Ephesians 3:1,2 - The administration of God's grace

3:1

“For this reason, I, ...” . At this point Paul goes off at a tangent, and the “for this reason” does not resume until v14.  At this time Paul was in prison, humanly speaking he was encountering very difficult and testing times. Yet he has just been expounding to the readers of his letter how great God’s plan is, and the extent of His power and purpose for believers. How on earth can this be squared with Paul being stuck in prison? This is the thought that suddenly comes to Paul and he thinks he had better say something about it. First, he does not see himself as a prisoner of the Roman empire, but a prisoner of Christ for the sake of the Gentiles. His imprisonment is benefitting the Gentiles. One way in which this was happening was in his writing of these letters!

3:2

This verse strongly ties in with this being intended as a circular letter to several churches. For Paul had very strong ties with the Ephesian church, so this verse would seem a little odd if it was sent only to the church at Ephesus. “The administration of God’s grace ...” Grace is not just a passive thing in the sense that it results in our totally undeserved forgiveness and adoption into God’s family. Grace does, of course, include that, and thank goodness it does, but it also goes beyond that. Grace is active, it enables us to do things, or rather for God to do things through us, that we have no right to expect to be able to do. In Paul’s case that meant taking the gospel to the Gentiles. The gospel by any human measure should never have been able to have an impact on the Gentile world, and Paul was the last person one would choose for this task. Yet that is what happened.