Ephesians chapter three continues Paul's explanation of the gospel by focusing on the mystery that has now been revealed through Christ: God's eternal purpose was to bring Gentiles into full participation in His covenant promises alongside Jewish believers. Paul explains that he has been entrusted with the responsibility of proclaiming this mystery, even though his calling has brought suffering and opposition. He then turns from explanation to prayer, asking that believers would be strengthened by the Holy Spirit and rooted deeply in the love of Christ. The chapter concludes with Paul's declaration that God is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or think. Ephesians three therefore moves us from understanding God's redemptive plan to experiencing the depth of His love and trusting the limitless power through which He accomplishes His purposes.
Paul begins this section by referring to himself as a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles. This immediately reveals something important about his understanding of calling. Paul does not interpret his imprisonment merely as something unfortunate that happened to him. He understands even his suffering through the lens of his assignment from God. He is suffering because he faithfully proclaimed the gospel to the Gentiles.
This is significant because Paul could have viewed his circumstances as evidence that something had gone wrong. Instead, he sees them as part of the cost of faithfully carrying out God's purpose. Calling does not necessarily lead to comfort. Sometimes obedience to God places us in difficult circumstances precisely because the assignment He gives us has eternal significance.
Paul describes his ministry as a stewardship of God's grace. A steward is someone entrusted with something that ultimately belongs to another. Paul therefore does not view the gospel as his personal possession or his own message. God entrusted it to him, and his responsibility was to faithfully administer what he had received.
This is an important principle for anyone who has been entrusted with ministry, leadership, influence, teaching, or spiritual responsibility. Whatever God has placed in our hands ultimately belongs to Him. We are stewards, not owners. The question is therefore not simply whether we are gifted, but whether we are faithful with what God has entrusted to us.
Paul then explains that the mystery of God's plan was made known to him through revelation. This mystery had previously been hidden but had now been made known through Christ and the apostles. Paul is not describing something mysterious in the sense of something permanently unknowable. Rather, it is something that human beings could not discover by themselves but that God has now chosen to reveal.
At the centre of this mystery is the inclusion of the Gentiles. Paul explains that they are now "fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel."
This is far more significant than simply saying that Gentiles were allowed to become Christians. Paul is declaring that they have been given equal standing in God's redemptive plan. They are not second-class members of God's family who must somehow become culturally Jewish before they can fully belong. Through Christ, the dividing wall has been removed.
This continues the argument Paul began in chapter two. The gospel does not simply reconcile individuals to God; it creates a new people. What generations of religious, cultural, and ethnic hostility could not accomplish, Christ accomplished through His death and resurrection.
For the Gentile believers, this would have been deeply significant. They no longer needed to view themselves as outsiders. Their identity was not determined by their former separation from God's covenant people but by their present union with Christ. They had been brought fully into God's family.
That truth remains deeply relevant for believers today. Our past does not determine our standing in Christ. The gospel does not invite us to remain psychologically trapped in who we were before salvation. In Christ, we have been given a new identity, a new family, a new inheritance, and full access to God.
Paul then explains the privilege and responsibility of his calling. He considers himself the very least of all the saints, but God graciously entrusted him with proclaiming the unsearchable riches of Christ. There is a beautiful tension here. Paul has an enormous calling, but he does not allow the greatness of his ministry to produce a great opinion of himself. In fact, the more clearly Paul understands God's grace, the more deeply aware he becomes of his own unworthiness.
This is a mark of genuine ministry. The greatness of the assignment should never become an excuse for personal pride because the assignment itself is evidence of grace. Paul's responsibility is to make known the mystery that had been hidden for generations and to reveal God's wisdom through the Church. This means that the Church itself becomes a testimony of God's wisdom. The very existence of Jews and Gentiles united together in Christ demonstrates something about the wisdom and power of God that could not be seen through either group separately.
