Ephesians 3.13a-Paul Persuades Gentile Christian Community To Not Be Discouraged By His Roman Imprisonment
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday June 13, 2024
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 3:13a-Paul Requests Gentile Christian Community Not Be Discouraged by His Roman Imprisonment
Lesson # 165
Ephesians 3:13 Therefore, I myself urgently request at the present time that each and every one of you as a corporate unit not be discouraged because of my adversities on behalf of all of you without exception, which are unique in character making possible for each and every one of you to receive honor. (Lecturer’s translation)
Ephesians 3:13 contains the apodosis of a first class conditional statement and presents a strong inference from the protasis of this first class condition, which appears in Ephesians 3:2-12.
Paul doesn’t complete this first class condition until Ephesians 3:13 in order to present an autobiographical digression, which appears in Ephesians 3:3-12.
Therefore, Ephesians 3:2-12 constitutes a protasis of a first class condition that indicates the assumption of truth for the sake of argument.
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 appears in Ephesians 3:2.
It asserts this stewardship was given to him for the benefit of the recipients of this epistle who are Gentile church age believers.
The apodosis is not introduced until Ephesians 3:13, which leaves the protasis dangling.
Thus, we have the figure of anacoluthon being used by Paul because the apodosis is not introduced explicitly until 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 compliance with the request in the apodosis to not become discouraged by Paul’s Roman imprisonment.
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 because they were all the beneficiaries of Paul’s ministry.
He communicated to them the mystery doctrine that Jewish and Gentile church age believers are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body of Christ, and fellow partakers of the Messianic promise because of their faith in Christ Jesus at justification and union and identification with Him as a result of their obedience to the gospel.
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 himself through the Holy Spirit.
The apodosis, which we noted, is in Ephesians 3:13 is in the form of a request, namely, “I myself urgently request at the present time that each and every one of you as a corporate unit not be discouraged because of my adversities on behalf of all of you without exception, which are unique in character making possible for each and every one of you to receive glory.”
Therefore, this request is a strong inference from the protasis in Ephesians 3:2-12, which reveals that the Father gave Paul a stewardship at the moment of justification, which was for the benefit of the Gentile Christian community.
This stewardship was concerning an incomparable mystery, which was the product of their union and identification with Jesus Christ.
This mystery was a doctrine not known to Old Testament has been now revealed by the Spirit to the apostles and prophets through the Spirit.
This doctrine asserts that the Gentile church age believers are fellow heirs as well as fellow members of the body of Christ likewise fellow partakers of the Messian promise with Jewish church age believers because of justification by faith in and union and identification with Christ Jesus.
This stewardship required that Paul proclaim to the Gentile Christian community the unfathomable wealth brought about by this justification by faith in and union and identification with Christ.
The purpose of this stewardship was to cause everyone in this community to be enlightened as to what constitutes this unique dispensation, which is a mystery, which has been hidden from previous ages because of God’s will.
By fulfilling his service and stewardship, the multifaceted wisdom produced by the manifestation of the will of God (the Father) was made known to the Satanic sovereign rulers and governmental authorities in the heavenlies through the members of the church.
Therefore, we can understand why the apostle Paul in Ephesians 3:13 requests that the Gentile Christian community to whom he was writing to, not be discouraged because of his underserved suffering, i.e., his Roman imprisonment because it was actually for their own glory in the end.
It will result in their glory in the sense that the new humanity composed of Jewish and Gentile church age believers will reign with Jesus Christ during the millennium when they are in a perfected state, namely in a resurrection body and decorated with rewards for faithful service in life.
At the Second Advent of Jesus Christ, this new humanity, composed of Jewish and Gentile church age believers whose head is the Lord Jesus Christ, will dispossess Satan and the members of his kingdom as rulers of the earth.
They will also be honored by the Lord Jesus Christ at the Bema Seat Evaluation of the church if they remain faithful to Him until their death or the rapture, whichever comes first.
They will also be honored by Him and the inhabitants of the earth during the millennial reign of Jesus Christ.
These adversities that Paul was experiencing because of his ministry were the direct result of Satan and his kingdom persecuting him through unregenerate humanity.
They persecuted him because his ministry meant the end of Satan’s reign over the earth because through his ministry Gentiles were believing in Jesus Christ as their Savior and were simultaneously placed in union with Him and identified with Him in His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father.
Simultaneously, they were united with Jewish church age believers in order to form this new humanity whose head is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Paul was also persecuted because the Gentile members of this new humanity were growing spiritually as a result of him communicating the various mystery doctrines, which are for the benefit of this new humanity, i.e., the church.
Ultimately, if these individual members of the body of Christ remain faithful and execute the Father’s plan to become like Jesus Christ, they will receive rewards from Him at the Bema Seat Evaluation of the church, which immediately follows the rapture or resurrection of the church.
These constitute “the overcomers” the apostle John speaks of in Revelation 2-3 who will be assigned to positions of authority in Jesus Christ’s millennial government (Rev. 2:26).
Therefore, if Paul was not faithful in his ministry to the Gentile Christian community, none of this could ever take place because he was the instrument God employed to communicate this good news to the Gentile Christian community.
His faithfulness made it possible for this community to receive honor from the Lord Jesus Christ at the Bema Seat and during His millennial reign.
