49 Eph 3.1-13 Paraphrase

The right-hand column of the following table provides a paraphrase (from Don) of the text in the left-hand column.

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<td >1 For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— 2 assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, 3 how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. 4 When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. 6 This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

7 Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of his power. 8 To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, 10 so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 11 This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. 13 So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.</td>

So because you believing Gentiles are no longer separate from God in the world but through Christ are joined with believing Jews into one new type of person who is a citizen of God's people and a member of God's household and a "temple", if you please, a dwelling of God Himself, an edifice built on the truths about God provided by the apostles and prophets all perfectly aligned with Christ Jesus Himself -- because of this and because God made me a minister to you telling you of this wonderful grace of God, and because this ministry of mine includes suffering, even being jailed, I ask you to not be discouraged over what I am going through, because it is for your glory.

As to this ministry, God graciously enabled me to understand something up to now He had kept hidden and unexplained.  What I have briefly written will help you understand how I came to know this.  God revealed to me directly what others before me did not know, truths now being revealed by the Holy Spirit to Christ's chosen apostles (official messengers), and prophets/preachers.  What God revealed is that Gentiles believing in Christ as Lord and Savior become heirs of God's grace (and all that that entails) along with the believing Jews, and become fellow members of the same body of believers, and like the believing Jews benefit from the same promise of salvation and eternal life with God in Christ Jesus -- all this announced through the Gospel, the good news message I have the commission to declare.  As I say this I'm assuming you already know about me, how God revealed to me personally the information He had up to now kept hidden and unexplained, but now through His Spirit is disclosing to the apostles (including me) and prophets), and how He made me responsible for conveying God's grace to you, a ministry for which I am at the moment incarcerated.

God graciously gave me the job of telling Gentiles of this great salvation and reconciliation with God, and He gave me the power, the ability and opportunity, to do so.  Even though I am the least likely to be an apostle (after all, before Christ saved me I was a persecutor of His Church) my job is to tell you Gentiles of the riches, the benefits, provided by Christ and enjoyed in relationship to Him -- rich benefits which can be known and acknowledged and enjoyed -- but not explained as to how they work.  They are too huge, too broad, too deep, and too high to be explained.  My message also includes revealing to you how God, the Creator of all, planned all along to bring you to Him through Christ.  You knowing all these things and responding to them by God-given faith and consequently being forgiven and adopted and glorified and comprising the Church is intended to demonstrate to all the powers and authorities in the spiritual realm God's multi-faceted wisdom.

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Notes on the text:  "By" in verse 7 translates the Greek "kata" which means "according to"; in this case according to the working of God's power.  It could either modify the gift of grace God gave Paul in making him a minister of the gospel of His grace, or it could modify the idea that God's power was enabling Paul to effectively carry out his ministry -- to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and disclose and explain God's plan previously "hidden", e.g. unexplained.

Normally Greek modifiers are related to the words closest to them, which in this case would be the first idea, God's commissioning Paul to be His minister.  This would certainly fit the history (Acts 9), where God powerfully intervened in the life of Saul of Tarsus enroute to Damascus to persecute Christians: striking him to the ground, blinding him, and without negotiation placing him into God's service as His apostle to the Gentiles and emissary to their kings.

Alternatively, "by (according to) the working of His power" could be interpreted to be modifying Paul's work described in verses 8b-9: preaching and disclosing the multi-faceted (ESV's "manifold") wisdom of God seen in His revealed plan of redemption of Gentiles and Jews.  Among the Bible scholars favoring this interpretation are Kenneth Wuest and John MacArthur.  Wuest interpreted the text thusly, "I became one who ministers according to the gift of the grace of God, which grace was given to me according to the operative energy of His power."  MacArthur's commentary reads, "The Lord is the power behind the servant," and cites Col 1.29, "For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me." (NASB)

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