Ephesians 1:9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure that He planned in Him  10 for the administration  of the days of fulfillment —to bring everything together in the Messiah, both things in heaven and things on earth in Him.(HCSB)

Ephesians3:3 The mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have briefly written above. 4 By reading this you are able to understand my insight about the mystery of the Messiah. 5 This was not made known to people in other generations as it is now revealed to His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: 6 The Gentiles are co-heirs, members of the same body, and partners of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.(HCSB)

Ephesians 3:8 This grace was given to me —the least of all the saints—to proclaim to the Gentiles the incalculable riches of the Messiah, 9 and to shed light for all about the administration of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things.(HCSB)

Ephesians 3 defines the mystery for us as Gentiles and Jews sharing in the promise as co-heirs together in Christ Jesus.  This is a true mystery that for ages past had been kept hidden although hinted at.  The Old Covenant spoke of people of other nations and tongues coming to worship God, but the actual understanding that Jews and Gentiles would share equally in the promise was not even thought of by those who worshiped The Name.

As we saw in chapter 2 not only were these two to be co-heirs, but would become one man.  Yeshua came to make us one together so that we can be presented to Him as a spotless bride without wrinkle or defect.  Our God is so awesome and His ways are truly above our ways and His thoughts truly far above our thoughts.

God, however, does not stop by just revealing this mystery to us and then leaving us to figure out how to make this reality in our time for ourselves.  Most of us, I would venture to say, do not even think it is really possible for us to truly act and be as one this side of the Messianic Age or heaven.  We tend to leave things alone as they are and not strive for true oneness in this world where sin is still a reality.  But Beloved, God’s plans are greater than ours and not only does He expect us to act and be as one now, He also gave us the road map of how to achieve it.  That is what the rest of Ephesians is about.

Chapter 3 lets us know that God gave Paul the administration of this mystery or to say it another way, He gave Paul the way in which the body of Christ, the blessed bride of The Lamb, could actually carry out this mystery.  It is that reality that speaks of God’s wisdom to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms.  When they see God’s Spirit filled people living out the mystery of being one with each other and with Him it screams volumes to the unseen realms of how only God could have thought of this awesome mystery.

It is with this truth that Paul prays the prayer of Ephesians 3.

14 For this reason I kneel before the Father 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. 16 I pray that He may grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power in the inner man through His Spirit, 17 and that the Messiah may dwell in your hearts through faith. I pray that you, being rooted and firmly established in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the length and width, height and depth of God’s love, 19 and to know the Messiah’s love that surpasses knowledge, so you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to Him who is able to do above and beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us — 21 to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.(HCSB)

Paul begins pretty much where He left off in the prayer of chapter 1, with praying for power among God’s people.  Remember this is no ordinary power as the world defines power, but the power that raised Jesus from the dead.  That is what he prays will be in us, in our inner being through His Spirit.  He prays that through faith, being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see, faith that leads us to action not just intellectual awareness that Yeshua the Messiah will dwell, be tabernacled in us (we are the temple of God).

Paul assumes our rooting and firm establishment in love.  The believer is rooted deep in God’s love, the love that sent His Son to die for us, and firmly established in our love for one another, a requirement for the believer based on the command of Jesus.  He (Paul) knows that it is only in this love, the love God has for us and our love for each other, that we will together with all God’s people even begin to be able to comprehend the love of Christ – the width, depth, length, and height of His love. 

It is only together that we will have our full strength to eagerly take hold of that kind of love.  It is His love being made manifest in all of us toward each other that makes His love knowable to us just as us living out that life of the mystery makes His wisdom known to the unseen realms.

Paul prays for us to be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God, which harkens back again to the prayer in chapter 1.  We can only be all that God desires us to be as we live in power, faith, and love together.  This life baffles the world, but also lets them know that the Father sent His Son. 

Can this generation of believers live this life?  Yes it can!  And the rest of Ephesians instructs us in just how to live out this mystery.  So as we study the rest of the book we will be approaching it from this perspective.

In His love,

Vicky

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