Day 40: Ephesians 3
Passage for the Day
1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—
2 Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, 3 that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. 4 In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. 6 This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.
7 I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power. 8 Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, 9 and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. 10 His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, 11 according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. 12 In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. 13 I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory.
14 For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
Points of interest:
· ‘the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles’—the ‘you Gentiles’ specifically refers to the Gentile followers of Jesus in the large city of Ephesus (where Paul had spent a fair amount of time helping people to grow in their faith). He writes to them as a literal prisoner, but he views his sentence as just a part of following Jesus and doesn’t seem too phased by his incarceration. He is thrown into prison after upsetting some powerful Jewish religious leaders by spending time with a Gentile friend in Jerusalem, then going to the temple. Paul is pretty much willing to do anything, including facing prison and death, to stick up for the Gentile’s right to worship.
· ‘mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel’—through Jesus, Gentiles actually get to join in on the promises and blessings that God gave to Israel. And they don’t just get to join in from a distance or have to go through painful rituals, such as circumcision (like the Jews thought). Instead because of Jesus they actually are adopted and made part of the family. Not only is this a mystery to most people at the time, but it actually sounds like heresy. You can imagine the Jews’ strong reaction to this news—where they once believed that they were the sole beneficiaries to a grand estate that God was going to give them, now a whole bunch of outsiders were being written equally into the family will. By the way, Paul’s belief in this mystery is what leads him to get thrown in prison.
· ‘to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery’—the mystery—that everyone through faith could experience God —was not clear to people. Jews and Gentiles alike had had some pretty set understandings about what it meant to believe in God, and now Jesus had somehow turned everything around. It leaves people living under a fog that obstructs their understanding about how they themselves and other people relate to God. Paul wants to clear up this haziness by explaining to people how this faith-in-Jesus-thing gets played out and what it means in their current situation.
· ‘which for ages past was kept hidden in God’—as we have seen, all throughout the history of God’s people there are references to God’s desire to bless all people. However up until Jesus, it wasn’t clear to people how this would in fact happen. And as we have seen, most Jews conjectured that the promised Messiah would rescue them from Roman oppression and restore the temple to what it was like during Solomon’s days. They were wrong and had a hard time coming to grips with what God actually intended.
· ‘to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms’—in addition to rulers and people who hold positions of power in our earthly world, Paul alludes to a spiritual world that exists simultaneously. This spiritual world also has a variety of rulers and authorities made up of both angels and demons. Gentiles in Paul’s day were particularly afraid of these unseen powers and created all sorts of idols and gods to protect themselves. Paul points out that even these powers are subject to Jesus, reassuring the Gentiles they have nothing to fear and can remain committed to Jesus’ protection.
· ‘we may approach God with freedom and confidence’—previously, approaching God had been just the opposite. There was a lot of preparation and ritual, a good amount of fear, and it was rather selective. People could only come before God by offering sacrifices through a priest and being ceremonial clean. Priests existed from the time of Moses and served as intermediaries for the people of Israel. And even then the priests could only encounter the presence of God in the holiest part of the temple one time a year. Jesus’ death on the cross served as the ultimate sacrifice and freed people from relying any longer on offering sacrifices of their own. Now instead of a priest, Jesus was the intermediary and allowed people direct access to God all the time. So God is no longer far off, nor do people have to fear that they are unclean or their sacrifices are insufficient. It’s like Jesus gives everyone VIP passes backstage to schmooze and meet the band—but here the band is the eternal, powerful, living, saving God.
· ‘from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name’—Paul claims that God is the Father of all people everywhere—not just the Israelites. Fathers in that day and age were supreme authority figures; children received their names, identities, purposes and legacies from their fathers. And God is the father of all people. He names each group, sees his likeness in them, and blesses them with purpose and an inheritance.
· To grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ’—Paul paints a picture of the four dimensions of Jesus’ love. Yes, that’s right, four dimensions. God’s love is big—very BIG! Too big to actually have words for. The mystery to which Paul refers is fueled by this love, and it’s Paul’s desire that the Ephesians would be able to better understand the immensity of it.
· ‘that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God’—the whole purpose of following Jesus alongside others and grasping the vastness of his love is to receive some type of abundant outpouring of God. I think this ‘fullness,’ though, could be two-fold. There’s the fullness of God’s presence in the form of the Holy Spirit, as God pours out it on each of us just like Jesus promised in Acts 1 (March 31st). There’s also the full richness of many different people, from many different cultures, becoming one body and, joining together to worship God. Since every people group in some way bears the image of God, the more people come to him from all different backgrounds, the fuller picture of God it creates.
Taking it home:
· For you: Paul keeps alluding to ‘Christ’ again and again in this passage (9x to be exact), as if he just can’t fully communicate all that he wants to about Jesus. There’s just too much. He is bigger and deeper and more generous than even one of his most famous followers can depict. Today is Good Friday, the day we commemorate Jesus’ crucifixion on the cross. Take some time to be still and just think about Jesus. What do you personally think about Jesus? If you are a follower of Jesus, what has following him meant for you? If not, what interests you about Jesus? What’s a little too large or strange for you to comprehend? Pick a few times throughout your day today where you can pause for a minute or two to reflect on Jesus. In those moments, ask Jesus to show you, and to give you the ability to grasp, a new layer of the love he has for you.
· For your six: What do your six think about Jesus? Pray today that God would give your six openness to believing in and relating to Jesus. Pray that God would powerfully and clearly demonstrate the expanse of Jesus’ love in their lives.
· For America: Ask God today for ‘more’ for our country. Ask that in whatever ways he has already shown up and done great things, that he would increase that. Tell God you want to see immeasurably more of him in America.