Ephesians 3 - Commentary by Rev. John Schultz

Updated
2001-05-26; 14:30:40utc

Chapter THREE

3:1-13
In chapter 3 Paul starts a sentence which he does not finish: "I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus." He uses the same expression several times in his epistles. ("As a prisoner for the Lord;^{[ 1 ]} "So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner."[ 2 ] "Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus"; "Yet I appeal to you on the basis of love. I then, as Paul; an old man and now also a prisoner of Christ Jesus."[ 3 ])

The gist of what he says is that his imprisonment is no accident. It isn't even the result of human efforts, such as the instigation of the Jews or measures taken by the Roman government. Paul is in a Roman prison, but in reality he is the prisoner of Jesus Christ. The sublimation of his circumstances, which from a human viewpoint are not enviable, is the greatest victory a human being can gain.

If we can draw glory from our handicaps, we are invincible. We owe some of Beethoven's greatest music to his deafness. Joni Eareckson-Tada considers her paralysis her greatest blessing. Paul says that his imprisonment is the glory of the church. "I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory" ch. 3:13. If we can understand the reason for what God is doing with us in circumstances that are adverse, they do not only become bearable, but they are positive experiences.

Paul also draws the spiritual implications of what happens to him on the physical level. Being a prisoner of Christ means to be completely dependent upon His commands and permissions. A prisoner can't do anything without permission from him who put him in prison. Christ put Paul in a Roman prison to reveal to him the mystery of the church. To a large degree the rejection of the Gospel by the Jews in the cities Paul visited made this mystery more and more visible. It had been Paul's policy to go first to the Jews in every city and speak to them in the synagogue; then only after being rejected by the Jews, he would turn to the Gentiles, as for instance, Luke writes in Acts: "Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: 'We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.' " The repetition of this phenomenon must have made more and more clear to Paul what the Holy Spirit had in mind. Isn't it amazing how God works so positively through our rejections almost more than through what we consider to be positive experiences? Paul saw how the Jews who believed, together with the Gentiles who responded were bonded together in the one body of Christ. It is probably because of this pattern of negatives that Paul comes to accept his imprisonment as the imprisonment of Jesus Christ.

It must have been during Paul's imprisonment that the fullness of the mystery was revealed to him. Twice Paul mentions in his epistles that God directly revealed certain things to him. He also makes statements that imply a special revelation.[ 4 ] Another statement about a direct revelation we find in Galatians: "I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ."[ 5 ] There Paul probably speaks about the truth that Gentiles do not have to pass the rite of circumcision in order to be saved.

I believe that the Holy Spirit uses the written Word to reveal the will of God to men. In cases where there is no written scripture, as on some mission fields, direct revelation is much more common than in countries where the whole Bible is accessible. But in any case, the content of the revelation should be compared to what is written in the Bible. Revelations that add new truths to the Scripture should not be considered as coming from the Holy Spirit. We have to be very cautious in regard to this. Of course in Paul's time the New Testament was still in the process of being born. It could be that much of the revelation was given to Paul at the moment Christ showed Himself to the Apostle on the way to Damascus. Sometimes we see in a glimpse so much truth that it takes us months or years to work it all out in detail. It is clear however, that Paul had more than one supernatural experience. Paul says in Acts: "When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance. And saw the Lord speaking. 'Quick!' He said to me. 'Leave Jerusalem immediately, because they will not accept your testimony about me.' "[ 6 ] In Second Corinthians he says: "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; whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows; Was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell."[ 7 ] These are two examples of other revelations.

The Tyndale Commentary suggests that the verse 1 should be linked to the 14th verse of this chapter, where Paul starts out by saying "For this reason...." He seemingly became sidetracked in vs. 1 and his original intention was to say that he meant to bow his knees before the Father because of the mystery he was trying to explain. From Vs. 5 we understand that Paul does not claim exclusive knowledge of this mystery. The Holy Spirit revealed it to "God's holy Apostles and prophets ... 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." Peter states this truth in similar fashion in his first epistle. Speaking about the Old Testament prophets, he says: "It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things."[ 8 ]

