Sharers Together

DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

SHARERS TOGETHER

Eph 3:1-6

3:1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—

2 Surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you, 3 that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. 4 In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets. 6 This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.

NIV

Paul gives a personal testimony of his calling into the service of the Lord to be a missionary to the Gentiles. Because all throughout the times of the Old Testament, even prior to the beginning of the nation of Israel, God worked through specific people to accomplish his will. We first think of Noah. But immediately after the flood and Noah lived out his life, through his son Shem we come to the man Abram who lived in Ur. This was the beginning of what would become the Nation of Israel. Without recounting the whole of the story we know that through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob came a whole nation and through the line of King David, Jesus came in the flesh as a Jew. It would make sense in the mind of man that Jesus came only for the Jews otherwise he would have shown up in some Glorious God-like manner, declaring salvation for all mankind. Of course that is exactly what he did, but at first, the Jewish people did not recognize him as divine and to this day many still do not. But the Apostles finally got it and what we now call Christianity spread throughout the world to a variety of nations, as God had promised Abraham that he would be the father of many nations.  So Paul is telling the Gentiles living in Ephesus they were always in the plan of God and he, Paul, was called to reveal the mysteries of Christ to them. The mystery is actually no mystery at all anymore, as we too have been exposed to it, through the word of God. God revealed his will for the Gentiles to Paul, and he revealed it to them and thus to us, as we too would be considered Gentiles as not coming from the fleshly line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. However, we are in the spiritual line of Abraham as we are children of the promise. We have been adopted as sons, as Israel, for God has made Israel and Gentiles one. We are all his creation, no longer divided by nation. For whosoever believes does not imply any one group or nation of people, but of whosoever believes will share in the promise of Christ Jesus. We also need to see beyond any personal prejudices we might have developed over our lifetime and see all people as God does, in need of his salvation, in need to be sharers in the inheritance of Jesus, eternal life.