Ephesians 3

Scripture - Observation - Application - Prayer

I read some commentaries on this chapter to get a deeper insight than I was getting on my own. My metaphorical ears pricked up at this quote from someone called Matthew Henry:

"We may learn hence that the faithful ministers of Christ are to dispense his sacred truths, however disagreeable they may be to some, and whatever they themselves may suffer for doing so."

Paul describes himself as "the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles". He says that God has disclosed to him the wonderful secret not known to anyone on earth before this time that "through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus."

As described in my last response to chapter 2, this view was absolutely radical at the time. Even one of great apostles Peter avoided preaching to the Gentiles until he was both convicted by God and challenged by Paul. No wonder Paul describes himself as a prisoner! However, Paul asks the Ephesians "not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are for you glory".

OK, let's pull this apart a bit more.

A quick look on google and you see that the word prisoner is very negative. Why then does Paul use this word prisoner in the same sentence as Jesus? I have one theory and it goes like this: when you become a Christian, your life is no longer your own. You have made a choice to submit your life to Jesus and do his will (whatever that is) in every part of your life. Jesus has authority over your life. He has the first and the last say. He OWNS you. Freaky huh? But recall that Jesus loves creation SO MUCH that he chose to replace it with himself on the cross as a sacrifice for all the sins every in all time in the whole universe.

I can't think of anybody in all of time that I would rather submit my life to than the God who has claimed me as His own out of pure love and from whom only good comes! This complete surrender to Him really does bring freedom and peace. I've found that being a slave to God is so much better than being a slave to myself, or to the world. In fact I've found that every time I try to please myself and ignore God, I end up feeling worse off for it.

But Paul still talks about suffering. In fact, he tells the Ephesians to stop worrying about it because his suffering is for their glory! HUH? In my response to chapter 1, I nutted out that because God loves us, we naturally love Him. And because we love what He loves, we love all creation.

I'm gonna spell it out for you: when it comes to God and restoring the world to a relationship with Him, how we feel doing his work has nothing to do with it. IT'S NOT ABOUT US. In an intensely individualistic society, this works us up because it goes against the grain. No, you say, this life is about me and how I feel and what I want to do. But, if you chose (note that this is a conscious decision, not forced) to follow Jesus then you willingly give up your life to Him and his will.

You see, Paul was suffering because he was preaching against society. The status quo was being challenged. He was doing UNCOMFORTABLE things. People simply didn't like it so he had a hard time. Recall that quote from the start of the post that we should tell people the truth of Jesus "however disagreeable [it] may be to some, and whatever [we] may suffer for doing so". Paul understood that this God given revelation of the truth was so much more important than how he felt at the time.

So my prayer is that I can draw on his strength to tell the truth no matter where He asks me to go or what popular belief is being challenged. I acknowledge that this may be hard or scary or freaky, but I ask that He remind me of His promises in the bible (like Jeremiah 29:11). Thank you Jesus that as Christians we know the truth but also have the great privilege to spread the gospel. Amen.

[Read Ephesians 3: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians%203&version=NIV]
p.s. to see the commentary to which I'm referring, click on the link above and on the right hand side of the passage click on "Show Resources" and scroll down a bit to click on verses 1-13 of Matthew Henry's Commentary.