Commentary on Ephesians 3.1–4.1

“For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ for you Gentiles; if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God.” It remained—since he had spoken of these matters, that all hope is in Christ, and that so all are built together in the spirit to be a dwelling of God—it remained, I say, for him to teach who he himself was, whether he himself was completing the building through the gospel, and to give an account of his authority so that he would be believed. So he adds this: “for this reason,” he says, that is, that you may be built into a dwelling of God in the spirit. For you are to hear that this is said not only to the Ephesians but to all. Then, “for you Gentiles,” he says, “Paul, the prisoner of Christ”; a prisoner either as bound to the gospel of Christ, or as one who has endured many labors and punishments, and who endured them for you while proclaiming Christ; and I am a prisoner of Christ, I who am bound for proclaiming Christ, but for your sake. To make this credible, that he is a prisoner of Christ for the Gentiles, he added the assurance of the mystery entrusted to him. “If indeed,” he says, “you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God.” That is, if it is known to you what grace has been dispensed, that is, how the gospel has been ordered through me, so that God may be proclaimed through Christ, and the power of Christ, which is the power of God. “Which was given to me toward you according to revelation.” For, as Paul himself records in many places, he did not receive or learn the mystery from men or through men, but all things were revealed to him. For this is what he said: that grace was given to him, but through revelation. In this place one may understand that a Christian can be made by revelation, and indeed in the highest degree. Paul was indeed chosen, and was called a vessel of election; yet since God’s power ministers his grace in every way, let us understand that this is the lawful discipline of the Savior’s commandments: that a person is reborn through the spirit and water, and so receives the spirit of Christ. But this also comes from men and through men. What happened to Paul (although, in our estimation, he alone merited it) can nonetheless, as I said, happen by God’s grace through a revelation of God of this kind or in another similar way. Hence one to whom revelation has been given by the grace of Christ, so that he might be filled with the spirit, is not to be denied the grace of Christ; and having had the knowledge of Christ by revelation, he would serve him.

“The mystery was made known to me, as I wrote before in brief; as you can, reading, understand my prudence in the mystery of Christ.” Here too I remind you that the mystery of Christ can be known by revelations; and although with Paul it seems to have been fulfilled by the Lord’s election, yet since the Lord’s election is free, it can happen with others as well, that the knowledge of the true and full deity comes not from men nor through men. It is indeed a great and singular favor, and perhaps it may be granted that it happens in part today. For since he himself said that if one is prophesying and something is revealed to another about the same thing, the one who is prophesying should sit down and recognize it, so that the one who says it has been revealed to him may be heard: then it can be revealed; and what happens in part can happen in the same way in the whole. For the mystery of the Lord and the will of God extends to all its power: we must accept that he can do all things and wills what he can; but these things belong to another question. Now he shows that the mystery was revealed to him, when Paul said that he had written it to the Ephesians, that is, the mystery itself: not the revelation, but what was revealed, that is, the mystery. I wrote, he says—or rather I say—and as you could, he says, reading, understand, as far as you could, my prudence; prudence in the mystery of Christ. He has used “prudence” not for that knowledge which by its own power foresees what is, and finds and grasps by reasoning what is to come; but here he has named knowledge “prudence.” For he did not obtain it through prudence; but after he obtained it, he began to have prudence. Then he says, “prudence in the mystery of Christ”; that is, in what I perceived, what was revealed to me, what was made known to me; that is, in that he was taught prudence in what was revealed to him: memory, or knowledge, or understanding. For these are the parts of prudence. So there is room for prudence, and yet we cannot obtain the mystery through prudence, but through revelation.

“Which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men.” This can be an argument for prudence: that it was revealed to him by God because he was prudent and could receive the revelation, the mystery; and that he alone merited because of his prudence to know the mystery which in other generations was not known to the sons of men. What is “in other generations”? That is, before my times. For generations, as we read in the gospel, are times reckoned as it were by persons. To none, he says, of those sons of men who were before me in generation; to none, he says, was the mystery made known. What the mystery is, which Paul says was revealed and made known to him, we have often said. By adding “to the sons of men,” he shows perhaps that before that mystery was revealed to Paul, it could have been revealed to angels; that is, not to the sons of men, “as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles.” He teaches fully the agreement of the mystery: that it is one and the same, what was revealed to him and to the apostles. So that there would be no discord, and that what was handed on to the apostles through Christ’s presence would not seem other than what he said was handed on to himself by revelation, he joins what was revealed to him with what was revealed to the holy apostles. That is too little: he adds, “and to the prophets in the spirit.” Keenly and forcefully: for to the prophet who spoke the mystery, it was revealed in the Spirit; he himself did not know the mystery. Since he had said that the mystery was not revealed or made known to the sons of men, but it was known to the prophets, who are sons of men, he added that it was known, but in the Spirit; that is, when, breathed upon by the Spirit, they spoke the mystery.

