This text not only explains Paul’s special role as a steward, but it gives details of how the disciples came to know about the mystery of the gospel. The stewardship of God’s grace for Paul was the revelation of the mystery — “that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”
Re-read Ephesians 3:1-6: “For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”
1. The Revelation
It is important to understand that the process of their learning of this mystery that was unfolded. It started with the Spirit, who led the Apostles and prophets into the truth. He revealed the mystery to the apostles and prophets. Then, Paul and others like him would write it down so they could read it. Finally, Paul explains that they could perceive his insight or understand his knowledge from his writing.
This does not mean that we have a perfect understanding of all Paul writes. Yet, we are not reading about some good news that is difficult to understand. The good news is that the gospel is for all, including Gentiles. How difficult is that to comprehend? The process is as follows: (1) Paul writes it by revelation (2) They can read it (3) They can understand it. This presents a view that is very different from those who claim that we can’t even understand what is revealed unless the Holy Spirit gives us understanding. Am I so arrogant to think that I can understand what he writes in this text? According to Paul, they can understand what is written when they read it. The Holy Spirit is not empowering the reader to understand, but the writer to write what the Spirit reveals.
2. The Mystery of Christ
The good news of the mystery is that “the Gentiles are fellow-heirs, and fellow-members of the body, fellow-partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (verse 6). The eternal plan of God was the creation of one body that includes both Jews and Gentiles. This plan reveals God’s manifold wisdom. This could never have been the work of man. It could only be accomplished by the power of God. The revelation of this mystery was not easily accepted by the Jewish people who had always been the people of God. Ethnic, racial and social prejudices hindered the reconciliation and peace in one body. For a Jew to treat Gentiles as brethren and sit down at a meal with them required certain attitudes listed in the early section of chapter four. Both needed lowliness, meekness, longsuffering, and forbearance in love to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. The unity of the faith has nothing to do with denominational unity, but unity of Jew and Gentile in one body. When chapter four opens, Paul connects chapter three to it by writing, “For this reason…” In other words, for the reason of bringing both into the same body, I was given this stewardship “for you Gentiles.”