Paul then explains that because of Christ, believers have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. This is an extraordinary privilege. We do not approach God as outsiders hoping that He might accept us. Through Christ, we have access to the Father. The barrier created by sin has been dealt with through the cross, and we can now approach God with confidence; not because we are worthy in ourselves, but because Christ has made us worthy to enter.
Paul therefore asks the believers not to lose heart because of his suffering. His imprisonment may look like defeat from the outside, but Paul understands that his suffering is part of the gospel's advancement. He then turns to prayer. Paul's prayer is striking because he does not ask primarily for the removal of their difficulties. Instead, he prays for something deeper: that they (we) would be strengthened with power through God's Spirit in their inner being.
Sometimes we ask God to change everything around us when God is working to strengthen something within us. Paul understands that external circumstances do not ultimately determine spiritual strength. A believer can be in prison and still be spiritually strong, while someone surrounded by comfort can be spiritually weak. Paul's desire is that Christ would dwell in your hearts through faith and that they would be rooted and grounded in love.
The imagery is significant. To be rooted suggests a tree drawing its nourishment from deep roots, while being grounded suggests a building established upon a secure foundation. Paul wants the believers' entire lives to be established in the love of Christ.
He then prays that they would have the strength to comprehend what is the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ's love and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge. This appears almost paradoxical. How can we know something that surpasses knowledge? Paul is not saying Christ's love is unknowable. He is saying that its depth is so immense that it can never be exhausted. We can genuinely know His love while never reaching the limits of it.
The Christian life therefore involves continually discovering more of what we have already received. We do not eventually graduate from the gospel. We grow deeper into the realities of the gospel; deeper into God's grace, deeper into Christ's love, and deeper into our understanding of who we are in Him.
Paul's ultimate desire is that they would be filled with all the fullness of God. This does not mean that human beings become God. Rather, it speaks of a life increasingly saturated with God's presence, character, love, and transforming power. The goal of spiritual maturity is therefore not merely knowing more about God. It is becoming increasingly shaped by the God we know.
Paul concludes with one of the most powerful declarations of God's ability in Scripture: "Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think." Paul's confidence lies not in human ability, not in the strength of the Church or brilliance of his ministry, not even in the greatness of the believers' faith. His confidence is in God.
God is able to do beyond what we ask and beyond what we can even imagine. His power is not limited by the boundaries of our prayers, our understanding, or our expectations. Paul does not use this statement to encourage us to pursue unlimited personal desires. The entire prayer has been about God's purposes; strengthening believers, dwelling in them, rooting them in love, revealing Christ's love, and filling them with God's fullness.
The point is therefore not simply that God can give us anything we dream of. It is that God's ability to accomplish His purposes is infinitely greater than our ability to comprehend them. And where is this power working? "According to the power that works in us." The God who is able to accomplish immeasurably more is already at work within His people through the Holy Spirit.
Paul therefore ends where the chapter began; with God receiving the glory. "To Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever." The purpose of everything God does is ultimately His glory. The Church exists not to make much of itself but to display the greatness of God. His grace, wisdom, power, and love are meant to be seen through His people throughout every generation.
Ephesians chapter three reminds us that we have been brought fully into God's redemptive plan through Christ and given bold access to the Father. Knowing these truths intellectually is not enough. Paul prays that we would be strengthened by the Spirit and rooted deeply enough in Christ's love that this truth would transform how we live. The more deeply we understand His love, the more confidently we can trust His purposes and His power.
💡Key Takeaway:
We have been brought near to God through Christ, and His limitless power enables us to live rooted and established in the immeasurable love of Christ.
🙏🏽 Prayer:
Father, thank You for the grace that has brought me near and made me part of Your family. Strengthen me by Your Spirit in my inner being and root my life deeply in the love of Christ. Help me to know a love that is greater than my ability to comprehend and to live from the security of knowing that I belong to You. Expand my understanding of Your purposes and give me confidence in Your power to accomplish far beyond what I could ask or imagine. May everything You do through my life bring glory to You. In Jesus' name, Amen.