“Yet to them it was not known that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and of the same body and sharers of his promise in Christ through the gospel.” This is what he said had been made known to him as the mystery, and at the same time to the holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit: that the Gentiles too are fellow heirs in Christ and of the same body, that is, of the same body, as it were; which he often mentions, that all souls that are holy and freed and joined to the spirit of Christ are said to be one body. From this, then, the Gentiles too are sharers of his promise in Christ. For not Israel alone, but also the Gentiles who have been incorporated in Christ through the gospel are sharers of the promise: that they will merit eternal glory, life, the forgiveness of sins, and the rest that both God and the Savior promised to those who follow him. So all are sharers of the promise in Christ through the gospel.

“Of which I was made a minister according to the gift of the working of God, which was given to me according to the workings of his power.” I have been made, he says, a minister of that gospel through which in Christ both Gentiles and Israel are sharers of the promise: of that gospel I am the minister, made so by the gift of God’s grace. For everywhere Paul records that we receive this not by our merits but by the grace of God, so that whatever is given as grace belongs to the giver, not the receiver. And when he added, “according to the working of his power,” this too he ascribes to God: so that if I work anything, it is God’s power. For it is not my own power that works in me, but God’s. But how he joins both, and what follows, must be examined carefully. For he adds: “To me, the least of all the saints, this grace was given ...” If working belongs to one already acting, and grace was given according to the working, the merit is first that of the one working, and then grace. But above he said that this grace, to be a minister of the gospel, was given according to the gift of God’s grace; and only afterward was it given to him by which he now works, and he works by the power of God, and it is said that grace was given on account of the working of God’s power. What, then? Was the working given before the grace? Or the grace given afterward? But when it is said that it is the working of God’s power, grace has already been given. And again, when it is said that Paul was made a minister according to God’s grace, we understand that the gift that he should be a minister was given before the working; and that his being a minister is God’s gift of grace. Now, from the grace received, when the minister works, that too is grace, that his working is from God’s power. So that he was a minister was God’s gift; that the working of God should be a power in him was God’s grace. “To me, then, the least of all the saints,” he says, “this grace was given.” What is that grace? To preach the gospel among the Gentiles according to the working of his power. And what to preach he adds below. Not “the least of the apostles,” but “of the saints,” he says. For the apostles are saints, holy both in faith and in spirit, to whom the gospel was entrusted. “The incomprehensible riches of Christ.” For what riches could be such, or how could the riches be comprehended that are Christ’s—which make us sons of God, grant eternal life, take away all corruption, kill death itself, make us be in the heavens, and forgive all sins? So great are the riches, both in taking away evils, by the pardon of sins, and in giving goods, and goods so great as I named above, and others like them.

