Ephesians 3 — The Mystery Revealed and Love Beyond Knowing

Today’s Passage: Ephesians 3

Having spent two chapters unfolding what God has done, Paul now steps forward to speak of his own place in that plan. He is “the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles” (3:1), entrusted with “the stewardship of God’s grace” to make known a mystery once hidden and now revealed, that through the gospel “the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise” (3:6). He marvels that so vast a task was given to one who calls himself “less than the least of all the saints,” and then he lifts our eyes to God’s stunning strategy, that “through the church” His “manifold wisdom” is displayed even to “the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms” (3:10).

Then the letter’s argument dissolves into prayer. Paul bows his knees before the Father and asks for the deepest things a soul can receive: inward strength by the Spirit, Christ dwelling in the heart, roots sunk deep in love, power to grasp a love too large to grasp, “the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge,” until we are “filled with all the fullness of God.” It ends where Ephesians keeps ending, in doxology, before a God who can do “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine” (3:20).

As you read, hold this: The mystery now open is a people held in a love beyond knowing.

Ephesians 3:1–6 (BSB)

¹ For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles… ² Surely you have heard about the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, ³ that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. ⁴ In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, ⁵ which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. ⁶ This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus.

Paul begins to say why he prays for these believers. “For this reason I, Paul…” And then, mid-breath, he cannot help but explain who he is to them. He is “the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles.” A captive whose imprisonment is itself for them. He reminds them of “the stewardship of God’s grace” handed to him. The Greek word behind stewardship pictures a household manager entrusted with his master’s goods to distribute. Paul owns nothing of the gospel. He is a manager of another’s wealth, dispensing it.

And what has been entrusted to him is “the mystery (μυστήριον) mystērion, pronounced moos-TAY-ree-on. Strong's G3466, mystery, hidden secret now disclosed. This is the pulse-word of the chapter, sounding in verses 3, 4, and 9. To modern ears mystery suggests a puzzle we cannot solve, a locked door, a riddle. But in Paul’s usage it means almost the opposite. A secret that human minds could never have reasoned their way into, now disclosed, “revealed by the Spirit” (3:5). The word carries the sense of something once concealed and now thrown open, so that the emphasis falls not on what is still hidden but on what has been made known. And the content of this particular mystery is spelled out plainly in verse 6, that “the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise.” Notice the drumbeat of that little Greek prefix syn- (with, together), sounding again and again as fellow-heirs, fellow-members, fellow-partakers. The secret hidden “for ages past” was not a doctrine to be decoded but a people to be gathered, one new humanity, Jew and Gentile together, in Christ. ,” made known to him “by revelation.” This was not a truth Paul deduced; it was disclosed to him. He insists it “was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit.” The Old Testament had its hints, for Abraham was promised that in him all nations would be blessed, but the sheer equality of the arrangement, Gentiles as fellow heirs on the very same footing, waited for this hour. Verse 6 states it without qualification. Through the gospel the outsiders are now fellow heirs, fellow members, fellow partakers. The dividing wall is gone, and there are not two peoples of God but one.

Ephesians 3:7–13 (BSB)

⁷ I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace, given me through the working of His power. ⁸ Though I am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, ⁹ and to illuminate for everyone the stewardship of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. ¹⁰ His purpose was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, ¹¹ according to the eternal purpose that He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. ¹² In Him and through faith in Him we may enter God’s presence with boldness and confidence. ¹³ So I ask you not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory.

Paul now presses down hard on his own unworthiness, and it is not false modesty. “I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace,” he says, then, remarkably, “Though I am less than the least of all the saints.” The man who once dragged Christians to prison never forgets it, and he coins a strained superlative, less than the least, to keep grace in view. Yet to this least of saints was given the highest of errands, to “preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.” That word unsearchable means literally un-track-able, riches too vast to be traced out to their end. You could explore them forever and never reach the boundary.

