(if indeed ye have heard of the administration of the grace of God which has been given to me towards you,
Chapter 2 has set out the doctrine. Now Paul names himself as the man God trusted with a service for the Gentiles, and he breaks off mid-sentence to explain that trust — what it is, how he got it, and why it reached them.
The verse opens a long detour. Paul starts a thought in verse 1 and only picks it up again in chapter 4. The gap holds the service God gave him.
Compare Ephesians 3:1 with Ephesians 4:1 and you can clearly see that Ephesians 3 is a parenthesis. Ephesians 2 presents the doctrine, and Ephesians 4 the practice that matches the doctrine. Between the doctrine and the practice comes this important digression, where the Holy Spirit presents the special administration, or service, entrusted to the Apostle. In the second verse he calls this service "the dispensation of the grace of God", and in verse 9 "the fellowship of the mystery". In both verses the word is the same in the original language. The best translation is "administration", an administration being a particular service.
The opening words have puzzled readers. They sound as if Paul is unsure whether people he knew well had heard of his commission.
This verse has caused a difficulty for some, because it seems to contradict the idea that this letter went first to the saints at Ephesus. The objection sounds better than it is. As far as the difficulty comes from the Apostle's actual wording, it is only imaginary. He could properly have used such language even when writing to people he already knew and had begun to teach in the way of the Lord.
Older translations call it a "dispensation" where the ESV says "stewardship". Both render one word, and it names a job placed in one man's hands.
The apostle Paul speaks in our chapter, verse 2, of "the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me for you." This word, "dispensation," is elsewhere translated "stewardship" (see Luke 16:2-4). God entrusted this distinctive stewardship to Paul. It was to make known to the Gentiles, above all, the truth of the mystery, which he received by revelation along with the other apostles. The Lord was pleased to reveal by the Holy Spirit the great secret of God, which He had kept hidden during past ages. Yet God committed the ministry, or stewardship, of it to Paul alone. So we find the teaching of it in the letters of the Apostle Paul only.
Another arrangement of God's still lies in the future. What makes this present one a stewardship of grace is who was on the receiving end.
That dispensation is future. In Eph. 3:2 we have a present dispensation, far more limited in its scope, though far more intimate in its character. The apostle speaks of it as "given to me for you" — he was the steward of it as far as the Gentiles, such as the Ephesians, were concerned. Remember how completely lost and hopeless the Gentiles had been, as Eph. 2:12 states. Then it is easy to see that this is indeed a dispensation of the grace of God. The coming age will be the dispensation of His glory instead.
The phrase "for you" points the arrangement at the readers, not at Paul. He received it so he could hand it on.
Paul's words call us to listen to what God, in His goodness and wisdom, made known to Paul for us: the revelation of the mystery. Paul tells us in a few words what it is. The Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel. Nothing that God had given to His saints from among the Jews would now be missing from those who had been Gentiles.
Grace was not only the subject Paul carried. It was also what had happened to the carrier.
God had entrusted an administration of grace to Paul for the saints of this dispensation. Everything tied to Paul's Gospel, and to the truth of the mystery, shows the wonderful grace of God. Nothing God has given us in Christ comes because we deserve it. It all comes in rich, sovereign grace. The apostle is the vessel of this grace. He not only has the truth about it to minister; God has also worked on him with power.
- Trust. The word translated "dispensation" means a stewardship, or administration — one particular service, placed in Paul's hands.
- Grace. It is a stewardship of grace because it reached people who were lost and hopeless. The coming age will display His glory instead.
- Single hands. Paul received the revelation along with the other apostles, but the stewardship of it was his alone. That is why the teaching appears only in his letters.
- Direction. God gave it to him for you: he received it to pass it on, so nothing given to believing Jews would be missing from Gentiles.
- Vessel. The same grace that filled the message shaped the man, so God worked on the messenger as much as He gave him the truth.
that by revelation the mystery has been made known to me, (according as I have written before briefly,
Paul stops mid-sentence in verse 1 to say where his message came from. It was not study or tradition, but a secret God opened to him.
When Paul preached the gospel, he could send his hearers back to their own Scriptures. With this subject he could not.
The Apostle wants us to receive the great truth of the church on divine authority. So he is careful to explain how he got his knowledge of "the mystery" of the church. It did not come through messages from men. It came by direct revelation from God, as he says: the mystery "was made known to me by revelation." ... But once the Apostle taught the truth of the church, he could no longer appeal to the Old Testament to confirm it. It would be useless for his hearers to search the Scriptures to see if these things were so.
The word does not mean a puzzle or something too deep to grasp. It means a secret God kept back, and then chose to tell.
These secret counsels of God are called in Scripture mysteries. We mean by a mystery something we cannot explain, something beyond our understanding. In the language of the New Testament, however, a mystery is simply a secret revealed only to those let in on it... God, then, had kept back a secret to tell us. He had not made it known even to the most favoured person who received His thoughts in past ages. How sweet to see this! It is the privilege of the children to know the secrets of the family.
Because God has told it, it is no longer out of reach for any believer.
Again, the mystery is no longer "hid in God"; it is made public. You must always keep this in mind when you read about the mystery, that it is now revealed and nothing is left in the dark. The secret is set forth in the light of God, and the simplest Christian is expected to receive it.
So what is the secret? It is about two groups becoming one.
What was the mystery? It was the revelation of this wonderful new structure that he calls "Christ and the church" (Eph. 5:32). Jew and Gentile were to be completely one. The Holy Spirit would unite them to Christ in glory, and to one another with equal privilege. Both would belong to Him, and be His Body here upon earth. You cannot find this in Old Testament Scripture.
Commentators differ on the moment. Some trace it to the words Christ spoke to Saul, heard by his travelling companions but not understood by them.
Christ first revealed the existence of His body on earth to Paul (Eph. 3:3). Paul was with his fellow-travellers at the time, but they did not understand the words... "Why do you persecute Me?"
Another writer will not fix a date, and gives the revelation its full name.
The truth so revealed is specifically "the mystery of Christ," an expression found only in the writings of this Apostle. As to the occasion when this revelation was given, it is hard to speak with confidence, because Scripture is not explicit on the point. It is not likely that it was the same as the heavenly vision that taught him his first lesson of obedience to the faith of Jesus (Acts 26:19).
Paul points back to something he had already written.
Only three passages give us the details of this secret: Ephesians 2:9-22; Eph. 3:6; and Colossians 1:27. Eph. 3:3-4 proves that the first of these unfolds the mystery, for there the apostle appeals to what he wrote earlier as showing his knowledge of the subject. Notice, by the way, that he calls this earlier passage "a few words." Yet it is the longest and fullest passage of the three. This shows us that it is a condensed summary of the matter, and we may expect to find in it great fulness and depth.
This revelation completed the great lines of truth God had to give.
God had revealed all the great lines of truth when He made known the special revelation He gave to Paul (Eph. 3:3)... We look, then, for no more. Claimed additions to revealed truth are not the fruit of the Holy Spirit's teaching now. Additions to the Christian faith, not found in the Word, are not of divine origin.
- Secret, not puzzle. A mystery in Scripture is a secret God held back, then told — not something too deep to understand.
- Told to one man. Paul received it by direct revelation, not from men. His first hearers could not check it in the Old Testament, because it is not there.
- Told about one Body. The secret is Christ and the church. Jew and Gentile are made completely one, joined to Christ in glory and to each other.
- Told to the family. Children get to know the family secrets. The simplest Christian is expected to receive this one.
- Told in full. This was the last great line of truth. Claimed additions to it are not of divine origin.