“And to enlighten all as to what is the dispensation of the mystery.” The order is: grace was given to me to preach among the Gentiles and to enlighten all. To enlighten them about what? About what the dispensation of the mystery is; so that they not only preach the mystery but also enlighten, that is, disclose what the dispensation of the mystery is. And when he said “to enlighten all,” he included both Israel and the Gentiles. For he received the gospel, without doubt, for the Gentiles; but the Jews too can be enlightened, if they follow, if they obey. What the dispensation of the mystery is must be explained, since Paul said that he enlightens. But he declared it in what follows: “hidden from the ages in God.” Grace has been given me, he says, among the Gentiles, to enlighten all as to what the dispensation of the mystery is. Of what mystery? That which, he says, “has been hidden from the ages in God.” What is “from the ages,” and what “in God”; what is “hidden,” and how hidden, let us explain briefly. From God, who is the first Father, was begotten Christ, who is light from light and God from God, who is Jesus, who is God from God. Let no one suppose that I speak of him as another God; but the order of speaking demands it. In this Christ, I say, who is God from God, all things have been perfected, and through him are all things; but, what is needed now, in him are all things. For so it is said, both “through him” and “in him.” If, then, all things are in him—although all things are through him, yet God is in him, all things—this too is a mystery, and hidden in him. Hidden from whom? “From the ages.” For Christ is the only-begotten Son of God, and by him the rest were created; that is, through him God’s works, with God working in him through him. All the ages, therefore, are later than Christ, since they were made by Christ. Nothing, then, was before Christ, nor were any higher things before Christ. Christ was born from God with no beginning in time. From these ages, then, the mystery was hidden in God, to be revealed in its own times: that Christ, the Son of God, would come, put on flesh, bring help, free man, forgive sins, raise him into the eternal and heavenly realm, justify, glorify, and the rest that he adds. In whom, then, was this mystery hidden? In God. In which God? He “who created all things.” For if the mystery hidden in him was revealed through him; and it was hidden before he came, and revealed after he came. Who is this? He who, he says, “created all things.” So though God may be taken as creator, yet God is creator through Christ. For “creator” does not befit God, but befits Christ, and so through Christ befits God. For he begot Christ; Christ created all things, with God himself working and creating through him. So it is one thing that all things were created, and they were created by one. Since indeed all things were created as works of God the Father through Christ.

“That the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places through the church.” This is the mystery that was hidden in God, that is, in Christ, which was afterward revealed not to souls but to human beings, and not only to human beings but to all the principalities and powers in the heavenly places; and it was revealed through the church, namely that through the mystery there is the wisdom of God. And when he said “to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places,” one may understand that it was not revealed to those that are hostile: for he says “in the heavenly places.” And when he said “through the church,” that is, through all the members of God, through the members of Christ, and through every soul clothed with his mysteries and having hope in him. So one may understand how much has been given to man. For it is not the principalities and powers in the heavenly places who themselves declare the wisdom of God to human beings; but through the church, that is, through those who are members of Christ by sanctification in faith, the powers and principalities in the heavenly places learn that the wisdom of God has been brought forth through man. That even the princes and powers of the world learn and know the wisdom of God will be easy to recognize, if they have learned and known where man is and where he has his beginning, through the prophet Ezekiel when he speaks of the cherubim: in which there is a vision, as that passage itself requires a definite exposition. Briefly, then, he touched on all the parts of the mystery that we mentioned above by saying “the manifold wisdom of God”: whether that he sent his Son, or that so great a majesty took up the form of a servant, or that such great signs were done, or that such great things were promised—the pardon of sins and the promise of the heavens. Likewise eternal life and glorification and inheritance together with that same Christ, and resurrection after death like his, and death itself, and the rest of this kind: all this is the manifold wisdom of God.

“According to the predetermination of the ages, which he made in Christ Jesus our Lord.” From this it appears what it means that the mystery was hidden in God, since he added, “according to the predetermination of the ages.” For when certain ages had been determined and closed, the mystery was to appear through the presence of the Lord, in whom the mystery had been hidden. For it had to be revealed through him in whom it was hidden. For this is what he added: “which determination of the ages he made in Christ Jesus our Lord”: at what time the mystery would appear, at what time it would be revealed, at what time salvation and liberation would be shown.

“In whom we have freedom and access in confidence through faith in him.” Although in the mystery of the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ redemption was accomplished and salvation given, yet the sum, and truly (if we attend) this alone is the sum, and surely the greatest, is that freedom has been given to us. For, pressed by captivity, we could not resist through the law, as he himself says that our weakness could not resist through the body. So he came to conquer the flesh, and death through death; and with it conquered, he made possible for us what we believed impossible. So freedom has been given, and access to confidence has been given “through faith in him,” that is, when we have faith in him. I have warned, and often warned, that this is the door of our liberation: if we believe in Christ; for his mystery has freed us, if we follow him. For then his death and his resurrection will profit us, if we have faith in him; for he both did and suffered all things for our sake. Let us have confidence, then, as he adds.

