Ephesians chapter 3

vs 1

I think the most obvious 'reason' that Paul is hearkening back to is his most immediate point - that of the unity of Jew and gentile in the new humanity of Christ. That's probably the only reason he can explain why a Jew would suffer imprisonment for the sake of gentiles.

This verse really is weird, as if he's almost starting a new letter.

vs 2

So God gave his grace to Paul in such a way that it was for the Ephesians! And apparently, they should know about this.

vs 3

Thankfully for us who don't know about it, Paul goes a little deeper, and explains that it was by revelation. He says he has already written briefly about it - either in another letter (which we either don't have or is one of the other church letters) or it is written about previously in this letter, in which is was rather vague and we've hopefully already soaked in the meaning, because this is really the first time we've read about such a revelation.

vs 4

Again with the mystery. And he refers to reading this, which makes me think that the previous reference to written was earlier in the book. The excitement!

But note also that Paul is seeking not to protect the mystery or to gain some sort of authority by it, in a gnostic way. He is trying to break it open so everyone can understand it, and thereby be encouraged by it.

vs 5

The suspense is killing me. Apparently it has killed generations of God-fearing people before Paul! How much do we really realise what a blessed time we live in - where the Spirit is freely available to God's people, where we have so much more truth so much more freely available and understandable? Thank God for that today.

vs 6

Ok, so what's the big mystery? Oh, it's only that gentiles and jews together are God's people because of Jesus. It doesn't sound like a big deal to us. So what? We're all gentiles anyway. But the fact is that, since almost the beginning of history, God has chosen to form a relationship almost exclusively with one group of people. Yes, they were to be priests and examples to the nations, but it was a second-hand message. As a gentile, you had to go to Israel, and they had to be your priest, your mediator, between you and God. What has been offered now is a direct connection between Gentiles and God. It's groundbreaking!

vs 7

Can you be any more vague? We always want to know how these things worked. Did lightning hit you? Did you say "By the power of greyskull"? We do know, in fact, that Paul saw a vision and was struck blind, but we assume that more happened to him that is not recorded.

All this is beside the point because, for Paul, the important things are that through God's power, he received God's grace.

vs 8

Probably he feels like the least of God's people for that little indescretion earlier in his life, in that he tried to wipe out the Christian church. But that to him just makes it all the more gracious of God to give him such an awesome ministry in bringing those from outside God's covenant into his new and better covenant.

vs 9

He also has been given the ministry of making it clear to everyone that this is indeed the right thing to do. So not only is he a missionary, as it were, but he also has the job of mission mobiliser and missiologist. So he reaches people, he teaches the theology of God's mission, and he encourages others to get out there and do it to because, after all, it is God's will.

vs 10-11

Errrr, what now? Does this mean that God is teaching the angels or something a lesson through the church? I guess it does. Does this mean Satan? It could do. And if you think about it that way, it actually sort of makes sense. Satan, the great accuser, comes to God and complains about how all these people are sinners, and so God can't love them, he's got to punish them. And why did God go and create all these non-jews if he's only going to be in relationship with the jews? But God can point to the church and say "Hey, look, my Son died for all that, this is the fulfilment of my awesome historical plan. See how perfect my plan was?" And so Satan gets schooled by God yet again.

Hey, I said sort of.