Ephesians 3.2a-Paul Persuades the Recipients of Epistle to Not Be Discouraged By His Imprisonment
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday March 19, 2024
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 3:2a-Paul Persuades the Recipients of the Epistle To Not Be Discouraged By His Imprisonment
Lesson # 134
Ephesians 3:1 For this reason, I myself, Paul, the prisoner owned by and under the authority of the one and only Christ who is Jesus for the benefit of each and every one of you as a corporate unit, who are Gentiles—2 if and let us assume that it is true for the sake of argument that each and every one of you as a corporate unit have surely heard about the stewardship, which is unique to the grace, which originates from the one and only God, which was given to me for the benefit of all of you as a corporate unit without exception. (Of course, every one of you have in fact heard about it.) (Lecturer’s translation)
Ephesians 3:2 is composed of a protasis of a first class condition that indicates the assumption of truth for the sake of argument and begins a sentence, which ends in Ephesians 3:7.
The apodosis is not introduced until Ephesians 3:13, which leaves the protasis dangling.
It is introduced explicitly in Ephesians 3:13 with the inferential use of the conjunction dio (διό).
The first class condition is a tool of persuasion in that the writer uses it to persuade his audience to come to his conclusion in the apodosis.
The idea behind the first class condition is not “since” but rather, “if-and let us assume that it is true for the sake of argument that, then...”
Here in Ephesians 3:2-12, the protasis of this first class conditional statement is designed to persuade the recipients of this epistle, who we noted were Gentile Christians, to follow a particular course of action, which in our context is obedience to the command in the apodosis to not become discouraged by Paul’s Roman imprisonment.
Now, the protasis is not only contained in Ephesians 3:2 but also in Ephesians 3:3-12 with the latter explaining in greater detail the contents of the former.
In other words, in Ephesians 3:3-12 explains in detail what Paul means by the expression “the stewardship of God’s grace,” which he also asserts was given to him for the benefit of the recipients of this epistle who are Gentile church age believers.
The idea of the protasis is “if and let assume that it is true for the sake argument that all of you as a corporate unit without exception have heard about the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for the benefit of each and every one of you as a corporate unit.”
This is a responsive first class condition indicating that the recipients of this letter, whom Ephesians 2:11 identifies as Gentile church age believers, would all agree with the protasis.
This is indicated by the fact that these Gentiles church age believers are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body of Christ, and fellow partakers of the Messianic promise because they responded to Paul communicating the gospel to them by exercising faith in Jesus Christ.
The resulted in the Father declaring them justified and the Holy Spirit placing them in union with Jesus Christ and identifying them with Him in His crucifixion, death burial, resurrection and session at the Father’s right hand through the baptism of the Spirit.
In fact, Paul affirms in Ephesians 3:3-12 that this stewardship of God’s grace, which was given to him for the benefit of these Gentile church age believers was communicated to these Gentile church age believers by Paul through the Holy Spirit.
As noted, “the stewardship of God’s grace” is then explained in greater detail in Ephesians 3:3-12.
The apodosis, which we noted, is in Ephesians 3:13 and is “I ask each and every one of you as a corporate unit to not lose heart because of what I am suffering on behalf of all of you without exception, which is for the glory of each and every one of you as a corporate unit.”
So therefore, as we noted the protasis is introduced in Ephesians 3:2 but explained in detail in Ephesians 3:3-12.
In Ephesians 3:3-5, the apostle Paul defines this stewardship of God’s grace as the revelation of the mystery and asserts that he was given insight into this mystery of Christ, which was not known to Old Testament saints but has now been revealed to the apostles and New Testament prophets by the Spirit.
In Ephesians 3:6, he defines this mystery of Christ as Gentile church age believers being fellow heirs, fellow members of the body of Christ, and fellow partakers of the Messianic promise with Jewish church age believer because of their faith in Christ Jesus at justification and union and identification with Him.
Then, in Ephesians 3:7-8, Paul asserts that he became a servant of the gospel according to the gift of God’s grace that was given to him by the exercise of God’s power to proclaim to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ and to enlighten everyone about God’s plan concealed from the saints living in past dispensations.
Thus, the implication is that Paul enlightened the recipients of this letter regarding God’s secret plan to have Jewish and Gentile believers as fellow heirs, fellow members of the body of Christ, and fellow partakers of the promise because of their faith in Christ Jesus at justification and union and identification with Him.
