For today’s reading, we are going to include a few verses that will help stage the discussion, we are going to start with verse 7, but the reading starts with verse 8.

“Of this (secret) I became a minister by the gift of God’s grace that was granted me in accord with the exercise of his power.”

The secret Paul was given (as he expresses earlier) was that the Gentiles were a part of God’s plan of salvation.  For a Jew, this was unthinkable.  The law, prophets, rites, liturgy, and practice God gave to the Jews.  For a Jew, the only way that God could work with a Gentile was for them to become a Jew first, but Paul had this secret revealed by Jesus himself.

So God gave Paul a give of grace.  For those that are stuck thinking that grace is about forgiveness or mercy, this use of charis is not familiar.  In this case, the grace granted to Paul was the power to exercise his ministry.  This is a very special gift of God, and Paul is calling this out for humility and authority as a rabbi.

“Brothers and sisters:  To me, the very least of all the holy ones, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the inscrutable riches of Christ,”

Because Paul had this grace, he was able to preach Christ to the Gentiles.  Note that the grace is not of Paul, it is a gift of God, not of Paul’s works lest Paul should boast.

However, we start to get interesting, because what Paul is going to preach is the riches of Christ.  What are the riches of Christ?  Well, there are many:

• Inner strength
• Faith
• Companionship
• Stability
• Being understood
• God’s Love
• Sense of Accomplishment

And the source of these riches is so vast and deep, it cannot be traced.  That is what the word translated as inscrutable means.

“and to bring to light for all what is the plan of the mystery hidden from ages past in God who created all things, so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the principalities and authorities in the heavens.”

These secrets that Paul received in this grace allowed Paul to reveal the mystery (whispering).  What is interesting here is how this revelation is to occur.  It is not designed to be shared through the scriptures, but to be shared through the church.  Not a church, but THE church.  Paul only ever saw one church going forward.  Because how can you have unity when there is more than one church.  How can these whisperings be made known if the church isn’t using these riches?  If you think I am overemphasizing this, I am just pointing out what Paul was saying.  Paul uses a genitive feminine SINGULAR article preceding a genetive feminine SINGULAR noun.  This means that the article modifies the noun as much as the noun modifies the article. (Article being “THE” and Noun being “church”).

This sharing through the one church is not for the benefit of the world, but for the benefit of the principalities and authorities in the heavens.  Not on the earth, but IN THE HEAVENS.

“This was according to the eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness of speech and confidence of access through faith in him.”

God had planned all along that the eternal purpose of the church was to speak about these riches to all mankind (Jews and Gentiles) and to access these riches through faith in Jesus.  Note that there is no reference to a book, but the church.  Also, note this is God doing this, and he doesn’t fail.

Verse 13 is nice:

“So I ask you not to lose heart over my afflictions for you; this is your glory.”

So Paul’s afflictions are the glory of the church?  Yes, Paul exercised the charis given to him by the Father through faith in Jesus.  Because he exercised this grace, he was afflicted.  Yes, afflicted by people on this earth, but more importantly, he was targeted for afflictions by the principalities and authorities in the heaves.  But when we give these up for the Gospel or the cross of Christ, it is true that God joins our afflictions to His son, to give more grace to those in need.

By the way, if you wonder about the list above, here it is:

“For this reason I kneel before the Father,
from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,
that he may grant you in accord with the riches of his glory
to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner self,
and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith;
that you, rooted and grounded in love,
may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones
what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge,
so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”