Verse 1: For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus in behalf of you Gentiles,
The prayer that his readers might be filled with divine wisdom, which Paul began in Ephesians 1:15 and amplified by a meditation on the greatness of God’s power, as displayed both by the raising of Christ from the dead (1:20-22) and by the quickening of the Gentiles who were dead in sins (2:1-10), gave way to the digression of 2:11-22, where the grace of God in making Gentiles fellow-heirs of the covenant-promises is magnified. That prayer is now resumed, but Paul has not completed one sentence before he embarks upon a fresh digression – an account of the mystery of Christ which has been committed to his stewardship (3:2-13). The words “for this cause” refer back to the preceding description of God’s grace to the Gentiles; since God has so richly blessed them, Paul will pray more earnestly that they may worthily appreciate his grace in Christ. When he speaks of himself as “the prisoner of Christ Jesus in behalf of you Gentiles,” he thinks of his imprisonment as having been incurred in Christ’s service, and more particularly of its having been incurred as a direct consequence of his activity as the apostle to the Gentiles. For it was his faithfulness to the special stewardship entrusted to him by Christ that called forth the peculiarly bitter hostility of his Jewish opponents, as a result of which he was attacked in Jerusalem and put on trial before the Roman courts.
5a. The mystery of Christ (3:2-7)
Verse 2: if so be that ye have heard of the dispensation of that grace of God which was given me to you-ward;
The expression “if so be that” (Gk. eige) does not necessarily imply that they might not have heard; it is quite probably a rhetorical way of reminding them of what they knew already. The dispensation, or rather stewardship (Gk. oikonomia), was a special blessing of God’s grace which Paul had been appointed to administer – not only the bestowal of salvation on Gentiles as they believed the gospel which Paul proclaimed to them, but their incorporation as full members of the people of God; and this particular aspect of his stewardship Paul discharged by the planting of churches in which Gentile and Jewish converts enjoyed equal privileges in Christ, and on no other basis. Again, “to you-ward” marks out his Gentile readers as recipients of this “grace.”
“All God’s servants have gifts differing according to the grace given them.”
Verse 3: how that by revelation was made known unto me the mystery,
As we saw in our note on Ephesians 1:9, a mystery in the New Testament sense of the word is something hitherto concealed which has now been disclosed. There the mystery of God’s will was referred to in the most comprehensive and farreaching terms; it was stated to be the establishment of a new creation under the headship of Christ. Here a special phase of this mystery is more particularly in Paul’s mind, but this phase is itself a mystery – something previously undreamed of but now revealed to Paul and given to him to unfold and also to carry into effect as the divinely-chosen instrument for that purpose. What this special mystery was is stated expressly in verse 6.
as I wrote afore in few words,
Just which passage in his correspondence Paul is here referring to is a matter of some dispute. Most probably, however, he is referring back to what has already been said in the present epistle, especially in such passages as 1:9 ff. and 2:19 ff.
Verse 4: whereby, when ye read, ye can perceive my understanding in the mystery of Christ;
The expression “the mystery of Christ” occurs also in Colossians 4:3, where Paul describes himself as a prisoner on its account. But the aspect of the mystery of Christ which is prominent in Colossians is the fact that the indwelling Christ is, for Gentile as well as for Jewish believers, the hope of glory; the aspect on which the apostle dwells here is the fact that in Christ Gentiles are fellow-heirs with Jewish believers.
