Ephesians 3:1-13. In the first two chapters of this letter Paul has spoken over and over again about the power of God and how he is using it for the benefit of Paul\u2019s readers. It\u2019s good to remember that Paul was writing this letter to a group of believers in the city of Ephesus in Asia Minor (Modern day Turkey). In those days the world around the Mediterranean Sea was ruled by the Roman Empire. One part of how Rome ruled was by allowing people to maintain their ethnic and religious identities. As long as conquered nations world stayed peaceful they could keep their culture. There were things added to their lives by the Roman government but not major changes. We also want to remember that Christianity had its roots in the religious history of the Jewish people.<\/p>\n
Who Jesus is and what he came to earth to do was foretold in the Old Testament and was hinted at in the religious practices of the Jewish people. In a way, the way God set up for the Jewish people to live and relate to him was like a movie trailer, \u201cComing to your existence soon, The Kingdom of God, a kingdom for al nations, ruled by God\u2019s suffering servant, the Messiah!\u201d (Jeremiah 10:7-10, Jeremiah 31:10-12, Isaiah 9:6-7, Isaiah 52:7-15, Isaiah 53). The first believers in Jesus were almost all Jews. It wasn\u2019t long, though, before the message started going out to the non-Jews, Gentiles. In the beginning Christianity was considered a branch of the Jewish religion. By the time Paul wrote to the believers in Ephesus all of that had started to change. Many Jews felt that what the believers believed about Jesus was wrong, and those Jews were very serious about their beliefs (remember that Paul started out as a Jew dedicated to killing believers in Christ, see \u201cPaul Sent One to the Gentiles\u201d<\/a>). This tension came to the attention of the Roman authorities who came down hard on anything that disturbed the peace of the empire. Also the church (believers and followers of Jesus) was changing from mostly Jewish believers to a mix of Jewish and non-Jewish (gentile) followers of Jesus. Some churches were almost all gentiles.<\/p>\n So by the time Ephesians was written there was a lot of pressure in the church (or churches) both inside and out. Pressure from the government, pressure of non-believing family members to come back to the old religion (both in the families of Jews to return to Judaism and the families of Gentiles to return to their Polytheism (worship of many gods)) and pressure inside the church between the Jewish believers and the gentile believers about what things were really part of this new thing, this \u201cone new man\u201d, this \u201chouse or temple of God\u201d as Paul called it in the last chapter. And we don\u2019t want to forget that Paul was writing this while on house arrest near Rome, chained to a Roman guard, waiting a trial to see if he had been causing riots back in Jerusalem, a charge that could carry the death penalty.<\/p>\n In today\u2019s reading Paul starts by saying \u201cfor this reason\u201d, he wants to tell the readers something that is based on what he told them in the first two chapters. As I said above, Paul had been talking to them about the power<\/u> God was using for them. More specifically he was telling them about God \u201csaving\u201d them, making them \u201calive with Christ\u201d (Ephesians 2:5). You can look back two posts to see more about that. Paul used the term \u201cChrist\u201d instead of the name Jesus to get them to think about what Jesus came to do rather that about him as a person (we sometimes think of \u201cchrist\u201d as a name but it is really a title, it means chosen one, and is a link by Paul back to ideas in the Old Testament). What Paul is linking back to is our broken relationship with God and God\u2019s plan to fix it (see \u201cThe Old Testament Connection\u201d<\/a> and \u201cA Tale of Two Trees\u201d). Maybe even more specifically, what he is about to say to them is about this whole \u201cnew man\u201d thing in Ephesians 2:15, also compared to a house in in Ephesians 2:20-22, and a kingdom in Ephesians 2:19. Paul is going to talk to them about the way God is combining both Jews and non-Jews into a new group of people, the church<\/u>, who are going to be His family (see his use of \u201cfather\u201d in Ephesians 2:18 and the idea of inheritance in Ephesians 1:14) and His people forever (see 1 Peter 2:9-10).<\/p>\n Paul then identifies himself as \u201cthe prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you gentiles (non-Jews)\u201d.What ever he is about to say to them is related to the fact that he is a prisoner. Notice that he is a prisoner of Jesus. Although he is in custody of the Romans it is really Jesus who limits or controls his life. Again the title \u201cChrist\u201d comes first to emphasize the mission Jesus came to complete, a mission he has asked his followers to continue and complete (Matthew 28:19-20) and a mission that drove Paul\u2019s actions. Jesus told his followers to make other followers in the whole world and Paul was doing that specifically among non-Jews (gentiles). Paul had spent the last thirty years traveling around, suffering a lot of trouble and expense, to get the word out about Jesus (1 Corinthians 9:1-12, 2 Corinthians 11:23-28). So as a \u201cprisoner of Christ\u201d, who has spent the last 30 years working hard to help non-Jews (especially) come to understand that they could have a part along with the any Jewish people who would believe in God\u2019s forever family, Paul has something to say to these gentile believers.