EPHESIANS: Paul’s Assigned Job
EPHESIANS Number 35:
Now to verse 8 “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ”.
Note here that Paul is saying he is less than the least of all saints because he is deeply grateful for the grace of God. He knows that without grace, his religious righteousness, which looked to be perfect to those around him, was worthless and had him just as hell bound as any other murderer.
Paul’s job is to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ to us poor heathen Gentiles. I really love this because the riches of Christ are indeed unsearchable. We can keep learning more and more no matter how long or diligently we study. Even so, Christ, and the Gospel, is so simple that anyone can know Him.
Ephesians 3:9-12
“And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord: In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.”
I thought about leaving this phrase “fellowship of the mystery” in verse 9 alone, but then I did what I always do and looked it up. The reason I even bothered to take the time was that I noticed that most translations render the word “fellowship” differently. Normally, that’s not a big deal because there is often more than one way to say the same thing.
But this one was different. Instead of “the fellowship of the mystery” as we read here, most translations have “the dispensation (or administration) of the mystery” here.
The Textus Receptus, which is the source text used by Eusebius in translating the King James Bible from Greek, has “the koinonia of the mysterion.” That is, “the fellowship of the mystery.” All the other texts have “oikonomia of the mysterion.” That is, “the dispensation, or administration, of the mystery.” It’s interesting because the other translations are using the same wording (dispensation/administration) we found back in verse two.
I’m bringing it up here so that no matter which rendering you encounter, you won’t be surprised. Ultimately either way it’s written, the subject is the mystery that God has finally revealed.
The idea of God creating for Himself a family from both His chosen people (the Hebrews) and the world at large (everybody else) was veiled, kept secret, hidden before Jesus came.
An interesting side note here (maybe only interesting to me) is that the Greek word translated “hid” here is apokrypto, literally “before (apo) encrypted (krypto).” In the Old Testament, the Gospel was veiled, kept in shadow, encrypted.
Now that Jesus has come, we can see it, and we can decrypt the Old Testament and find the Gospel there in ways those who lived before Christ never could. We see evidence of this in Luke 24 where we read about Jesus’ discourse with the disciples on the road to Emmaus where He began with Moses” and showed how the scriptures pointed to Him. We also see it in John 5:39-40 (KJV) where He says, “Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.”
The problem was that the Jewish people had been unable to decrypt the message in the scriptures correctly because they didn’t have the proper Key—the Lord Jesus.
As an interesting side note, we find the same word (krypto)without the prefix (apo) which means “before,” in Colossians 3:3 “For ye are dead, and your life is hid (krypto), with Christ in God.”
Coming as I do from a background in computer software development, I love this one. The word means securely held or kept. Our lives are encrypted with Christ in God. We’re very safe.
