Prayerful Prelude – Ephesians 3:1-6 (NIV)

Prayerful Prelude – Ephesians 3:1-6 (NIV)

1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—

2 Surely you have heard about the administration 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 people 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 heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.

As Paul mentioned before, the idea of the outworkings of the gospel including the Gentiles is a scandalous idea. For thousands of years God’s people have been told to be separate, to be different, to not do the practices of the people in the land. He started with telling Abraham to leave his family and home land.

When the Israelites left Egypt and finally got to the land, the message was clear: they were to eliminate everyone there. They weren’t supposed to intermingle with them, adopt their practices or in any way associate with them.

Can you imagine after all the generations of this message, that suddenly the message changes. Your actions are worthless. Your righteousness is trash. The most religious people are wrong. The Gentiles are welcome to the benefits of the Messiah.

They are forgiven of their sins. They have access to the Father. They gain the same inheritance as God’s nation.

Ephesus was a major port city with a lot of travel and various cultures living together. It was closer to Greece than Israel so it would likely have more Gentile influence than Jewish. It would be difficult for Jews to accept Gentiles. It would be difficult for Gentiles to relate to Jews and understand what it meant that their Savior was offered to non-Jewish believers.

Paul commends them in chapter 2 for their unity in the Spirit. This little aside of his administration of God’s grace and His mystery is building back to a description of his prayers.

I think it’s fascinating how Paul is so articulate about the backstory and motivation for his prayers.