Verse 5: which in other generations was not made unto the sons of men, as it hath now been revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit;
Of the aspect of the mystery which is dealt with in the companion epistle Paul says that it “hath been hid from all ages and generations: but now hath it been manifested to his saints, to whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:26 f.). Here he makes a somewhat fuller statement, to much the same effect, concerning the concealment hitherto of that aspect of the divine mystery which he is dealing with now. Let us consider carefully, however, what it was that was not made known formerly. That God’s blessing was to extend to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews was a recurrent theme of Old Testament prophecy, from the promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:3 onwards. In Romans 15:9-12 Paul quotes a string of passages from all three divisions of the Old Testament (the Law, the Prophets and the Writings) in which he finds foreshadowings of the result of his own apostolic ministry among the Gentiles. We may compare his quotation of Isaiah 49:6 in Acts 13:47. But what was not foreseen in Old Testament times was the fact that these promised gospel-blessings would involve the creation of “one new man” (Ephesians 2:15) by the incorporation of Jewish and Gentile believers alike, on the common ground of divine grace, as fellow-members of the body of Christ; and this is the mystery which Paul unfolds in the following verse. The “holy apostles and prophets” to whom God had now revealed this truth by the Spirit’s illumination are (as in 2:20 and 4:11) those of the first Christian generation, of whom Paul was one – both an apostle and prophet. But the proclamation of this mystery, and the ministry by which it was to be fulfilled effectively, were committed pre-eminently to him.
The reference to the “holy apostles and prophets” has been felt to have an impersonal ring about it which makes it difficult to imagine Paul himself as writing it. But the difficulty lies rather in our current English ears than in the first-century Greek of the New Testament: there is nothing formal or liturgical about Paul’s use of the adjective “holy,” and nothing unnatural about the way in which he associates other apostles and prophets with himself.
Verse 6: to wit, that the Gentiles are fellow-heirs, and fellow-members of the body, and fellow-partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel,
In these words the mystery is summed up: it was God’s eternal purpose, Paul says, that the Gentiles should be joint-heirs (Gk. synnkleronomos) of an inheritance on which they had no claim by birth; “concorporate” (Gk. syssomos, a Pauline coinage) with their brethren of Jewish origin in the living unity of the body of Christ; joint-sharers (Gk. symmetochos, cf. 5:7) in those covenant-promises from which they had once been excluded (Ephesians 2:12). And these unlooked-for privileges which God designed for them in ages past have now been made good to them “in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”
Verse 7: 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.
Compare the last clause of Colossians 1:23, “the hope of the gospel, … whereof I Paul was made a minister.” There as here “whereof” means “of the gospel”; but here Paul is thinking especially of his stewardship of the mystery just unfolded. All God’s servants have gifts differing according to the grace given to them (Romans 12:6); but Paul glorified his personal ministry as an apostle of Gentiles (Romans 11:13). That he of all people should be chosen for this service was to him a matter for unending wonder and praise; it was a manifest token of the working of God’s power – and he uses language similar to that which he used in Ephesians 1:19 f. when he spoke of the display of God’s power in the raising of Christ from the dead. And rightly so; “it was that resurrection-power working in Paul that enabled him to accomplish what he did in bringing God’s gracious purpose to fruition among the Gentiles.
5b. Paul’s stewardship of the mystery (3:8-13)
Verse 8: Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;
That Paul of all people should have been chosen as chief steward of the mystery of Christ was something which made him marvel the more, the more he thought about it. In an earlier epistle he had called himself “the least of the apostles, … not meet to be called an apostle” (1 Corinthians 15:9); but here he takes a still lower place in his own estimation, and is well on the way to the language of 1 Timothy 1:15 – “sinners; of whom I am chief.” A recent writer, in ascribing the authorship of Ephesians to a disciple of Paul’s rather than to the apostle himself, suggests that the present phrase was modeled on that of 1 Corinthians 15:9, and feels that “in this new context the words have lost their original, direct simplicity, and even sound, in their artificial exaggeration, somewhat self-conscious and affected.” We must express profound disagreement with this judgment; to us the words are a very hallmark of apostolic authenticity. No disciple of Paul’s would have dreamed of giving the apostle so low a place. The word used for “less than the least” (Gk. elachistoteros) is a comparative and superlative in one, perhaps coined by Paul himself (as some have thought) with a playful reference to the meaning of his own name (Latin paullus, “little”). The adjective “unsearchable” (Gk. anexichniastos) was used by Paul in Romans 11:33 of the ways of God in his dealings with Jews and Gentiles; its use here of the wealth of Christ’s redeeming grace, lavished in the gospel upon Gentiles as well as Jews, is specially appropriate.
“We who by faith are united with Christ and incorporated in him are caught up in a divine purpose which spans eternity – ‘the purpose of the ages’.”
