in or for Christ Jesus.” The manifestation of Christ, and the glory which should follow, were the grand objects which God kept in view in all his dispensations.     (Clarke)

IN WHOM WE HAVE BOLDNESS - By whom we, Gentiles, have ‘ten parresian,’ this liberty of speech; so that we may say any thing by prayer and supplication, and ‘ten prosagogen,’ this introduction, into the Divine presence by faith in Christ. “No other name given among men whereby we must be saved” It is only in His name we can pray to God, and it is only by Him that we can come to God; none can give us an introduction but Christ Jesus, and it is only for His sake that God will either hear or save us. It is on the ground of such scriptures as these that we conclude all our prayers in the Name, and for the Sake, of Jesus Christ our Lord.       (Clarke)

OF WHOM THE WHOLE FAMILY: Believers in the Lord Jesus Christ on earth, the spirits of just men made perfect in a separate state, and all the holy angels in heaven, make but one family, of which God is the Father and Head. Paul does not say, of whom the ‘families,’ as if each order formed a distinct household; but he says ‘family,’ because they are all one, and of one. And all this family is named - derives its origin and being, from God, as children derive their being and their holiness from God, and therefore his name is called upon them.     (Clarke)