In Ephesians 3:10, Paul asserts that the purpose of this enlightenment is that through the church the multifaced wisdom of God would be disclosed during the church age to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly realms, which is a reference to Satan and his fellow evil spirits.
Then, in Ephesians 3:11, he asserts that this was according to the eternal purpose that the Father accomplished by means of the Lord Jesus Christ’s crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father.
Therefore, in this first class condition in Ephesians 3:2-12, Paul is persuading these Gentile church age believers to not lose heart because he was imprisoned unjustly because they have heard about his stewardship of God’s grace, which was given to him on their behalf.
He is attempting to engage them in dwelling upon God’s amazing grace, i.e. unmerited blessing, which God bestowed upon him at his conversion.
This stewardship is the mystery of Christ, which was communicated through the gospel by the apostles and prophets of Jesus Christ.
The content of this revelation is that Jewish and Gentile church age believers are now fellow heirs, fellow members of the body of Christ, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus.
It was a mystery in the sense that it was a secret plan not known to Old Testaments but now communicated during the church age through the apostles and prophets of Jesus Christ.
Paul became a servant of this gospel according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given to him by the exercise of God’s power in order to proclaim to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ.
He also was given this gift in order to enlighten everyone in the Christian community about God’s secret plan that was hidden for ages in God.
The purpose of this enlightenment we also noted was to disclose to Satan and his kingdom in the heavenly realms through the church the multifaceted wisdom of God.
The implication is that they were not to lose heart because his imprisonment was the result of Satan and his kingdom persecuting him because of proclaiming this mystery that Jewish and Gentile church age believers are now fellow heirs, fellow members of the body of Christ, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus.
Now, in Ephesians 3:2 and 13, the relationship between the protasis and the apodosis is “cause-effect.”
The cause appears in the protasis, which we noted appears in Ephesians 3:2-12 and the effect appears in the apodosis, which we noted appears in Ephesians 3:13.
Therefore, this indicates that the Gentile Christian living throughout the various cities and towns in the Roman province of Asia must not be discouraged by Paul’s imprisonment because the purpose of this stewardship was for him to disclose to Satan and his kingdom in the heavenly realms through the church the multifaceted wisdom of God.
The implication is that they were not to lose heart because his imprisonment was the result of Satan and his kingdom persecuting him because of proclaiming this mystery that Jewish and Gentile church age believers are now fellow heirs, fellow members of the body of Christ, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus.
In other words, these Gentile Christians should never be discouraged by his imprisonment because Paul’s proclamation of this mystery doctrine is an affront and presents a threat to Satan and his kingdom.
Thus, it is no surprise that Satan and his fellow evil spirits, who temporarily govern the earth, attacked him to the point of causing him to be imprisoned unjustly by his own people, the Jews.
Satan was upset by Paul communicating the gospel throughout the Roman Empire because the message of the gospel meant the demise of his kingdom on the earth.
As we noted in our study of Ephesians 2:11-22, both Jewish and Gentile church age believers constitute the new humanity which will dispossess Satan and his fellow evil spirits when Jesus Christ returns with the church at His Second Advent, which brings to an end the times of the Gentiles and the seventieth week of Daniel.
The Father placed His incarnate Son Jesus Christ as ruler over the earth as a result of His Son voluntarily suffering a spiritual and physical death on the cross as a substitute for the entire human race (Phil. 2:6-11; Heb. 2:9-11).
When He ascended into heaven and was seated at the right hand of the Father, He was given the title deed to the earth and rulership over it (Rev. 5:1-5) and at His Second Advent, He will imprison Satan for a thousand years (Rev. 20:1-3) and will along with the church assume rulership over the earth for a thousand years.
Therefore, no wonder Paul was imprisoned unjustly because the god of this world, Satan was unhappy about this mystery doctrine of the church age, which asserts that Jewish and Gentile church age believers in resurrection bodies will dispossess him and his fellow evil spirits as rulers of planet earth.
The proclamation of the gospel and in particular this mystery doctrine that Jewish and Gentile church age believers are now fellow heirs, fellow members of the body of Christ, and fellow partakers of the promise because of their faith in Christ Jesus at justification and their union and identification with Him meant the end of Satan’s kingdom on earth.