Ephesians 3:1

For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ,.... Not actively, whom Christ had apprehended by his grace, and made a prisoner of hope; but passively, who was made a prisoner for Christ, on

For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, As the first chapter treated of THE FATHER'S office; the second, THE SON'S; so this, that of THE SPIRIT.

CHAPTER 3 Paul, in bonds for preaching Christ to the Gentiles, showeth that the mystery of their calling, heretofore hidden, had been revealed to him, that by his ministry God’ s gracious purpose might be universally known, and the Gentiles be assured of their acceptance by faith. He desireth his Ephesian converts not to be discouraged at his sufferings on their account, and prayeth that God would strengthen their faith and knowledge of the infinite love of Christ. ,21 He giveth glory to God for his power in the church by Christ Jesus. For this cause; i.e. that ye may be further confirmed in the faith of Christ, and more and more built up in him as an habitation of God, . The prisoner of Jesus Christ; for Christ’ s sake, for asserting his cause and honour: see ,9. For you Gentiles; for your cause and salvation; having preached and declared the grace of God to be free, and to belong to you Gentiles as well as to the Jews, (the middle wall of partition being taken away), and so equalled you with them. There is no small difference among expositors about the connection of these words: the fairest and easiest seems to be, either: 1. That the substantive verb am be here supplied, and the word read, I Paul am the prisoner of Jesus Christ; q.d. I have for some time been and still am the prisoner of Jesus Christ. Or: 2. That this verse be joined to the , (all the rest, , being included in a parenthesis), where he begins with the same words as here; and so we may read it thus, : For this cause I Paul, the prisoner, & c.; and then, , I say: For this cause I bow my knees, &c., viz. praying that ye may be strengthened with might hy his Spirit, &c.; i.e. that they might be more and more built up on Christ, on whom they were founded, and had begun to be built.

1 For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, Ver. 1. For this cause] To wit, that you may be a habitation of God, through the Spirit. I Paul, the prisoner] I hold not St Paul so happy for his rapture into Paradise (saith Chrysostom upon this text) as for his imprisonment for Christ.

(1) Ephesians 3:1-13 contain two subjects closely blended together. The first (carrying on what is implied in the contrast drawn out in Ephesians 2) is the absolute newness of this dispensation to the Gentiles—a mystery hidden from the beginning in God, but now at last revealed. The second, an emphatic claim for St. Paul himself, “less than the least” although he is, of a special apostleship to the Gentiles, proclaiming this mystery by word and deed.

CHAPTER III. Paul, a prisoner for the testimony of Jesus, declares his knowledge of what had been a mystery from all ages, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body with the Jews, 1-6. Which doctrine he was made a minister, that he might declare the unsearchable riches of Christ, and make known to principalities and powers this eternal purpose of God, 7-12. He desires them not to be discouraged on account of his tribulations, 13. His prayer that they might be filled with all the fulness of God, 14-19. His doxology, 20, 21. NOTES ON CHAP. III. Verse 1. For this cause] Because he maintained that the Gentiles were admitted to all the privileges of the Jews, and all the blessings of the new covenant, without being obliged to submit to circumcision, the Jews persecuted him, and caused him to be imprisoned, first at Caesarea, where he was obliged to appeal to the Roman emperor, in consequence of which he was sent prisoner to Rome. See Acts 21:21-28, c. The prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles] For preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles, and showing that they were not bound by the law of Moses, and yet were called to be fellow citizens with the saints for this very cause the Jews persecuted him unto bonds, and conspired his death.

Ch. Ephesians 3:1-13. He would pursue the subject of the Temple, but digresses to say more of the world-wide scope of the GospelFor this cause] With such a present and such a future for my reason, motive, hope. Here begins a sentence broken immediately by a great digression. Where is it resumed? At Ephesians 3:8, or at Ephesians 3:13, or at Ephesians 3:14? On the whole we decide for the latter, not only because the identical phrase “for this cause” recurs there, but because the thought of the Indweller, and the Foundation (“grounded,” Ephesians 3:17), recurs there also. It is thus as if the Apostle had been just about to pray that the great Lord of the Temple might take a new (an ever new) possession of the Edifice preparing for Him; but had been diverted, by the designation he gives himself, to speak at large of his Gentile commission. For a parenthesis on the like scale see the latter half of Romans 5. Such deviations into side-fields of pregnant thought are characteristic of some minds of high calibre; and we are never to forget that while it is everywhere the Inspirer who speaks through the Apostle, He as truly uses the Apostle’s type of mind as He uses the Greek type of language to be His perfect vehicle of expression.I Paul] For a similar emphatic Ego, cp. 2 Corinthians 10:1; Galatians 5:2; Colossians 1:23; Philemon 1:19. (1 Thessalonians 2:18 is not quite in point, nor the passages, Colossians 4:18; 2 Thessalonians 3:17; where he speaks of his autograph name.) The motive here seems to be the profound personal interest of the Apostle in his great commission, brought to the surface by the statement he has just made of the grandeur of its issue in the completion of the Temple of the Universal Church. “It is I, positively I, who am, wonderful to say, chief minister in the process.” And there may also be the emphasis of intense personal interest in the Ephesian converts; a loving pressure, so to speak, of his personality upon theirs.—On the “self-consciousness” of St Paul, see Howson, Character of St Paul, Lect. II.the prisoner of Jesus Christ] So Philemon 1:1; Philemon 1:9; 2 Timothy 1:8; and below, Ephesians 4:1, with an interesting difference, which see. Our Epistle thus stands grouped with Philippians, Colossians, Philemon, 2 Timothy, as an Epistle written from prison.—“Of Jesus Christ”:—under all aspects of life Paul belongs to Christ. Whatever he is, does, or suffers, it is as Christ’s property. There is also an obvious reference to the fact that his imprisonment was for Christ’s cause; but this is not all.for you] On behalf of you. See Acts 22:21 for illustration. His imprisonment, due to Jewish hostility, was thus ultimately due to his assertion of the free welcome of the Gentiles to Messiah’s covenant. Acts 15 records the crisis within the Church which corresponded to this assault from without.

For this cause - On account of preaching this doctrine; that is, the doctrine that the gospel was to be proclaimed to the Gentiles.

3. This blessed renovation was under Paul’s Gentile apostleship, instrumentally, Ephesians 3:1-13.1. For—Paul began his letter with the broad, universal elect, chap. 1; he next narrows to his Ephesian converts, chap.