1. For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, 2. If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward.
3. How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words,
4. Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)
5. Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;
6. That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:
7. Wlereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of His power.
8. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;
9. And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
10. To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, 11. According to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:
19. In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.
13. Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.
ANALYSIS
The office which Paul had received was that of an apostle to the Gentiles, verses 1-2. For this office he was qualified by direct revelation from Jesus Christ, concerning the purpose of redemption, of his knowledge of which the preceding portions of his epistle, were sufficient evidence, verses 3, 4.
The special truth, now more plainly revealed than ever before, was the union of the Gentiles with the Jews as joint partakers of the promise of redemption, by means of the gospel, verses 5, 6. As the gospel is the means of bringing the Gentiles to this fellowship with the saints, Paul was, by the special grace and almighty power of God, converted and made a minister of the gospel, verses 7, 8. The object of his ministry was to make known the unsearchable riches of Christ, and enlighten men as to the purpose of redemption which had from eternity been hid in the divine mind, verse 9. And the object or design of redemption itself is the manifestation of the wisdom of God to principalities and powers in heaven, verse 10. This glorious purpose has been executed in Christ, in whom we as redeemed have free access to God. Afflictions endured in such a cause were no ground of depression, but rather of glory, verses 11-13.
COMMENTARY
V. 1. For this cause, i.e. because you Gentiles are fellow citizens of the saints, and specially because you Ephesians are included in the temple of God.
As there is no verb of which the words, ejgw< Pau~lov, I Paul, are the nominative, there is great diversity of opinion as to the proper
construction of the passage. The most common view is that the sentence here begun is recommenced and finished in verse 14, where the words,
“For this cause” are repeated. The apostle intended saying at the beginning of the chapter what he says in verse 14, “For this cause, I Paul, bow my knees,” i.e. ‘because you Ephesians have been brought to God, I pray for your confirmation and growth in grace.’
Others supply simply the substantive verb (eijmi<). ‘For this cause I am the prisoner of Jesus Christ.’ But in this case to say the least, the article (oJ de>smiov) before the predicate is unnecessary. Others make the clause, the prisoner of Christ, to be in apposition to I Paul, and supply the predicate I am a prisoner. The sense would then be, ‘I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, am a prisoner, and in bonds for you Gentiles.’ This is better than any of the various modes of explanation which have been proposed, except the one first mentioned, which gives a far better sense. It is far more
elevated and more in keeping with Paul’s character, for him to say,
‘Because you are now part of God’s spiritual temple, I pray for your confirmation and growth;’ than, ‘Because you are introduced into the communion of saints, I am a prisoner of Jesus Christ.’
The expression, oJ de>smiov tou~ Cristou~, the prisoner of Christ, does not mean prisoner on account of Christ. Those for whom he suffered bonds are immediately afterwards said to be the Gentiles. It means Christ’s prisoner.
As he was Christ’s servant, apostle, and minister, so he was Christ’s prisoner. In all his relations he belonged to Christ. He was a prisoner, ujpe<r ujmw~n tw~n ejqnw~n, for you Gentiles. It was preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles which brought down upon him the hatred of his countrymen,
and led them to accuse him before the Roman magistrates, and to his being sent a prisoner to Rome.
V. 2. This verse is connected with the immediately preceding words. —
‘My apostolic mission is to the Gentiles; I am a prisoner for your sake, since ye have heard of the office which God has given me for your benefit.’
The word ei]ge rendered in our version by if, does not necessarily express doubt. Paul knew that the Ephesians were aware that he was an apostle to the Gentiles. The word is often used where the thing spoken of is taken for granted. Ephesians 4:21; 2 Corinthians 5:3. In such cases, it may properly be rendered, since, inasmuch as. It is only a more refined or delicate form of assertion. It is unnecessary, therefore, to assume either that this epistle was not addressed to the Ephesians particularly; or that ajkou>ein is to be taken in the sense of bene intelligere (if so be ye have well understood); or that Paul, when preaching at Ephesus, had preserved silence on his
apostleship. He speaks of himself as a prisoner for their sake, inasmuch as they had heard he was the apostle to the Gentiles.
The expression, dispensation of the grace given unto me, is the designation of his office. It was an oijkonomi>a, a stewardship. A stewardship of the grace given, th~v ca>ritov th~v doqei>shv, means either a stewardship which is a grace, or favor, or which flows from grace, i.e. was graciously conferred. Compare verse 8, in which he says, “To me was this grace given.” Not infrequently the office itself is called ca>riv, a grace or favor.
Romans 12:3, 15:15; 1 Corinthians 3:10; Galatians 2:9. Paul esteemed the office of a messenger of Christ as a manifestation of the undeserved kindness of God towards him, and he always speaks of it with gratitude and humility. It was not its honors, nor its authority, much less any emolument connected with it, which gave it value in his eyes; but the privilege which it involved of preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ.