Verse 9: and to make all men see what is the dispensation of the mystery which from all ages hath been hid in God who created all things;
“To make all men see” is literally “to enlighten (Gk. photizo) all men.” Some good ancient authorities for the text omit “all men”; the resultant reading is that rendered in the RV margin: “to bring to light what is the dispensation of the mystery.” But the authority for retaining “all men” is weightier. The “dispensation of the mystery” which is thus to be brought to light throughout the world is the content of Paul’s special stewardship, which he has already specified in verse 6. This “mystery” which Paul has been charged to reveal in word and action was something which God had purposed and cherished from all eternity, until it was unfolded in the fullness of time. The use of the title “God who created all things” reminds us not only that he is the One who fashions everything in accordance with his sovereign decrees, but also that it was before all creation that he chose his people in Christ (Ephesians 1:4). The additional phrase in AV, “by Jesus Christ,” has poor attestation, as has also the reading “fellowship” (Gk. koinonia) for RV “dispensation” (Gk. oikonomia).
Verse 10: to the intent that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God,
The accomplishment of this eternal purpose of God’s has not in view only those who enter into the good of it on this earth. The triumph of his grace in overcoming an otherwise insurmountable barrier and uniting the two sections of mankind in Christ holds instruction for the inhabitants of the celestial realms. While the material universe presents ample evidence of the wisdom of God, the Church of the new creation (Ephesians 2:10) is the masterpiece of his wisdom – his diversified, “many-colored” wisdom, as Paul calls it, using a rare poetical adjective (Gk. polypoikilos). The principalities and powers, before whom this object-lesson of divine wisdom is displayed, probably include good and evil beings alike. In Colossians, for the most part (owing no doubt to the character of the Colossian heresy), as in Ephesians 6:12, the expression denotes supernatural forces opposed to God. The fact that God uses the church as a means of instructing the denizens of the heavenly places may throw light on 1 Corinthians 11:10, with its enigmatic phrase “because of the angels.”
Verse 11: according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:
We who by faith are united with Christ and incorporated in him are caught up in a divine purpose which spans eternity – “the purpose of the ages,” as it is literally rendered (cf. RV margin). And the One to whom we are thus united is himself the center and circumference of this purpose: it was conceived (literally “made”) in him and it attains its fulfillment through him.
Verse 12: in whom we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in him.
If the One through whom, as Paul has already said (Ephesians 2:18), we have access to the Father is the One in whom God’s eternal purpose is bound up, then our coming into the presence of God may be marked by the fullest confidence. “Boldness,” here as in 6:19 (cf. Hebrews 4:16; 10:19), is a rendering of Gk. parrhesia, a word which normally denotes freedom of utterance or “plainness of speech” (eg in 2 Corinthians 3:12). In classical Greek it signified the free speech which was the right of every citizen of a democratic state; when the word is “baptized into Christ” it indicates the liberty of Christian men to approach God directly with no intermediary apart from Christ, who embraces Godhead and Manhood in his one person. The word translated “confidence” (Gk. pepoithesis) is a rare word, used in the New Testament by Paul only (six times). “Our faith in him” is literally “the faith of him” (so AV); but the genitive “of him” is objective, denoting the One in whom the faith is placed.
“The more nearly any fatherhood, natural or spiritual, approaches in character to God’s perfect fatherhood, the more truly does it manifest fatherhood as God intended it to be.”
Verse 13: Wherefore I ask that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which are your glory.
Paul is not much concerned lest he himself should faint or grow weary through his tribulations – although his language could conceivably be translated to that effect, as noticed in RV margin. He himself knew too well the One whom he had believed. But his friends and converts might be tempted to think that, if Paul were really in the path of God’s will, he would not have so many trials to endure. Paul therefore tries to convey to them his own assurance that his tribulations are the direct consequence and a certain token of his obedience to God’s eternal purpose. Since that purpose includes the blessing of the Gentiles, the hardships which befall Paul in the course of his ministry are hardships which he suffers for them (cf. Ephesians 3:1). If they can be brought to appreciate that, far from finding cause for discouragement in the spectacle of Paul’s sufferings, they will glory in them as he himself had learned to do, seeing in them the proof that God’s purpose was advancing towards its consummation. In Colossians 1:24 Paul regards his own sufferings as something which he is called upon to endure for the sake of the Church, the body of Christ, and as his filling up of “that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ.” That the sufferings of Christ’s people are Christ’s own sufferings Paul had learned on the Damascus road; now it is his desire to absorb as much as possible of these sufferings in his own person.