Even before the death of Jesus, the disciples were told: "But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it."[ 9 ] This revelation was confirmed during the first Council of the church in Jerusalem. The Jewish congregation says boldly to the believers from among the Gentiles: "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us..."[ 10 ] In vs. 6 Paul explains again, what he already stated in ch. 2, that the Gentiles have been joined into the family of God together with the Jewish believers. He says that this is the result of the preaching of the Gospel. At this point, he does not elaborate on the contents of the Gospel. It is understood what the message is: that there is forgiveness of sins through the blood of Christ and justification through His resurrection. The promise in Christ is the promise of the Holy Spirit, that was given to Abraham: "All peoples on earth shall be blessed through you."[ 11 ] In Galatians Paul explains this as follows: "He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit."[ 12 ]

God revealed to His Apostles that the Gentiles were to become members of the body of Christ by giving them the Holy Spirit in the same way as the Spirit was given to the Jews on the day of Pentecost.

Paul sums it up in three parts: not only is there no need for Gentiles to become Jews through circumcision before they can be saved, but "the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus." When the vastness of this penetrates his thinking, he sees himself as David under the stars, where he said: "When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?"[ 13 ] Nothing should make us more humble than the realization that God uses us to accomplish His purpose. If we start to feel ourselves important because we serve the Lord, we have lost all sense of proportion. When the glory of God is revealed to us, it reduces us to size. It is only when we understand the greatness of the message and our own smallness that the Lord will be able to send His power through us. In Second Corinthians Paul ponders the same points, when he says: "And who is equal to such a task?.... Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God."[ 14 ] Paul calls himself here "the least of all God's people." Elsewhere he says: "For I am the least of the Apostles and do not even deserve to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the church of God."[ 15 ]

Evidently the memory of his former life keeps on pursuing him. It makes the call of God upon his life so much more wonderful. We find the same thought in First Corinthians, where he says: "Yet when I preach the gospel, I cannot boast, for I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel! If I preach voluntarily, I have a reward; if not voluntarily, I am simply discharging the trust committed to me."[ 16 ]

It was not completely true of course that Paul had no choice on the road to Damascus. But what can a man do when all of a sudden God's glory shines upon him? Nobody who really sees the light chooses darkness. What initially looked like the second best choice: preaching to the Gentiles, because the Jews rejected the Gospel, turns out to be "the grace ... to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ." The word "unsearchable" means that the mystery is hidden from our natural senses. The Spirit within us understands. Also, insight is multiplied within the body of Christ. One individual member cannot understand completely, but when the members function together as one body, the horizon of knowledge is pushed back. The word translated with "administration" is oikonomia in Greek. It is the same word as in 3:2. There Paul says that he was trusted with the administration of God's grace to men. Our word economy is derived from the same root.

The dispensationalists see in Vs. 9 the indication of the "Great Parenthesis"; meaning that God interrupts His plan with Israel in order to use the church to reveal Himself in the world, and that this role will be handed back to Israel in the end times. I believe that Israel will play a role in God's revelation at some point in history. Otherwise, the preservation of the Jews would make no sense. But Paul does not speak about the role of the church as some parenthesis. The revelation of the mystery of the church is a vital part of God's eternal purpose in Jesus Christ. Also Paul's mentioning of God, as the Creator of all things, indicates that the mystery is part of the whole creation plan.

So the function of the church is to make known the manifold wisdom of God to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms. To start with the latter, Paul distinguishes two kinds of rulers. He states in ch 6:12: "for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." Those are the powers of darkness. They will have to admit grudgingly the implication of Jesus' victory over them through His death on the cross and His resurrection. On the other hand, we see the angels and other heavenly being, who, according to Peter "long to look into these things."[ 17 ] I suppose that Paul includes both kinds of rulers and authorities in this verse.

"The manifold wisdom of God" is a beautiful expression. According to the Tyndale Commentary the word is polipoikilos which means a variety of color such as in flowers or in cloth.

Paul does not elaborate upon how God's wisdom will be revealed through us. It will be on the one hand the fact that we are what we are: people who were lost in sin, and who were washed in the blood of the Lamb, and who were elevated to the position of sitting on the throne of God together with the Father and the Son. The church of Christ, however, will not just be a bunch of puppets. If God makes known His wisdom through us, then He will share His wisdom with us. We will be, as Peter calls it, "partakers of the divine nature."[ 18 ] It is hard for us to imagine this transformation, as John says: "Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is."[ 19 ] These thoughts, however true they are, can be dangerous to our sanctification. We do better to concentrate on the wisdom and glory of God than on ourselves and our sharing in this.

