Ephesians 3.2b-Paul's Stewardship
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday March 21, 2024
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 3:2b-Paul’s Stewardship
Lesson # 135
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.
Here in Ephesians 3:2-12, the protasis of this first class conditional statement is designed to persuade the recipients of this epistle 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 second person plural aorist active indicative conjugation of the verb akouō (ἀκούω) pertains to learning or becoming aware of something, conceived of as hearing about it.
The referent of the second person plural form of this verb is the recipients of this letter, who were Gentile Christian community living throughout the Roman province of Asia.
The word not only speaks of them as a corporate unit but is also used in a distributive sense emphasizing no exceptions.
Therefore, in context, this verb speaks of these Gentile church age believers who lived in the various cities and towns in the Roman province of Asia receiving information about Paul’s stewardship to communicate the mystery doctrine of the church age by hearing him and other teachers and prophets communicating it to them.
The enclitic particle ge (γέ), “in fact” emphasizes that each one of the recipients of this letter without exception, who were Gentile church age believers, heard about the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to Paul for the benefit of each and every one of them.
In other words, in relation to the first class conditional statement, it is an emphatic confirmation that they have heard about his stewardship to the gospel.
In particular, the mystery doctrine of the church age 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 resultant union and identification with Him through the baptism of the Spirit at justification.
The noun oikonomia (οἰκονομία) means “stewardship” because it pertains in this context to Paul’s responsibility as an apostle to communicate the gospel.
Also, it speaks of his responsibility to communicate God’s secret plan that Gentile and Jewish 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, it speaks of his responsibility to communicate this mystery doctrine of the church age.
The idea of this word is two-fold:
(1) It speaks of the office or spiritual gift of apostle.
(2) It speaks of the activity of an apostle.
Thus, the word not only speaks of Paul’s apostleship but also the responsibility he was given to communicate the Father’s secret plan to make Jewish and Gentile church age believers 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 resultant union and identification with Him through the baptism of the Spirit.
Acts 26:15-18 records Paul recounting to King Agrippa the Lord bestowing upon him this stewardship to proclaim the gospel to the Gentiles.
Acts 26:15 So I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord replied, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. 16 But get up and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this reason, to designate you in advance as a servant and witness to the things you have seen and to the things in which I will appear to you. 17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles, to whom I am sending you 18 to open their eyes so that they turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a share among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’ (NET)
The noun charis (χάρις), “grace” is employed by the apostle Paul to describe the stewardship the Lord Jesus Christ bestowed upon him at his justification as being an “unmerited blessing.”
Thus, it not only describes his spiritual gift of apostleship as an unmerited blessing but also the responsibility and task the Lord called or commissioned him to perform on behalf of the Gentiles.
This interpretation is supported by the contents of Ephesians 3:8.
Ephesians 3: 8 To me—less than the least of all the saints—this grace was given, to proclaim to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ (NET)
The referent of the articular genitive masculine singular form of the noun theos (θεός), “the one and only God” is God the Father.
The articular construction of the noun theos (θεός) expresses the idea that there were many gods in the world, but the God Jewish and Gentile Christians worshipped was the one and only true God in contrast to unregenerate humanity in the first century A.D. which worshipped the pantheon of Graeco-Roman gods.
The noun charis (χάρις), “grace” functions as a genitive of apposition or epexegetical genitive, which indicates that the noun charis (χάρις), “grace” is identifying or describing the noun oikonomia (οἰκονομία), “the stewardship” as God’s grace.
Specifically, it identifies this stewardship as an unmerited blessing given to Paul, which originates from God the Father.
In other words, Paul did not earn or deserve this stewardship but rather it was a gift from God the Father.
The noun theos (θεός) functions as a genitive of source, which expresses the idea that this grace or unmerited blessing bestowed upon Paul “originates from” God the Father.
When Paul describes himself in Ephesians 3:8 as “less than the least of all the saints,” he is alluding to the fact that his stewardship was a manifestation of God’s grace in the sense that the task the Lord gave him to communicate the gospel to the Gentiles was an unmerited blessing.
In other words, he certainly did not earn or deserve it.
The verb didōmi (δίδωμι) means “to bestow as a gift” since the word pertains in this context of giving someone something as an expression of generosity.
The referent of the feminine singular form of this verb is the noun oikonomia (οἰκονομία), “the stewardship,” which we noted is modified by the genitive adjunct tēs charitos tou theou (τῆς χάριτος τοῦ θεοῦ), “God’s grace.”
The accusative second person plural form of the personal pronoun su (σύ) means “each and every one of you as a corporate unit” or “all of you as a corporate unit without exception” because it not only refers to the recipients of this letter but is also used of them in a distributive sense emphasizing on exceptions.
The referent of this word we noted is the Gentile Christian community living throughout the Roman province of Asia.
This word is the object of the preposition eis (εἰς), which functions as a marker of benefaction or advantage expressing the idea that the stewardship of God’s grace, which was given to Paul, was “for the benefit of” each and every Gentile church age believer without exception.
The aorist tense of this verb didōmi (δίδωμι) is a constative aorist, which describes in summary fashion Paul receiving as a gift the stewardship of communicating the Father’s secret plan to make Jewish and Gentile church age believers fellow heirs, fellow members of the body of Christ, and fellow partakers of the promise because of the faith in Christ Jesus at justification and their resultant union and identification with Him.
If you recall, the noun oikonomia (οἰκονομία), “the stewardship” not only speaks of Paul’s apostleship but also the responsibility he was given to communicate the Father’s secret plan to make Jewish and Gentile church age believers 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 resultant union and identification with Him through the baptism of the Spirit at justification.
Therefore, the aorist tense is not only describing the moment Paul received this stewardship at justification but also describes Paul receiving the revelation of the content of this mystery after justification.
The passive voice of this verb indicates that the stewardship of God’s grace receives the action of being given to Paul when he received the gift of apostleship through the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit at justification and after justification when he received the revelation of the content of this mystery from the Holy Spirit.
The participle conjugation of this verb functions as a genitive of apposition or epexegetical genitive, which is identifying or describing the noun oikonomia (οἰκονομία), “the stewardship” as being given to Paul at justification for the benefit of the Gentile Christian community and after justification when he received the revelation of the content of this mystery.