“For this reason I bend my knees to the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.” For what reason? Namely, I endure tribulations for you. For this reason I bend my knees; that is, I ask fully, and I ask the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. All working, indeed, and all action is through Christ; but since, as we have often reminded, the spirit of Christ is that of ministries—for he himself is God’s ministry, and God does all things through him—therefore, he says, I bend my knees to the Father. For it is he who must be asked to have mercy and help, to direct our faith, to work for us in Christ, so that we may follow Christ himself and, having faith in him, may reach the promises. Bending the knees is the full posture of prayer and petition. For we ought to bend not only in mind in prayer but also in body, so that we are not higher in any part, or in an image of height, or seem to have pride. So in another place: God will keep for himself so many thousands of men who did not bend the knee before Baal.

“Therefore I ask that you not lose heart in my tribulations for you, which is your glory.” He has turned back upon himself the exhortation he owes to all, so as to render them strengthened. For this cause, he says, namely because to me, the least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach among the Gentiles, and the rest; therefore, that is, for this cause, I ask that you not lose heart in my tribulations. For those who follow Paul could grow very weary in faith when they heard that this same Paul endured tribulations. For if he who preaches, who proclaims the gospel, who was chosen by God, endures much, and is wearied by dangers, labors, and many other tribulations, those who follow him are, I say, greatly deterred, and begin to have a faith that is almost not whole, as if they too might be endangered and labor heavily, since he who proclaims the gospel and preaches, being of such grace, is in tribulations. So I ask, he says, because of what has been revealed to me, that you not lose heart in my tribulations: tribulations which I suffer not through my own desert nor for my own sake, but because you are either weak in faith or still afraid, and somehow add other things. Therefore I endure tribulations, wishing to call you back to the true discipline and observance, so that you do not withdraw from Christ, add nothing to Christ, and have your only hope from Christ. This is not my glory, he says, but yours. So since the tribulations are for you, it is, he says, your glory: so that, while I labor, work, and am exercised through tribulations for glory, you may come to your glory. “From whom every fatherhood in the heavens and on earth is named.” That is, from God the Father, and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: for he is Father, he is the first Father, and from him whoever is a father has been named father. And yet this word, or power, has flowed from the first God, the Father, as from a fountain. For Christ too is father of all things that were created: for through Christ all things were created. Likewise he is father in the mysteries. And Paul is in a way a father, since he said, “You are my children”; “I,” he says, “begot you in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” So fatherhood in the heavens is Christ; fatherhood on earth is either the apostles, or whoever proclaims the gospel, or whoever hands on the mystery. For in these ways and many others those who receive the faith are called sons, and those who hand it on fathers. All fatherhood, then, proceeds from God the Father.

“That he may give you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner man: that Christ may dwell through faith in your hearts.” He has expressed what prayers he makes for the Ephesians: “that he may give you,” he says, “the riches of his glory”; and he shows that those riches are the glory of God: “to be strengthened with power through his Spirit,” so that they may be strong against the flesh and the desires of the flesh, and against the most wicked powers of this world; which happens and comes about through the Spirit of God. And how are they strengthened, that is, made strong, through the Spirit of God? “In the inner man,” he says, “that Christ may dwell.” For when Christ has begun to dwell in the inner man, that is, in the soul, people are made strong with power through the Spirit; for everything hostile is driven out. And how Christ dwells in the inner man he has added: “through faith,” he says, “in your hearts.” So it is an easy and a magnificent thing: easy in that faith alone fulfills so great a gift and so great a benefit, that Christ dwells in our hearts. With him dwelling there, what do we gain? That we are stronger through the Spirit, and so have the riches of God’s glory, and, made strong, suffer no danger, despise the world, and conquer all the most wicked powers. These are the riches of God. Let us also hope for glory and the promise, “rooted and grounded” in truth. This is the greatest precept, set down by Paul everywhere and often laid down by me in admonition: that firmness, foundation, and the whole standing of the soul toward eternity is in truth, of which I have often spoken: which is love, toward God and toward Christ, and toward human beings. This makes our faith rooted and grounded.