Then Paul lifts the curtain on God’s strategy in verse 10, and it is breathtaking. God’s design is that “now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms.” The word manifold means many-colored, like a richly woven fabric, and the church, reconciled and many-hued, one body from many nations, is God’s tapestry, held up before the unseen powers as the display of a wisdom they never imagined. And all of this rests on solid ground, “the eternal purpose that He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The fruit of it, for us, is verse 12: parrēsia (παρρησία) parrēsia, pronounced par-rhay-SEE-ah. Strong's G3954, boldness, freedom of speech, confidence. It comes from pas (all) and rhēsis (speech), and it means literally all-speech, the freedom to say everything, to speak without concealment or fear. In the Greek democracies it named the treasured right of a free citizen to speak openly in the public assembly, a right a slave did not have. Carried into the New Testament, it describes the astonishing liberty of the believer before God, not the cringing approach of a suspect creeping into a throne room, but the frank, open, unafraid access of a child to a father. Paul says that “in Him and through faith in Him” we now “enter God’s presence with boldness and confidence.” Remember the dividing wall of the temple, the barred inner courts, the sense that God was fenced off behind curtains and warnings, and then hear this: the way is open, and we may come with our heads up. This freedom is not presumption, for it rests entirely on Christ, but within Him it is total. , the open, unafraid access of a child to the Father. No wonder Paul can then wave off his own chains, for his “sufferings for you,” he says, are not a cause for discouragement but “your glory.”

Ephesians 3:14–19 (BSB)

¹⁴ … for this reason I bow my knees before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. ¹⁶ I ask that out of the riches of His glory He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Then you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ will have power, together with all the saints, to comprehend the length and width and height and depth ¹⁹ of the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now, at last, Paul completes the sentence he broke off in verse 1: “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father.” Kneeling was not the ordinary Jewish posture for prayer, since one usually stood, so the bowed knees signal a weight of reverence and longing. He prays to the Father “from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name,” the source of all fatherhood, the One after whom every household is patterned.

Then the petitions rise like a staircase, each one leading up to the next. First, that God would “strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being.” The Greek is dynamis, God’s inherent, effective power, the ability to do, to accomplish, to bring about what is willed. Notice where Paul asks this power to land. Not on our circumstances, not on our platform, but “in your inner being,” the hidden interior self, the place no one else sees. And observe the sheer scale of the supply, for this strengthening comes “out of the riches of His glory.” God does not measure His power to us out of His poverty but out of His inexhaustible wealth.

Second, and as a result, “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” The word for dwell means to settle down and make a permanent home, not to lodge as a passing guest. Third, that being “rooted and grounded in love” (two metaphors at once, a tree sunk deep and a building set on foundation) you would have power “to comprehend the length and width and height and depth… of the love of Christ.” Paul reaches for the four dimensions of space and applies them to a thing that cannot be measured. Interpreters through the centuries have loved to fill in the picture. The breadth of a love that reaches every nation. The length of a love that stretches from before the foundation of the world into eternity. The height of a love that lifts us to be seated with Christ. The depth of a love that stooped to the cross and to the grave.

But the deeper point is the paradox Paul builds on purpose. He asks that we would have power to comprehend the dimensions of a love, and then in the very next breath calls it “the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.” We are to know what is beyond knowing. Not by mastering it, but by being immersed in it, the way a fish knows the ocean it can never measure. The goal is not information but saturation. “That you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” It is the boldest thing a person could ask for another soul.

Ephesians 3:20–21 (BSB)

²⁰ Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, ²¹ to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Having prayed for the greatest things imaginable, Paul suddenly realizes he has still asked too small, and so the prayer breaks into praise. God, he says, “is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.” The Greek here is a piled-up superlative, a word Paul seems almost to invent for the occasion, hyper-ekperissou, super-abundantly-beyond. Trace the ascending steps of the phrase. God can do what we ask. More: what we ask or imagine. More: all that we ask or imagine. More still: above all that we ask or imagine. And then, at the top, immeasurably above all that we ask or imagine. Our largest prayers and our wildest imaginations are the floor of what God can do, not the ceiling.

And this is no distant, theoretical power. It is “according to His power that is at work within us.” The same strength Paul just prayed would fill our inner being, already operating in every believer. The chapter that opened with a prisoner in chains closes with a doxology that has no limits. “To Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.” Notice where the glory is displayed. In the church. The gathered people of God, reconciled from every nation, is the theater of His glory. Not only before the watching powers of heaven, but throughout all the ages to come.