In vs. 12 Paul draws the practical implication of this for the present. "In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence." This is the same conclusion that is drawn by the writer to the Hebrews. "Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, And since we have a great priest over the house of God, Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water."[ 20 ] This is the kind of encouragement we need in our present condition. Living in the darkness of this world, mankind finds it easy to be influenced by the propaganda of the enemy and to think that access will be denied if we try to come to God, but the hope of glory makes us bold.

Sometimes we may think that the price we pay here is too high. Some people are killed because of the Gospel, others are imprisoned and suffer sickness or hunger. Paul says that his imprisonment is the glory of the church. If we keep harping on the price that we have to pay, the devil will make us pity ourselves. But if we keep our eyes on the glory to come, we see things in their right perspective. In Rom. 8:18 Paul says: "I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." God's grace is not cheap.

3:14-21

Verses 14-21 contain Paul's intercessory prayer and doxology and is considered to be one of the greatest sections of the Bible. I believe the Tyndale Commentary is correct in saying that Paul takes up the sentence he left unfinished in vs. 1: "For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles;.... I kneel before the Father," In the Old Testament God was seldom addressed as Father, but in the New Testament, Jesus puts the full emphasis upon the fatherhood of God. He calls God: "The Father." The name is used 67 times in the Gospels, 55 of which are in the Gospel of John. So we can say that Jesus puts the full emphasis upon the fact that God is the real Father, the original one, of whom all fatherhood on earth is derived. When Paul says about the God, the Father: "From whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name," he may be saying this very thing. The Tyndale Commentary objects to the translation "the whole family" for the Greek pasa patria. It says: "The word cannot quite be translated 'fatherhood'(RV mg.). It means strictly 'lineage' or 'pedigree' (on the father's side) or more often 'a tribe' or even 'nation', but by the context and the derivation of the word ('father' is pater in the Greek), the idea of fatherhood is there." So we are close enough if we say that all earthly fatherhood is derived from the Fatherhood of God. Therefore we affirm that He is the real father and that all fathers on earth are a shadow of the reality of God, who created us. The context makes us understand that God is our Creator, not only in the sense that our being alive on this planet is due to His act of creation, but that He has made us a new creation in Jesus Christ. Paul speaks about the Father as the one Who makes His Spirit dwell within us and Who imparts to us the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. This is no result of our natural birth, but of our identification with the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In the first place we must recognize that Paul utters a prayer of adoration. He kneels before the Father to worship. The glory of the Gospel always brings us to this place, where we realize that what God has done for us surpasses our wildest imagination. It is inexpressibly glorious; it makes us worship and adore.

This prayer is lofty, as it reaches to the highest spheres, and at the same time it is very practical. Paul makes appeal to the greatness of God as the source of our new life, in order that the fullness of this life be applied in a very practical way in our present situation. The strengthening of our inner being by the Holy Spirit applies to our weakness in the life we live at present. This weakness is a prerogative for the strengthening from above. If we are strong in terms of earthly energy, resilience, character and so on, the divine strength will conflict with our natural strength. Weakness in these areas is a must. Paul describes this in Second Corinthians, where Christ says to him: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." And Paul's reaction is: "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." [ 21 ]

The strength of the Spirit is the presence of Christ. Now if we have invited Christ into our hearts, there should be no doubt as to whether He lives in us or not. In Revelations the Lord says: "Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me."[ 22 ] The "I will come in," is our life long guarantee if we have opened the door for Him. Faith is the key to the experience, not to bring about the reality. The Lord may be in us without us being aware of it. If we trust the truth of His promise 'I will come in' we will soon be filled with a sense of His presence. And even if we do not feel something, we may lean on the promise. We should never lean on our feelings. The strength is not derived from our experience, but from our conviction that He said it and He cannot lie. Paul tells this church basically the same things as he told the church in Colosse. To them he speaks about "the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."[ 23 ] The hope of glory is the strength for daily living. The essence of his prayer is "God give them faith, so that they will experience this strength."

The next imperative is love. Paul prays that the believers may be "rooted and established in love." That is first of all in the love of Christ and then in the love to one another. The reference here is to the great commandment. " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' " If Christ lives in our heart and we know it, love we be the natural manifestation of His presence. Once Paul starts thinking about the love of Christ, he gets carried away. John is more practical and in a certain sense even more powerful in his expression when he comes to the conclusion "God is love."[ 24 ] "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him."

