In this section, Paul seems to begin a prayer for those receiving his letter. However, he immediately interrupts himself and launches into a self-description.

The Man
He starts by describing himself as a “prisoner of Christ Jesus.” Although he was literally a prisoner of Nero, Paul was so consumed in the reality that he belonged to Jesus that he considered every aspect of his life (including the difficulties) as belonging to the sovereignty of God.

Paul speaks of “God’s grace” that was given to him. He is referring to two particular gifts God had given him. The first was a revelation and the second was a commission.

The Mystery
Notice that Paul uses the word mystery three times in this section (vv. 3, 4, 9). In English a mystery is something secret, inexplicable, even incomprehensible. The Greek word mysterion is different. Paul uses this word to refer to a truth that had once been hidden from human understanding but now is revealed by God.

What is this mystery? It is that Gentile and Jewish Christians together are now fellow heirs of the same blessing, fellow members of the same body, and fellow partakers of the same promise. This idea is also described as a revelation, which may puzzle some Bible students. Didn’t the Old Testament and Jesus reveal that God had a purpose for the Gentiles? Yes, but what wasn’t revealed was the radical nature of God’s plan—that the Jewish nation under God’s rule would be terminated and replaced by a new international community, the church.

The Ministry
The revealing of this mystery led Paul to speak of a second grace gift he had been given: the ministry to share “the mystery” with others. Deliberately playing on the meaning of his name (v. 8), which in Latin means “little” or “small” (tradition says he was a little man), Paul says he was commissioned to preach to the Gentiles. Paul was keenly aware his gospel was a message of incredible good news for the Gentiles. He describes Christ’s riches as “unsearchable.” The Greek word literally means “not to be tracked out.” We will never exhaust the wealth Christ gives.

In these verses we find two of the strongest incentives for evangelism: (1) Truth that has been revealed is to be shared, not monopolized; and (2) Jesus always enriches those who put their trust in him. If we truly believed these things, nobody would be able to silence us.

According to verse 8, Paul’s message was Christ; according to verse 10 it was the church. Paul describes God as the One who created all things. In verse 9 Paul brings the concepts of creation and redemption together in his mind. The God who created all things in the beginning will create all things in the end. By God’s creation, Gentiles and Jews would embrace the gospel, be converted, and find themselves joint members of his family.

“The mystery” was not an abstraction. It was taking concrete shape before people’s eyes. Indeed, the coming into existence of the church as a community of saved and reconciled people is at one and the same time a public demonstration of God’s manifold wisdom. The word for manifold means “many-colored” and was used to describe flowers, crowns, embroidered cloth, and woven carpets. The church as a multiracial, multicultural community is like a beautiful tapestry. No other human community resembles it.

It is as if a great drama is being enacted. History is the theater, the world is the stage, and church members in every land are the actors. God himself has written the play, and he directs and produces it. But who is the audience? It is the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms who watch and learn from the composition of the church not only the “manifold wisdom” of God (v. 10) but also his “eternal purpose” (v. 11).

The Medium
Notice the different ways God communicates. First, he made known the mystery of his plan to Paul and others by revelation (v. 5). Second, he called Paul (and others) to share the gospel with the world. Third, his wisdom and eternal purpose were revealed to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms through the church as they watched it grow. This is the circle of divine communication. At each stage the medium changes. There is direct revelation, verbal proclamation, and a visual model.

Paul wanted his readers to leave this section of Ephesians with one big idea: the church is central and vital in God’s ongoing plan!

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*All Scriptures are from the New International Version of the Bible, unless otherwise indicted.