{"id":3706,"date":"2015-06-21T07:59:57","date_gmt":"2015-06-21T13:59:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/?p=3706"},"modified":"2022-12-14T16:47:14","modified_gmt":"2022-12-14T22:47:14","slug":"ephesians-31-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/?p=3706","title":{"rendered":"Ephesians 3:1-5"},"content":{"rendered":"

1 <\/span>For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles \u2014<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

2\u00a0<\/sup>if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you,<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

3\u00a0<\/sup>how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already,<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

4\u00a0<\/sup>by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ),<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

5\u00a0<\/sup>which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets:<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

for this reason (v.1) \u2014 refers back to “building together of the saints” in Ephesians 2:20-22<\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n

prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles (v.1) \u2014 see Acts 22:21-22<\/a><\/span><\/h3>\n

for (v.1 \u2014 2nd usage) = on behalf of the Gentiles and for their good<\/h3>\n

Although God had made a provision for the Gentiles to be saved through Israel in prophecy, a cursory reading of the Old Testament will produce this conclusion: No one was sent to the Gentiles. They were “strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12<\/a><\/span>). \u2014 Sadler, page 118.<\/span><\/h3>\n

if (v.2) = “if, indeed, as I may assume,” assuming that \u2014 They had<\/span> heard it, and Paul was now reminding them.<\/h3>\n

dispensation (v.2) = lit. “law of the house” = oversight, management, administration<\/h3>\n

revelation (v.3) = lit. “an uncovering, a laying bare”<\/h3>\n

mystery (v.3) \u2014 a secret purpose of God which when uncovered is understood by the Spirit-taught believer \u2014 no other writer of Scripture \u2014 only Paul \u2014 mentions the Body of Christ<\/h3>\n

knowledge (v.4) = mental apprehension \u2014\u00a0 insight depending on judgment and inference<\/h3>\n

mystery of Christ (v.4) = mystery relating to Christ<\/h3>\n

other (v.5) = another of a different kind<\/h3>\n

ages (v.5) = the period covered by a generation of men, a generation<\/h3>\n

sons of men (v.5) = men, with the idea of generations \u2014 Paul is reinforcing the point that no humans knew these truths until they were revealed to Paul by God who knew them from the beginning<\/h3>\n

now (v.5) \u2014 as opposed to “other ages (earlier in this verse) \u2014 further evidence that the apostles and prophets were the apostles (Paul, Timothy, Titus) and prophets of grace, not the Old Testament prophets and 12 apostles of the kingdom \u2014 see Sadler’s comments on Ephesians 2:19-22<\/a><\/span><\/h3>\n

Spirit (v.5) \u2014 Paul received the mystery by direct revelation from the Lord Jesus Christ. The other apostles and prophets received it through the illumination of the Spirit. We also receive it by illumination of the Spirit through the writings of Paul.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles \u2014 2\u00a0if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, 3\u00a0how that by revelation He … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ephesians"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3706"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7231,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3706\/revisions\/7231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/versebyverse.carpelibra.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}