In vs. 18 power and love are combined to form knowledge. But knowledge that carries with it a dimension that earthly knowledge does not know. It is the knowledge that surpasses understanding. The expressions "wide and long and high and deep" try to describe eternity in human terms. They cannot be taken literally. As humans who live in the boundaries of time and space, we cannot picture eternity. Therefore, we have to put it in dimensions we know. The key to understanding is in the "together with all the saints." Only in the fellowship of love to one another do we start to see something of the ocean in which we live. Most Christians have no idea what Paul is talking about here, because the demonstration of love in the church which is necessary for this understanding is almost nowhere to be found.

"That you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." (vs. 19). Our understanding the love of Christ opens the door for us to be filled with God Himself, that is the fullness of the Holy Spirit. What Paul says is an impossibility. God is measureless. There is no measuring of eternity, because a measure presupposes boundaries. So if we are filled to the measure of all the fullness of God, we are plunged into an eternity that is as far above our comprehension as God Himself. In Philippians Paul uses the same kind of language: "And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus."[ 25 ] The measure of our being filled is the measurelessness of God. This glorious paradox should make us shout "hallelujah"! What Paul says in First Corinthians is true: "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him."[ 26 ] Even after hearing these things, our minds are not able to conceive the truth. It is probably a good thing that we cannot fathom what God has planned. It would make us unduly proud, and we would lose it.

The chapter ends with a doxology. But Paul weaves a reference to our prayers in the praise, which should greatly encourage us. The measure that was mentioned above becomes 'unmeasurable' here. God "is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us...." If this does not stimulate our faith when we pray, nothing will. When we pray for something or somebody, we should always remember to Whom we are talking. God stopped the sun when Joshua prayed.[ 27 ] He raised Jesus from the dead, and He is able to move mountains.[ 28 ]

When Paul says: "according to the power that works in us," he appeals to our experiences with God. Each child of God, each person who has accepted Jesus Christ as Lord of his life, has tasted something of the power that broke the grip of sin upon his life and that transformed him from a wretch to a new creature. In this appeal Paul wants us to realize what it is that caused the transformation. We have to be aware of our riches, otherwise the enemy will close in upon us again in order to bring us back under his influence.

In his doxology Paul says the glory of God is manifested in two ways, which become one: in the church and in Jesus Christ. It does not just say that the church has to praise God, because that would put the same obligation upon Jesus as upon us. Now it is true that Jesus glorifies the Father, but that does not seem to be what Paul is saying here. "To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." God's glory becomes evident in the church and in Jesus Christ. He states a fact, and at the same time he admonishes us as he puts the goal before our eyes. He indicates that our way of glorifying God is in essence the same as the way in which Jesus Christ glorified the Father. He brings out the same principle in his epistle to the Thessalonians: "On the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed."[ 29 ] The glory of God is to shine through us. O, miracle of all miracles! And who is equal to such a task? The answer is obvious: Our competence comes from God.[ 30 ]

[ 1 ] Eph. 4:1

[ 2 ] II Tim. 1:8

[ 3 ] Philem. vs. 1,9

[ 4 ] See I Cor. 15:51 and I Thess. 4:13-17

[ 5 ] Gal 1:12

[ 6 ] Acts 22:17,18

[ 7 ] II Cor 12:2-4

[ 8 ] I Pet. 1:12

[ 9 ] Matt. 13:16,17

[ 10 ] Acts 15:28

[ 11 ] Gen. 12:3

[ 12 ] Gal. 3:14

[ 13 ] Ps. 8:3,4

[ 14 ] II Cor. 2:16; 3:5

[ 15 ] I Cor. 15:9

[ 16 ] I Cor. 9:16,17

[ 17 ] 1 Pet 1:12

[ 18 ] II Pet. 1:3 (KJV)

[ 19 ] I John 3:2

[ 20 ] Heb. 10:19-22

[ 21 ] II Cor. 12:9,10

[ 22 ] Rev. 3:20

[ 23 ] Col. 1:27

[ 24 ] I John 4:8,16

[ 25 ] Phil. 4:19

[ 26 ] I Cor. 2:9

[ 27 ] Joshua 10:12-14

[ 28 ] Matt. 17:20

[ 29 ] II Thess. 1:10

[ 30 ] See II Cor. 2:16 and 3:5