“That you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth; to know also the love of Jesus Christ that surpasses knowledge.” He has set out, as I said, the sum of his prayers: what he asks God that the Ephesians may obtain. In this one must understand that Paul prays this not for the Ephesians only, but for all who believe in Christ. Besides what we said above, then, he prays and asks that God may grant the Ephesians this too, which is the greatest: that they may obtain knowledge, the height, the depth. He prays also that the Ephesians may obtain the love of Christ, which love prevails over and surpasses knowledge, and profits more for salvation and for the eternity of souls, if anyone takes up love toward Christ. So, since he has taught that three things fulfill the perfection of Christianity—faith, knowledge, love—he has embraced them all briefly here, and declared that he holds them in his prayers, that God may grant these things to the Ephesians. For about faith he spoke thus: that you may have, he says, Christ dwelling in the inner man through faith in your hearts. Likewise about knowledge he spoke thus: that you may be able to comprehend with all the saints the breadth, length, height, depth. Likewise about love he adds thus: to know also the love that surpasses knowledge. And he set down three things, and showed both the order and which is stronger. There are three: faith, knowledge, love. The order is that faith comes first: for whoever believes comes to knowledge. For so it was said: “If you believe, then you will understand.” After knowledge the love of Christ is set before all; for love alone toward Christ, and desire, and love, and affection, and longing, lifts up and frees souls. So love surpasses knowledge. As for his setting down four things that knowledge must comprehend: by nature there are three; for the measure of a body has three, length, breadth, height. Height is both upward and downward. Length is what extends as it were opposite us. Breadth is what stretches beside us on both sides. Height, as I said, is what pertains to the upper and the lower. Here, then, he has put together height and depth. What we called height he has divided into two, so as to call height what is in the upper regions, and depth what is in the lower. So, by dividing height, he set down two, and there came to be four, which by nature are three. So this, as it were, measure of the body, belonging to understanding, must be instilled in the inner man and examined, so that these things may be perceived with regard to God. For since God is through all things and in all things, and is all things, and from whom are all things, and through whom are all things, and above all things, there lies the labor of knowledge: to perceive and know what is the length, what the breadth, what the depth. How all these are, or can be understood, according to this division, and understood in God, is a higher and different treatise. Then he prays that the Ephesians may understand these things; and so that there would be no despair that these things can by no means be understood, he added, “that you may be able to comprehend,” he says, “with the saints.” So the saints comprehend, and these things can be explained. But this, as I said, belongs to another work and to a great and difficult exposition. “To know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.” It must be noted with great attention and keenness that Paul prays for this in his prayers: that the Ephesians may know this too, that the love of Christ surpasses all knowledge. This he prays, I say, that they may know; for whoever knows that love surpasses all knowledge fully fulfills love toward Christ. So he does not pray that they may do it, because it follows; but he prays that they may know. “That you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” All these things that Paul prays for on behalf of the Ephesians—to be strengthened in the spirit, to be strengthened in the inner man, that Christ may dwell through faith, to be rooted in love, to comprehend with the saints the breadth, length, height, depth, and to know also that the love of Christ surpasses knowledge—this is the fullness of God, which the Greeks call plērōma, that is, a perfection to which nothing is lacking: the fullness which Christ by his mystery works, fills, and has filled, so that God may bring it about in all things and through all things. For this is the fullness.

“Now to him who is able to do above all things more abundantly than we ask or understand, according to the power that works in me, to him be glory in Christ Jesus and in the church, and to all generations of the age of ages.” The order of this thought: to him be glory in Christ Jesus, and glory in the church, and to all generations, to the ages of ages. To whom be glory? To him, he says, “who is able to do above all things more abundantly than we ask or understand.” For we pray these things for you, that you may do them and understand them. But if anyone is able to do more, and more abundantly, and above all these things, above, that is, what we ask or understand, to him be glory. And he who is able to do above and more abundantly above will surely be able according to the power that works in us, according, that is, to the power of God and of Christ our Lord; for according to it I work. And he too, then, works according to that power which is in us. So to him who is able to do above all these things more abundantly than we ask or understand be glory in Christ Jesus and to all ages and in all the church. Yet this whole can also be referred to God. For he is able to do these things superabundantly. And to him be glory.

“I, a prisoner in the Lord, beseech you to walk worthily of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness and patience.” This is a place of exhortation and admonition, together with humble prayers and commendation, so that they too may endure, seeing that he himself patiently endures much. I, he says, a prisoner in the Lord, beseech you, since I endure much (for he endured and suffered chains and various things); since, then, he says, I am a prisoner in the Lord, that is, for the Lord’s sake, I myself, who admonish, patient in many things, admonish you to walk worthily, namely of the calling with which you have been called. For we have often said that people are called by God’s grace. Having been called with this calling, since you now know God and Christ the Lord, walk worthily of this calling. He adds how.