| Ephesians 3:1-12 |
the example of St. Paul or the cost of discipleship -- It is easy to forget that some of our greatest human benefactors, people like Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. went to jail for their efforts. Like Paul, they eventually paid with their lives for insisting that God intended us all to be merciful, just, equal. In short, it is to come closer to the vision of all humanity untied as God’s new creation that our text from Ephesians emphasizes. These leaders had talents and education that would have enabled them to live comfortable and productive lives without getting involve in transforming humanity.
nib - The writer of Ephesians uses the dramatic opening "I Paul am a prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles" (3:1) to shock the audience into attention. The author then inserts a summary of the message that Gentiles are to be God’s people (3:2-6). He reminds them that God gave Paul the mission to make this plan of salvation known (3:7-12).
. . . How could Christians ever think that their existence was God’s plan for the world? How could they go even further and imagine that it was revealing God’s wisdom to the forces that control the universe?
Yet, that is exactly the kind of vision, courage, and faith that changes the world. Once a movement has succeeded in changing how we live or eradicating some injustice, it is easy to forget what it took to get there. It is easy to forget that some of our greatest human benefactors, people like Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. went to jail for their efforts. Like Paul, they eventually paid with their lives for insisting that God intended us all to be merciful, just, equal. In short, it is t come closer to the vision of all humanity untied as God’s new creation that Ephesians emphasizes. These leaders had talents and education that would have enabled them to live comfortable and productive lives without getting involve in transforming humanity. [1]
JEROME [347-420] – The Gentiles are fellow heirs with Israel. Put more precisely, they are fellow heirs with Christ . . . It is not that some possession is divided among us but that God himself in his fullness is our inheritance and possession. [2]
In what way do we as modern-day Christians contribute to God's grand scheme of salvation of the nations? Are we even conscious of our role and purpose in God's plan?
How do Christians on the fore-front of evangelism suffer for advancing the kingdom of God today? Are missionaries to foreign cultures the only ones at risk? What are some of our sacrifices on behalf of God's commission of our lives? Is there any cost at all on account of our 21st century Western style Christian discipleship?
In Paul’s lifetime the message about forgiveness and freedom from laws through Christ was radical enough, but to leave the Jewish matrix to engage non-Jewish groups would have been unthinkable. What conviction or value makes do you feel so passionately about that you find yourself sharing it with others?
Both Isaiah 60 and Matthew 2 share a common denominator with our epistle lesson: they both foresee a day when Gentiles will value the Jewish/Christian God. In the Isaiah passage, nations will be drawn to the glory of the Lord, kings to the new day that is to come, bringing with them gold and frankincense. In the Matthew passage, Gentile magi come from the East to adore and worship the young Jesus. In Ephesians 3, Paul shares the mystery about how God brings the Gentiles into God’s Kingdom plan.
It is interesting that Jesus personally had little experience with the Gentiles. Our sources record but a few incidental encounters; his words about Gentiles are also few. However, even critics see in Jesus a Jew who had gained a reputation for keeping company with disreputable sorts of people. Jesus’ contemporary detractors accused him of consorting with "tax collectors" and "sinners" (11:19). As such these folk would not be far removed from Gentiles; such Jewish "outsiders" were considered to have reneged on the covenant and thereby losing their birthright.
Yet Jesus offers these outsiders—and by extension, Gentiles of sorts—forgiveness and salvation. Salvation then, according to Jesus and later to Paul, does not depend on birth / covenant / law / status / gender / connections. Here Paul describes his mission to the Gentiles, his inclusivity of them that has come to him by way of revelation. Such a revelation stands quite squarely within the earlier ministry of Jesus.
For a sample sermon of this text please check out our archived DPS sermon: Joyful Service, by Brad Hall
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[1] The New Interpreter’s Bible XI (
[2] Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture VIII (InterVarsity Press, 1999), page
147.