Instead of understanding oijkonomi>a in the sense above given, of office, it may refer to the act of God, and be rendered, dispensation. ‘If, or since, ye have heard how God dispensed the grace given unto me,’ i.e. if ye
understand the nature of the gift I have received. In Colossians 1:25, Paul speaks of the oijkonomi>a as given; here it is ca>riv which is said to be given. In both cases the general idea is the same, the form alone is different.
His office and the grace therewith connected, including all the gifts
ordinary and extraordinary, which went to make him an apostle, were both an oijkonomi>a and a ca>riv. The apostleship was not a mere office like that of a prelate or prince, conferring certain rights and powers; it was an inward grace, including plenary and infallible knowledge. You could no more appoint a man an apostle, than you could appoint him a saint.
Neither inspiration nor holiness come by appointment. An apostle without inspiration is as much a solecism as a saint without holiness.
Rome, here as every where, retains the semblance without the reality; the form without the power. She has apostles without inspiration, the office without the grace of which the office was but the expression. Thus she feeds herself and her children upon ashes.
To you-ward. Paul’s mission was to the Gentiles. It was in special reference to them that he had received his commission and the gifts therewith connected. When Christ appeared to him on his journey to Damascus, he said to him, “I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; delivering thee from the people and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.” Acts 26:16-18. Here we have an authentic account of Paul’s mission. He was appointed a witness of what had been and of what should be made known to him by revelation. He was sent to the Gentiles, to turn them from Satan to God in order that they might be saved.
V. 3. How that by revelation was made known unto me, etc. This clause is connected with what precedes and explains it. — ‘Ye have heard of the grace which I have received, i.e. ye have heard how that by revelation was made known to me.’ Kata< ajpoka>luyin, after the manner of revelation, i.e. di’ ajpokalu>yewv, Galatians 1:12. He was not indebted for his knowledge of the Gospel to the instructions of others as he proves in his epistle to the Galatians by a long induction of acts in his history. This was one of the indispensable qualifications for the apostleship. As the apostles were witnesses, their knowledge must be direct and not founded on
hearsay. The thing made known was a “mystery”; i.e. a secret, something undiscoverable by human reason, the knowledge of which could only be attained by revelation. This revelation was a grace or favor conferred on the apostle himself.
The mystery of which he here speaks is that of which the preceding
chapters treat, viz. the union of the Gentiles with the Jews. Of that subject he had just written briefly; ejn ojli>gw|, with little, i.e. few words.
V. 4. By reading what he had written, they could judge of his knowledge of the mystery of Christ. pro<v o{, according to which. What he had written might be taken as the standard or evidence of his knowledge. Mystery of Christ, may mean the mystery or revelation concerning Christ; or of which he is the author (i.e. of the secret purpose of redemption), or which is Christ. Christ himself is the great mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh. He is the revelation of the musth>rion or secret purpose of God, which had been hid for ages. Thus the apostle in writing to the Colossians says: “God would make known the riches of the glory of the mystery among the Gentiles; which (i.e. the mystery) is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:27.
What Paul had written respecting the calling of the Gentiles in the
preceding chapter, was an indication of his knowledge of the whole plan of salvation — here designated as “the mystery of Christ,” which includes far more than the truth that the Gentiles were fellow citizens of the saints. It has the same extensive meaning in Colossians 4:3, where Paul prays that God would open a door of utterance for him “to speak the mystery of Christ.” This verse is, therefore, virtually a parenthesis, in so far as the relative o{ at the beginning of the next verse refers to the word musth>rion in verse 3; or if referred to that word as used in verse 4, it is to it as including the more limited idea expressed in verse 3.
V. 5. God by revelation had made known to Paul a mystery, or purpose, which was not revealed as it now was to the apostles. That the Gentiles were to partake of the blessings of the Messiah’s reign, and to be united as one body with the Jews in his kingdom, is not only frequently predicted by the ancient prophets, but Paul himself repeatedly and at length quotes
their declarations on this point to prove that what he taught was in accordance with the Old Testament; see Romans 9:25-33. The emphasis must, therefore, be laid on the word as. This doctrine was not formerly revealed as, i.e. not so fully or so clearly as under the Gospel.
The common text reads ejn eJte>raiv geneai~v, in other generations. But most editors, on the authority of the older MSS., omit the preposition.
Still the great majority of commentators interpret the above phrase as determining the time, and render it, during other ages. To this, however, it is objected that genea> never means, an age in the sense of period of time, but always a generation, the men of any age, those living in any one period. If this objection is valid geneai~v must be taken as the simple dative, and uiJoi~v tw~n ajnqrw>pwn be regarded as explanatory. The passage would then read, “Which was not made known to other generations, i.e. to the sons of men,” etc. But in Acts 14:16, 15:21, and especially in
Colossians 1:26 (ajpo< tw~n aijw>nwn kai< ajpo< tw~n gejnw~n), genea> is most naturally taken in the sense of age, or period of duration. In the same sense it is used in the Septuagint, Psalm 72:5, 102:25; Isaiah 51, 8.