<\/p>\n But Paul gets interrupted almost immediately. He wasn\u2019t interrupted by something outside of himself but by what he has been saying. And he was probably literally saying what we are reading. In Paul\u2019s day letters and other documents were often dictated by the author and actually written by someone else. In five different letter Paul makes a point that some part of the letter is being written \u201cin his own hand\u201d (1 Corinthians 16:21, Galatians 6:11, Colossians 4:18, 2 Thessalonains 3:17, Philemon 19). Paul makes this point to make sure his readers know that these letters are really from him and carry his full authority. But it also tells us that some part of these letters were probably written down by someone else. Colossians and Philemon were probably written at exactly the same time as Ephesians, so although Ephesians doesn\u2019t specifically tell us that someone else was doing the writing it is very likely. So as Paul brings up the fact of being a prisoner it makes him think about that fact and he stops what he is talking about and chases that idea for a little bit, 12 verses or the rest of today\u2019s reading to be exact. Tomorrow we will get back to what it was that Paul wanted his gentile readers to know about this \u201cnew man\u201d they were now a part of.<\/p>\n Remember Paul is taking this little side trip because of the way he had identified himself in verse 1, \u201cprisoner of Christ Jesus, for the benefit of you gentiles\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0 Here in verse 2 he tells them that he assumes they have heard of the \u201cstewardship of God\u2019s grace given to him for them\u201d. The Greek word translated \u201cstewardship\u201d is \u201coikonomia\u201d, we get our word \u201ceconomy\u201d from that word (remember the New Testament was written almost entirely in Greek, the language of the day) . The idea behind the word is of running something like a business or a country. In Paul\u2019s day though the main usage of the word was for running a household. Often a large household was like a small business and often servant would be given parts to run. The use of this word echoes back to the end of chapter two where Paul told the gentile believers that they were being carefully fit together with Jewish believers into a house for God. It also fits with the idea of us being in a family with God (the Father) who has given us an inheritance.\u00a0\u00a0 In this case the part of the \u201chousehold: that Paul has been trusted with is God\u2019s grace. Remember that \u201cgrace\u201d describes an undeserved gift, Paul is handing out presents. Cool! We also see that this \u201cgift\u201d was given to him to hand out.<\/p>\n In verse 3 Paul tells them that it was only by \u201crevelation\u201d that he could make known to them the \u201cmystery\u201d that he had just written about to them. It is interesting that back in Ephesians 1:9-10 Paul talked about the \u201cmystery\u201d of God\u2019s will; His kind intention which God set out to accomplish through Jesus. And how what God had a plan (administration in Ephesians 1:10 is the Greek work \u201coikonomia\u201d) to add things together in Christ. So here in verses 2-3 we see the same words as Paul used in chapter 1 \u201cmystery\u201d and \u201coikonomia\u201d and we also see the link to the house\/household idea in chapter two where it was gentile believers and Jewish believes being joined together in to one new thing the church.<\/p>\n In verses 4-5 Paul links his next idea back to verse 3, he understands the mystery because God revealed it to him, he didn\u2019t figure it out, the \u201cinsight\u201d was all from God.\u00a0\u00a0 Here we find out that Paul uses the word mystery because this wasn\u2019t something that was generally known or could be figured out. The mystery is also like with Christ and that this mystery was not known in the past. This mystery is only known now because God apostles (sent ones) and prophets (more guys who would speak from God) were giving out information that had been revealed to them. Paul was one of these \u201capostles\u201d. We also see this stuff came to these guys with the help of the Holy Spirit, revealed directly from God, in other words. We aren\u2019t sure why Paul decides to call these messengers of God \u201choly\u201d. The idea is of someone or something that is given to or special to someone or something else. Perhaps with all the trouble going around (like being in prison) Paul wanted to make sure that the Ephesian believers understood that these guys were God\u2019s guys and still under his protection. In verse 6 Paul becomes very specific about the mystery. In chapter 1 the mystery that was revealed seems more general, its God\u2019s plan to fix the sin problem (see \u201cA Tale of Two Trees\u201d<\/a>) through Jesus. The idea of \u201csumming up in Christ\u201d in that chapter might hint at what Paul talks about in Chapter 2 when he talks about gentile believers being full members of God\u2019s forever family and his eternal kingdom. Here is verse 6 Paul says the mystery he is talking about is this same thing that Jewish believers and gentile believers are equal members of God\u2019s family.<\/p>\n In verse 7 Paul returns to idea of God\u2019s power. He says he was made a \u201cminister\u201d according to the gift of God\u2019s grace when God used his power in Paul\u2019s life. The word translated \u201cminister\u201d means servant. That idea ties in well with the whole family and \u201coikonomia\u201d thing. So the work that Paul was doing, telling the world about God fixing our relationships with God and bring all believers equally together through Jesus, was a gift from God that he didn\u2019t deserve and that this opportunity Paul had was because of the power of God. In verse 8 calls himself the very least of all God\u2019s followers (saints, holy ones) and again says he didn\u2019t really deserve (grace) the chance God had given him to tell gentiles about the unknowable (literally untraceable) plan of God to bring people together as His family. Paul also uses the idea of turning on a light to describe how he got to be a part of the working out of God\u2019s plan to help the world know the mystery that had been hidden for ages in God. Only God knew exactly what he was going to do but he had hinted at it thorough out history.<\/p>\n