6. The prayer for wisdom concluded (3:14-19)
Verse 14: For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father,
Paul’s prayer for the impartation of heavenly wisdom to his readers, begun in Ephesians 1:15 ff., and then resumed in 3:1, is now, brought to its conclusion. The shorter reading “the Father” is to be preferred here to the longer form found in AV, “the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The amplification of the names and titles of Divine Persons is frequently a mark of later forms of the text as against earlier ones. But the simple title “the Father” here accords better with the words which follow.
Verse 15: from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
In translating Gk. patria by “family” here, RV obscures for English readers the close association of this word with pater (“Father”) at the end of the preceding verse. RV margin makes the point with its more literal rendering “fatherhood.” “I bow my knees,” says Paul, “to the Father after whom all fatherhood takes its name.” That is to say, every species of fatherhood in the universe is derived from the original, archetypal fatherhood of God: his is the only underived fatherhood. And the more nearly any fatherhood, natural or spiritual, approaches in character to God’s perfect fatherhood, the more truly does it manifest fatherhood as God intended it to be. (AV, “the whole family,” would normally require the presence of the definite article in the Greek, but it is absent.)
Verse 16: that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that ye may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man;
Again the apostle proceeds to pile synonyms for power one upon another (cf. Ephesians 1:19) so as to emphasize the fullness of the divine knowledge which he craves on his readers’ behalf. The verb “be strengthened” is krataioomai; the noun translated “power” is dynamis. This enabling, measured by the riches of God’s glory (cf. “the riches of his grace” in 1:7), is the work of the Spirit; these people need to be strengthened in order to receive all the blessings that Paul seeks on their behalf, as a starving man needs to be strengthened in order to receive strong meat. “The inward man” is the true and enduring self, which delights in the law of God (Romans 7:22) and experiences daily renewal in Christ however much the outward man may waste away (2 Corinthians 4:16).
Verse 17: that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith;
the tense of the verb “dwell” is aorist; the words might therefore be rendered: “that Christ may take up his abode in your hearts.” A striking parallel to this is found in John 14:23, where our Lord says to Judas (not Iscariot): “If a man love me, he will keep my word: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.” The verbal expression used is different, but the meaning is similar. The faith of our present passage and the love of John 14:23 are inseparable companions; we may compare the emphasis on love in the clause immediately following this.
“ ‘The inward man’ is the true and enduring self, which delights in the law of God (Romans 7:22) and experiences daily renewal in Christ however much the outward man may waste away (2 Corinthians 4:16).”
to the end that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,
Here, as in Ephesians 2:21, biological and architectural figures are conjoined; plants are rooted, while buildings are founded (for that is the proper sense of the verb themelioo, here rendered “grounded”). There is a noteworthy parallelism between this passage and Ephesians 2:19-22 in the recurrent references to “dwelling” and “founding.” The two passages are closely connected by “For this cause” in Ephesians 3:1,14 (verses 2-13 being a parenthesis). A habitation of God in the Spirit must grow out of a rock-foundation of love. We may compare the expressions “grounded and stedfast” in Colossians 1:23, and “rooted and builded up … and stablished” in Colossians 2:7; a different figure is used in Colossians 2:2, “knit together in love.”
