Commentary on Ephesians 3:1-12

Here Paul grounds his apostolic vocation—including its hardships—in God’s glorious work of unifying Jew and Gentile in Jesus Christ. Although his outward circumstances are humble and, being a prisoner, even shameful, Paul wants the church to know that everything about his life is a testimony to the redemptive and reconciling work of God. 

Within the flow of Ephesians, the section of 3:1–13 is an encouragement that sets up a prayer. The prayer begins at 3:14. The encouragement occupies the majority of our text. It comes in a standard “if … then” construction, beginning at verse 2 and ending in verse 13: “For if [New Revised Standard Version “surely”] you have heard of the commission of the grace of God given to me … then [New Revised Standard Version “therefore”] I pray that you may not lose heart over my sufferings for you.” Puzzlingly, the lectionary separates the “if” clause (verses 1–12) from the “then” clause (verse 13); the logic of the passage does not resolve until verse 13. 

In any case, the crucial point is that Paul interprets his life as a participation in the work of God. What may seem on the outside as disgrace and defeat is on the inside the working of God’s gracious power. Indeed, the juxtaposition of Paul as a prisoner who advances the proclamation of God’s wisdom highlights that expansive power of God that runs through this passage.

The encouragement Paul aims to communicate is grounded in his biography as an apostle. As such, this text offers a rich opportunity for reflecting on the triumph of grace in the life of Paul (see also 1 Corinthians 15:8–11; Galatians 1:13–24; Philippians 3:4–11). 

Before his encounter with Jesus, Paul violently opposed the church, particularly its common life that encouraged Greek and Jew to worship God and live in fellowship together. As such, Paul’s life had stood in radical opposition to what he calls here “the manifold wisdom of God” (3:10). Paul had lived as an enemy of Jesus and his purposes, but Jesus reconciled Paul to himself and drew him into the truth. Paul knows deeply that he is undeserving of any status among God’s people, but having been personally reclaimed by God’s gracious revelation, he is filled with praise and determined to be faithful to that which has claimed him.

Paul marvels at this grace in verse 8. The adjective he uses to describe it here (“boundless,” New Revised Standard Version, New International Version; “immeasurable,” Common English Bible) is the same one he uses in Romans 11:33, where it refers to the “inscrutable” ways of God. It is grace beyond comprehension. Paul emphasizes this grace further via the “divine passives” in verses 3 and 5.

Significantly, the grace of God Paul extols is not primarily a response to his individual salvation. While Paul is certainly personally involved in the gracious plan of God, the larger drama he emphasizes here is the revelation of the deep ways of God working to restore creation. This is what both Paul and the church are caught up in. Specifically, Paul says that his ministry both proclaims (verse 8) and makes evident (verse 9) the wisdom of God. Tim Gombis argues that “making evident” is not informational but demonstrative: Paul’s ministry that brings together Jews and Gentiles demonstrates God’s wisdom. 

Specifically, this wisdom is made plain to the heavenly rulers and authorities and both expresses God’s eternal purpose (verse 11) and is made possible by the faithfulness of Jesus (verses 11, 12). If we take these words seriously, there is no avoiding the implication that the entire purpose and history of the cosmos (in other words, God’s wisdom) is disclosed in the faithfulness of Jesus and its reconciling effects (see also 1 Corinthians 1:18–30; Romans 11:33–35). 

The church displays God’s wisdom to the “rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” (verse 10). Other references to these powers in Ephesians 1:21; 2:2; and 6:12 suggest that in Paul’s mind they consist of hostile spiritual forces that oppose God and against which believers struggle (6:11). It was these powers that formerly made the Gentiles strangers and aliens (2:11–16). The defeat of the powers and the reconciliation of Gentiles and Jews through the one body of Jesus are inseparable.

The deep ethnic divisions of the church today make this text a challenge to preach. Simply put, many Christians see little evidence of the truth of Paul’s words. Rather, in many places in the world, and especially America, the words of Martin Luther King Jr. continue to pertain: 11 o’clock on Sunday morning remains one of the most segregated hours of the week. Growing forms of “tribalism”—exacerbated by a media landscape run by algorithms that manipulate and divide people, and engender cynicism—create additional divisions. 

Nevertheless, the triumph of God is the destruction of these barriers and alienations that reflect the dark spiritual forces of this age rather than the wisdom and purposes of God revealed in the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah. We must celebrate the divisions that have been overcome by faith in Jesus and see them as the demonstrations of God’s power that they are, even as we recognize our calling to move more deeply and faithfully into the mystery disclosed in the Messiah. 

References

Lynn Cohick, Ephesians, New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2020).

Timothy Gombis, “Ephesians 3:2–13: Pointless Digression, or Epitome of the Triumph of God in Christ?” Westminster Theological Journal (2004): 313–23.