Scripture Reading(s)
Ephesians 3:1-12
1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—
2 if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you;
3 that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief.
4 By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ,
5 which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit;
6 to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel,
7 of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power.
8 To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ,
9 and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things;
10 so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.
11 This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord,
12 in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him.
Reflections
There is a sense of urgency and hope that Paul brings in this letter. He begins by referring to a mystery that is no longer hidden. This mystery is that now the Gospel is available to both the Jews and Gentiles. In other words, the Gospel is now readily available to all who hear and choose to accept it. Prior to this, the Gentiles were formerly separated from God and His people, however no in Christ they have now been made one.
Notice also the circumstances in which Paul is writing this under. He currently a prisoner and is in jail due to the Jewish leadership finding great offense in His teaching of the Gospel. It is amazing to see that Paul is not at all affected by his circumstanced and actually sees his situation as God’s calling in his life and a means to show what God’s Grace looks like. In the midst of his imprisonment, God is still revealing things to him and he is still able to find awe and appreciation for what God has revealed to Him,
The Gospel message is not being hindered by any means and this mystery is one that greatly changed Christianity. It was now spreading to the entire world and now more souls were going to be saved and more were going to be exposed to the good news of Jesus Christ. In our world today that same message is still available to us. As Christians we should not allow for circumstances to hold us back from spreading the love of Christ to those around us.
God used even the worst of situations to still push the Gospel forward. Paul’s heart was still ready to be used even behind bars and tied in chains, the Gospel still prevailed.