Verse 18: may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
Only by a supernatural enablement can Paul’s readers realize the divine apprehension and infilling which he prays may be theirs. Nor should the implication of the phrase “with all the saints” be overlooked. It is a vain thing for Christian individuals or groups to imagine that they can better attain to the fullness of spiritual maturity if they isolate themselves from their fellow-believers. Compare Ephesians 4:13: “till we all attain … unto a full-grown man.” But what is the object which they are to apprehend with all the saints – the object whose fourfold dimensions are specified by the apostle? Probably it is the pleroma or “fullness” of God (cf. the exposition of Ephesians 1:23). But how can human beings, finite creatures still, for all their endowment with spiritual blessings in the heavenly realm in Christ, ever hope to apprehend that which is infinite and eternal? Only in so far as that which is infinite and eternal has condescended to their estate and capacity. And he in whom “dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9) has in love declared to us the infinite God whom no man has seen at any time (John 1:18; 1 John 4:12). Hence Paul conjoins apprehension of the “breadth and length and depth and height” with knowing the love of Christ.
Verse 19: and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge,
To know what transcends knowledge is paradox enough, but what is impossible for us in ourselves becomes an experienced reality in Christ, for those who are seated with him in the heavenly places. There, a knowledge from which the highest angels are shut out is granted to sinners saved by grace.
Stronger his love than death or hell,
Its riches are unsearchable:
The firstborn sons of light
Desire in vain its depths to see;
They cannot reach the mystery,
The length, and breadth, and height.
that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God.
There is no limit to the spiritual infilling which Paul seeks on behalf of his readers, short of the fullness of God himself. He does not simply pray, as AV and RSV put it, that they may “be filled with all the fulness of God”; the preposition “unto” (Gk. eis) suggests rather their being progressively filled “up to the measure of” God’s fullness, just as in Ephesians 4:13 he speaks of their ultimately reaching “the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” Only in Christ can the apostle’s prayer be answered; in Christ the divine fullness is ideally theirs already, but his earnest desire is that it may increasingly be realized in their experience. In Colossians 2:19 he dwells upon the process, increasing “with the increase of God”; here he dwells upon the consummation. “Filled unto all the fulness of God” – nothing can exceed this; here every other blessing is comprehended and crowned.
7. A doxology (3:20-21)
Verse 20: Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think,
The apostle’s far-ranging prayer for his fellow-Christians concludes with a spontaneous outburst of praise. Has he asked for too much – that they should know Christ’s knowledge-surpassing love, that they should be filled up to the measure of God’s own fullness? No, indeed! However far the desire or thought of man can reach – even the desire and thought of an apostle in such an exalted moment of inspiration – God is able to do infinitely more. Paul coins one of his super-superlatives to express the “exceeding abundance” of God’s capacity to transcend all that we ask or think – hyperekperissou, “superabundantly.”
according to the power that worketh in us,
This power is, of course, the power of God operating in his people, and no natural energy of theirs. Paul had already prayed that his readers might be enabled by God to know “the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:19 f.). And it is by no lesser power than this that God acts in those who are united to Christ, “both to will and to work, for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).
Verse 21: unto him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
The Western text reverses the order, so as to read “in Christ Jesus and in the church”; some later uncials omit “and,” thus yielding the AV reading, “in the church by Christ Jesus.” But the best authenticated reading presents an ascending order of worth: in the Church, which is the body of Christ, and in Christ Jesus, who is head of his Church, let God be glorified. In the heavenly places, where the people of Christ are raised with him in the purpose of God to share his enthronement at God’s right hand, God is indeed glorified. But here upon earth, where the people of Christ live in mortal body, God may be glorified, too; and how this may be accomplished is unfolded in the second half of our epistle.
“It is a vain thing for Christian individuals or groups to imagine that they can better attain to the fullness of spiritual maturity if they isolate themselves from their fellow-believers.”
unto all generations for ever and ever. Amen.
Again, Paul piles synonym on synonym to emphasize the eternity of God’s praise: “unto all the generations of the age of the ages” (as RV margin renders it literally). Since it is God’s will “in the ages to come” to display the “exceeding riches of his grace” in those who have been its most signal beneficiaries, so throughout these coming ages, one age supervening upon another into the remotest infinity, it is that excelling grace of his which will redound to his highest glory. Well may the apostle add his “Amen”; but it is not his “Amen” alone, but the “Amen” of the whole new creation. On this transcendent note the first part of the epistle ends.
Praise to the Lord; O let all that is in me adore him!
All that hath life and breath, come now with praises before him!