As it is now revealed to his holy apostles and to the prophets by the Spirit, wJv nu~n ajpekalu>fqh ejn pneu>mati. The apostles and prophets of the new dispensation were the only classes of inspired men; the former being the permanent, the latter the occasional organs of the Spirit. They
therefore were the only recipients of direct revelations. They are here called holy in the sense of sacred, consecrated. They were men set apart for the peculiar service of God. In the same sense the prophets of the old economy are called holy. Luke 1:70; 2 Peter 1:21. The pronoun his in connection with apostles may refer to God as the author of the revelation spoken of, or to Christ whose messengers the apostles were. ‘My
knowledge of the mystery of Christ, which, in former ages, was not made known, as it is now revealed to his apostles,’ etc.: By the Spirit, i.e.
revealed by the Spirit. Pneu>mati, though without the article, refers to the Holy Spirit, the immediate author of these divine communications. It follows from the scriptural doctrine of the Trinity, which teaches the identity as to substance of the Father, Son, and Spirit, that the act of the one is the act of. the others. Paul, therefore, refers the revelations which he
received sometimes to God, as in verse 3; sometimes to Christ as in Galatians 1:12; sometimes to the Spirit.
V. 6. The mystery made known to the apostles and prophets of the new dispensation, was ei+nai ta< e]qnh sugklhrono>ma, ktl., i.e. that the Gentiles are, in point of right and fact, fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of this promise. The form in which the calling of the Gentiles was predicted in the Old Testament led to the general impression that they were to partake of the blessings of the Messiah’s reign by becoming Jews, by being as proselytes merged into the old theocracy, which was to remain in all its peculiarities. It seems never to have entered into any human mind until the day of Pentecost, that the theocracy itself was to be abolished, and a new form of religion was to be introduced, designed and adapted equally for all mankind, under which the distinction between Jew and Gentile was to be done away. It was this catholicity of the Gospel which was the expanding and elevating revelation made to the apostles, and which raised them from sectarians to Christians.
The Gentiles are fellow heirs. They have the same right to the inheritance as the Jews. The inheritance is all the benefits of the covenant of grace; the knowledge of the truth, all church privileges, justification, adoption, and sanctification; the indwelling of the Spirit, and life everlasting; an
inheritance so great that simply to comprehend it requires divine assistance, and elevates the soul to the confines of heaven. Hence Paul prays (1:17, 18), that God would give the Ephesians the Spirit of revelation that they might know what is the riches of the glory of the inheritance to which they had been called.
They are su>sswma i.e. they are constituent portions of the body of Christ; as nearly related to him, and as much partakers of his life as their Jewish brethren. The hand is not in the body by permission of the eye, nor the eye by permission of the hand. Neither is the Gentile in the church by courtesy of the Jews, nor the Jew by courtesy of the Gentiles. They are one body.
What in the preceding terms is presented figuratively is expressed literally, when it is added, they are partakers of his (God’s) promise. The promise
is the promise of redemption; the promise made to our first parents, repeated to Abraham, and which forms the burden of all the Old Testament predictions. Galatians 3:14, 19:22, 29.
The only essential and indispensable condition of participation in the benefits of redemption is union with Christ. The Gentiles are fellow heirs, and of the same body and partakers of the promise, says the apostle, in Christ, i.e. in virtue of their union with him. And this union is effected or brought about, by the Gospel. It is not by birth nor by any outward rite, nor by union with any external body, but by the Gospel, received and appropriated by faith, that we are united to Christ, and thus made heirs of God. This verse teaches therefore —
1. The nature of the blessings of which the Gentiles are partakers, viz. the inheritance promised to the people of God.
2. The condition on which that participation is suspended, viz. union with Christ; and
3. The means by which that union is effected, viz. the Gospel. Hence the apostle enlarges on the dignity and importance of preaching the
Gospel. This is the subject of the verses which follow.
V. 7. Of which (Gospel) I was made a minister; a dia>konov, a runner, servant, minister. Minister of the Gospel, means one whose business it is to preach the Gospel. This is his service; the work for which he is engaged, and to which he is bound to devote himself. There are two things which Paul here and in the verse following says in reference to his introduction into the ministry; first, it was a great favor; and secondly, it involved the exercise of divine power.
He was made a minister, kata< th<n dwrea<n th~v ca>ritov tou~ qeou~, according to the gift of the grace of God given to him. According to the common text (dwrea<n douei~san), the gift was given. “The gift of the grace of God,” may mean the gracious gift, i.e. the gift due to the grace of God; or, the gift which is the grace of God; so that the ca>riv, grace, as Paul often calls his apostleship, is the thing given. In either way the gift referred to was his vocation to be an apostle. That he who was a