For this reason I,
Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus
for you Gentiles --
if indeed you have heard of the
dispensation of the
grace of God which was given to me
for you, how that by
revelation He made known to me
the mystery (as I have briefly written already,
by which,
when you read, you
may understand my knowledge
in the mystery of
Christ), which in other ages
was not made known to
the sons of men, as it has now
been revealed by the
Spirit to His holy apostles
and prophets: that
the Gentiles should be fellow heirs,
of the same body, and
partakers of His promise
in Christ through the
gospel, of which I became a minister
according to the
gift of the grace of God given to me
by the effective
working of His power.
Ephesians 3: 1 -- 7
It must be
remembered that this epistle was written when Paul was a prisoner at Rome and
Paul in this epistle in its design was to lead the Ephesians in the faith of
Jesus Christ. While this was written
not only for the Ephesians but for other churches in the Asian area as well
can also be seen as the inspired Word of God for all Christians and it has
meaning for you when I in this present age.
We use the word dispensation and I think that we need to understand that
words have had lots of changes in their meaning over time. Within the Christian Church dispensation has become associated with dispensationalism which is a different word it has
a different meaning so we must clarify this Greek word: οίκονομίαν, this word
is best translated administration, if you pronounce this word you will hear the
word economy and this refers to the management and in this case it also has the
word house in the word so is the management of a household and of its affairs
therefore it's the management of property of others a stewardship and is used
by the Paul as the arrangement of the administration by God. We must not confuse this word dispensation
to mean a period of time, rather a mode of dealing or an arrangement and this
arrangement is overseen by stewards and in this case Paul is the steward of
this administration. Furthermore as we
study this word we find that this arrangement or dispensation can be applied to
present time, although in this case time is not clearly outlined, but tells
us that God will specifically deal with man in a time or in His economy. The next word that needs to have
clarification is the word mystery for the Greek word is certainly different from
our understanding of the word mystery. The Greek word is: μυστήριον, this word has a meaning of those
things outside the range of unassisted natural apprehension and can be made
known only by divine revelation and this revelation is made known in manner and
in a time appointed by God and it is to be given to those only who are
illumined by His Spirit. This mystery
is to be found only in Jesus Christ and that mystery is all about why He, Jesus
Christ, came to earth and why He had to die upon the cross and what that means
to anyone who converts and beliefs in Him.
Part of what we know of this mystery is that now under this new
dispensation, or economy of God, the Gentiles have access to the throne of God
that they never had before. Remember,
people could from other nations, tribes, and countries, could become converted to the
Jewish religion that was established by God and fall under the covenant given
to the Jewish nation. Now things have
changed Jesus Christ, the Messiah, has come and has now opened the door by
renting the veil of the temple to allow all peoples to now come under the
covenant with out having to become a Hebrew.
All peoples are our fellow workers and fellow heirs, and are of the same
body and have the same promise and that promise is illuminated to all people by
the gospel. This work given to Paul by
Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus and was simply a gift of grace that was given
and the commission was given to him to take the grace and the message of the
Gospel to the Gentiles. You and I are
recipients of what Jesus Christ has done by opening the door in this new
dispensation and through His economy to allow us to be one of those who are elected to
be heirs with Jesus Christ. We have so
much to be grateful for because all of this was given to us while we were yet
sinners. We have done nothing to
warrant the giving of this free gift of grace for it is all due to the
Providence and economy and dispensation of God that He gives this gift to
anyone. Yet, He has given it to us,
therefore, what are we to do with this gift?
It is clear we are an apostle of God and that means we are ones who have
been sent to bring the gospel to our world.
For some this will mean that they will be missionaries in foreign
lands. Others will be called to do pastoral
work, and others to be teachers and professors. For most of us we take this gospel into our work. We manifest the love of God through our
lives, and we demonstrate our faith in our actions and words, and this is a
great way to bring the gospel to others.
You may find that when people see your active faith to come and ask
questions whereby you will be given the opportunity to bring the good news to
them personally. This will require as
Paul has written and other places that you study to show yourself and approve workman of God, and as Peter said we must study to show ourselves prepared to
give a defense for our faith. You are a
minister of our Lord Jesus Christ. This
world is not our home, we are just passing through, our treasures are laid up,
somewhere up in the blue. Those words
from the old song should become our mantle and we are not to settle ourselves in
this world ourhome is already established in heaven with God. The question is will you live this truth?
The heart of the righteous
studies how
to answer,
but the mouth of the wicked
pours forth
evil.
The LORD is far from the wicked
but He hears
the prayer
of the righteous.
Proverbs 15:28 -- 29
You are privileged to bear the cross of Christ
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