Ephesians Chapter 3 Series

Ephesians Chapter 3

Eph. 3:1 For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, (KJV)

3:1 For this reason [because I preach that you and believing Jews are joint heirs] I, Paul, am the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles-- (Amplified Version)

A. When Paul wrote this letter, he was in prison in Rome awaiting trial before Nero, waiting for the Jewish prosecutors to come with their bleak faces and their envenomed hatred and their malicious charges. In prison Paul had certain privileges, for he was allowed to stay in a house which he himself had rented and his friends were allowed access to him; but night and day he was still a prisoner chained to the wrist of the Roman soldier who was his guard and whose duty it was to see that Paul would never escape. (William Barclay)

B. If a man is in prison for some great cause he may either grumblingly regard himself as an ill-used creature, or he may radiantly regard himself as the standard-bearer of some great cause. The one regards his prison and a penance; the other regards it as a privilege. When we are undergoing hardship, unpopularity, material loss for the sake of Christian principles we may either regard ourselves as the victims of men or as the champions of Christ. Paul is our example; he regarded himself, not as the prisoner of Nero, but as the prisoner of Christ. (WB)

C. “For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ”,.... Not actively, whom Christ had apprehended by his grace, and made a prisoner of hope; but passively, who was made a prisoner for Christ, on account of preaching Christ, and his Gospel: he was not a prisoner for any capital crime, as theft, murder, &c. and therefore be was not ashamed of his bonds, but rather glories in them; and a prison has often been the portion of the best of men in this world: from hence we learn, that this epistle was written when the apostle was a prisoner at Rome; and the consideration of this his condition serves much to confirm the truths he had before delivered, seeing they were such as he could, and did suffer for; and which must engage the attention of the Ephesians to them, and especially since his sufferings were on their account: (John Gill)

D. “for you Gentiles”: because he preached the Gospel to the Gentiles, which the Jews forbid, that they might not be saved; and because he taught them, that circumcision and the rest of the ceremonies of the law were not binding upon them; which gave great offence to the Jews, who were the means of bringing of him into these circumstances, and particularly the Asiatic Jews, the Jews of Ephesus; who having seen and heard him there, knew him again when in the temple at Jerusalem, and raised a mob upon him, having bore a grudge against him for his ministry at Ephesus, by which means he became a prisoner; so that he might truly say, he was a prisoner for the sake of them; (John Gill)

E. Paul starts with this statement and then interrupts to bring in a statement from v. 2 to v. 14

F. He digresses to discuss a mystery . . . A literary parentheses to explain a dispensation parentheses: The Church itself is a parentheses in God’s dealing with Israel. (Chuck Missler)

Eph. 3:2 If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:

3:2 assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was entrusted to me [to share with you] for your benefit;

A. To understand the connection or thought in this passage it has to be noted that verses 2-13 are one long parenthesis. The “for this cause” of verse 14 takes up again and resumes the “for this cause” of verse 1. Someone has spoken of Paul’s habit of “going off at a word.” A single word or idea can send his thoughts off at a tangent. When he speaks of himself as “the prisoner of Christ,” it makes him think of the universal love of God and of his part in bringing that love to the Gentiles. In verses 2-13 his thoughts go off on that track; and in verse 14 he comes back to what he meant to say when he began. (William Barclay)

B. Dispensation = oikonomia = economy or dispensation; oikos = house + nomos = law; law of the house; stewardship; management Thus, the Stewardship of God’s grace: God’s principles do not change; His methods of dealing with mankind do change over the course of history. (CM)

C. 7 Dispensations. This is the changing from the Law to the Church. (CM)