EPHESIANS: A Word if I May
EPHESIANS Number 12:
A Word if I May
Ephesians 1:10 mentions “the dispensation of the fulness of times.” I quoted Colossians 1:25–27 which mentions “the dispensation of God which is given to me for you.” Before we go any further in this study, I want us to pause to examine the word “dispensation.”
In my youth the “super-Christians” who were the most dedicated and learned carried The Scofield Reference Bible. Teaching taken in part from the study notes in that Bible sought to break the scriptural story into seven distinct sections. Scofield called these “dispensations.” He was not the first to enumerate dispensations, but in our time, he was perhaps the most influential. This teaching has caused many to misunderstand the grand mystery we’ve been talking about.
Some teach that we as Gentile Christians are spoken to only by the Apostle Paul and that the other Apostles speak to the Jews. They teach that the Jewish people are under one arrangement with God and we Gentiles are under another. That there is a gospel of the kingdom for them and a gospel of grace for us. Sometimes they use 2 Timothy 2:15 where Paul instructs Timothy to show himself approved by “rightly dividing the word of truth” as evidence that we should all be sure to divide scripture into its proper dispensations.
The word dispensation occurs in the Bible only four times.
1 Corinthians 9:17 “For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward: but if against my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me.”
Ephesians 1:10 “That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him.”
Ephesians 3:2 “If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward.”
Colossians 1:25 “Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God, which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God.”
The word translated dispensation is οἰκονομία (oikonomia) from which we get our English word “economy.” According to BDAG *, this word has three potential meanings.
First, it means “responsibility of management, management of a household, direction, office.”
It’s second meaning is, “state of being arranged, arrangement, order, plan.”
Thirdly, it means, “program of instruction, training (in the way of salvation).”
In 1 Corinthians 9:17, BDAG * says that “Paul applies the idea of administration to the office of an apostle ‘I have been entrusted with a commission/task.’” We do not see this word used to segregate scripture into seven, or any other number of, sections. Rightly dividing the world of truth has to do with handling scripture properly by using it in context and teaching from it accurately. The word behind rightly dividing in Timothy means “to cut straight” not to carve up.
Further, Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul says in Galatians 1:6–9 “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel, which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed.”
This brief discourse is by no means a complete refutation of the misuse of the idea of a dispensation indicating that there are two “gospels.” I’ve included it here simply to provide you with a possible starting point should you ever want to study “dispensationalism” for yourself.
Father’s plan all along has been to sum everything up in Christ. His redemptive plan has always been to include all the people of the earth. Listen to what He told Abraham in Genesis 12:3 “And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” There is nothing in this irrevocable promise that excludes any people. When Father made this promise, there was as yet no Hebrew nation and therefore no distinction between Jews and Gentiles. His plan was a mystery. It was encrypted in the Hebrew Scriptures of the Old Testament, and is decrypted in the Lord Jesus Christ in whom, as we’ve seen, all the promises of God are yes and amen.
* “A Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament and other early Christian literature”, William Arndt, Frederick W. Danker, Walter Bauer, and F. Wilbur Gingrich, 2000, page 697.
