Paul begins this chapter intending to pray — “For this cause” — and then stops mid-sentence to explain who he is and why he is in chains. That long detour turns out to be one of the richest passages in the letter: the “mystery” hidden for ages and now revealed, that the Gentiles are fellowheirs in one body. Only in verse 14 does Paul pick up his thought again, and when he does, he kneels and prays one of the greatest prayers in Scripture: that his readers might know a love too large to be known.
A study in Ephesians 3 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 19 min read
The Prisoner Of Jesus Christ For You Gentiles
“For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)”
Ephesians 3:1-4
By any outward measure Paul was Rome’s prisoner. He calls himself “the prisoner of Jesus Christ.” Caesar held the chains, but Christ held the prisoner, and Paul would not give the emperor the credit. And he is a prisoner “for you Gentiles” — literally so. As the study of chapter 2 traced, he was arrested because a mob believed he had brought an Ephesian Gentile past the temple barrier. His chains are the price of the very truth he is about to explain.
Fellowheirs, And Of The Same Body
“Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.”
Ephesians 3:5-7
The Old Testament had always promised blessing to the nations through Abraham’s seed. What had never been fully grasped was the shape it would take: not Gentiles becoming Jewish proselytes and standing at the edge of Israel’s worship, but Gentiles made equal members of one body. Paul presses the point with three words, each beginning in Greek with the same prefix meaning “together with” — fellow-heirs, fellow-members of the body, fellow-partakers of the promise.
“Thus the Lord had given Paul his commission to enter the broad missionary field of the Gentile world. To prepare him for this extensive and difficult work, God had brought him into close connection with Himself and had opened before his enraptured vision views of the beauty and glory of heaven.”
Ellen G. White · The Acts of the Apostles, p. 159
Less Than The Least Of All Saints
“Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:”
Ephesians 3:8-9
“Less than the least” is Paul’s own coinage — in Greek he takes the word for “least” and makes it even smaller, a grammatical impossibility that says exactly what he means. The man who had seen the third heaven thinks of himself as the smallest of all God’s people. And he pairs that with the phrase “the unsearchable riches of Christ,” riches whose trail can never be followed to the end.
“There can be no self-exaltation, no boastful claim to freedom from sin, on the part of those who walk in the shadow of Calvary’s cross. They feel that it was their sin which caused the agony that broke the heart of the Son of God, and this thought will lead them to self-abasement. Those who live nearest to Jesus discern most clearly the frailty and sinfulness of humanity, and their only hope is in the merit of a crucified and risen Saviour.”
Ellen G. White · The Great Controversy, p. 471
Verse 9 adds a phrase easy to pass over: God “created all things by Jesus Christ.” The One who redeems is the One who made. The same truth opens John’s Gospel (John 1:3) and Colossians (1:16), and it means the mystery of redemption is not a rescue plan improvised after creation went wrong. The Creator and the Redeemer are the same Person, and the purpose was “hid in God” from the beginning.
“As His representatives among men, God does not choose angels who have never fallen, but human beings, men of like passions with those they seek to save. Christ took humanity that He might reach humanity. A divine-human Saviour was needed to bring salvation to the world. And to men and women has been committed the sacred trust of making known ‘the unsearchable riches of Christ.’”
Ellen G. White · The Acts of the Apostles, p. 134
Unto The Principalities And Powers In Heavenly Places
“To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord: In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.”
Ephesians 3:10-12
Here the audience of the gospel suddenly widens beyond the earth. The church is not only God’s message to the world; it is God’s exhibit before the universe. The word “manifold” means many-colored, richly varied — and nothing displays that variety like a single body made of Jew and Gentile, slave and free, drawn from every nation.
This is also the point where a thread running through the whole letter comes into view. The phrase “heavenly places” appears five times in Ephesians, and each time it marks a different part of the great controversy: our blessings are there (1:3); Christ is enthroned there (1:20); we are seated with Him there (2:6); the church displays God’s wisdom to the powers there (3:10); and the battle against “spiritual wickedness” is fought there (6:12, where the King James renders the same Greek words as “in high places”). The unseen world is watching what happens in the church.
“The church is the repository of the riches of the grace of Christ; and through the church will eventually be made manifest, even to ‘the principalities and powers in heavenly places,’ the final and full display of the love of God.”
Ellen G. White · The Acts of the Apostles, p. 9
“Even these words fail of expressing the greatness and the glory of God’s purpose to be accomplished through His people. Not to this world only but to the universe are we to make manifest the principles of His kingdom.”
Ellen G. White · Testimonies for the Church, vol. 6, p. 13
“Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.”
Ephesians 3:13
Paul will not let his readers lose heart over his imprisonment. His sufferings for them are not a defeat to be ashamed of but their “glory” — proof of how much the gospel that reached them was worth.
I Bow My Knees
“For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,”
Ephesians 3:14-15
Now Paul resumes the sentence he began in verse 1. Jews often prayed standing; to kneel signaled special earnestness. And there is a play on words in the Greek: “Father” is pater, and “family” is patria. Every family in heaven and on earth takes its name from the one Father. The church’s unity is not an organizational achievement but a family resemblance.
“The pure communion with holy beings, the harmonious social life with the blessed angels and with the faithful ones of all ages who have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, the sacred ties that bind together ‘the whole family in heaven and earth’ … these help to constitute the happiness of the redeemed.”
Ellen G. White · The Great Controversy, p. 677
“That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,”
Ephesians 3:16-17
As in chapter 1, the whole Godhead is present in Paul’s prayer: he prays to the Father, for strength by the Spirit, that Christ may dwell in the heart. “Dwell” means to settle down and be at home, not to visit. And “rooted and grounded” joins two pictures, a tree with deep roots and a building with a firm foundation.
“As Jesus was in human nature, so God means His followers to be. In His strength we are to live the life of purity and nobility which the Saviour lived.”
Ellen G. White · The Ministry of Healing, p. 426
There is a sobering footnote to this prayer. Paul had spent three years at Ephesus (Acts 20:31), and here he prays that the church there would be “rooted and grounded in love.” A generation later, the risen Christ commends the same church for its labor and its discernment and then says, “Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love” (Revelation 2:4). Sound doctrine and hard work can survive long after love has cooled. Paul’s prayer is the remedy for exactly that danger.
The Love Of Christ, Which Passeth Knowledge
“May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”
Ephesians 3:18-19
Paul prays for something that sounds impossible: to know a love that “passeth knowledge.” He does not contradict himself. The love of Christ can be truly known without ever being fully measured, the way a person can know the sea without ever reaching its far shore. And he adds “with all saints.” No single believer can take in the breadth of that love alone; it takes the whole family, Jew and Gentile together, each seeing a different side of it.
“By the Spirit, He said, He would manifest Himself to them. ‘The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My name, He shall teach you all things.’ No more will you say, I cannot comprehend. No longer will you see through a glass, darkly.”
Ellen G. White · The Desire of Ages, p. 670
“Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.”
Ephesians 3:20-21
“So God desires us to trust in Him who justifieth the ungodly. His reward is given not according to our merit but according to His own purpose, ‘which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.’ … And for those who trust in Him He will do ‘exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.’”
Ellen G. White · Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 397
Paul stacks up words for “more” until language gives out: able to do what we ask; above what we ask; above what we even think; abundantly above; exceeding abundantly above. The doxology closes the first half of the letter. Three chapters have told what God has done; the next three will tell how those who have received it should walk. But between the two halves Paul stops for worship, because the right response to grace is not first a duty but an Amen.
