Ephesians 3:1-3 “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles — if indeed you have heard of the administration of God’s grace which was given to me for you; that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before briefly.”
PAstor Herk continues: When we accept Christ into our lives as Savior and Lord, and receive God’s grace through faith, that blessing is not just for us. We are blessed to be a blessing to others by paying it forward, extending grace to the people around you. 1 Corinthians 4:1-2 says, “This is the way any person is to regard us: as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy.” Take it seriously and be a good steward. God entrusts us with the revelation with the mystery of the Gospel - Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” - and then He calls us to respond to that revelation of truth by being good stewards of God’s true and pure religious economy in the world; be salt and light as you go tell the good news on the mountain that all can hear that Jesus Christ is Lord. We have to pay it forward.
1 Peter 4:10 “As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the multifaceted grace of God.” In a sense, we are being “re-gifters”. Only, in the spiritual sense, when we re-gift that love, grace and forgiveness of God to others, we keep the gift too. Let the Spirit flow living water of Christ’s redemption from you to others and watch the “fruit of the spirit” spread in the light of truth. We are giving that gift away but not losing it – receive it, give it to someone else, and still have it.
The third principle is that God ordain, so that I obey. This can be the hardest part of this passage for most of us because we can get a revelation from God and handle responding by being appreciative of God’s gifts and pay it forward to others easy enough. We don’t mind being stewards of His grace and pass it on either. But, as freedom-loving people, not very many want to be prisoners. The first two principles are 100% dependent upon this third principle – being a prisoner of Christ Jesus. The Apostle Paul wrote this letter to the Christian church in Ephesus from a Roman prison, but realized that his imprisonment was a part of God’s plan for him to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles – physically in the custody of th3e Roman authorities, but spiritually the prisoner of the Lord.
But, what does it mean to be a prisoner? The Greek word in Ephesians 3:1 is “Desmios”, meaning bound with Jesus, in bonds as a bondservant, a captive of God's love, a prisoner of the Lord. The 1828 Webster’s Dictionary defines the word prisoner as: 1. A person in custody, whether in prison or not. 2. A captive. 3. One whose liberty is restrained. A prisoner basically willfully or unwilfully loses all of their freedoms. They no longer have the right to determine how they are going to live their life. Someone else determines their schedule and what they can or cannot do. As Lord and Master of our life, doesn’t God expect that same subjectivity in Jesus from us as Followers of Christ? This same Apostle Paul explains in Romans 6:16-18 “Do you not know that the one to whom you present yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of that same one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were entrusted, and after being freed from sin, you became slaves to righteousness.”
Our heavenly Farther ordains what we do with our lives, how we are to live and our responsibility to obey God’s Commands and follow His plans for our lives. That is the key which enables us to respond to God’s revelation and pay the gift of His grace forward to others. The Lord said in John 15:5, “I am the vine, you are the branches; the one who remains in Me, and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.” So, if we are going to be effective disciples for Jesus Christ and bear good fruit for the kingdom of God, then we have to be willing to give up some of our freedoms and remain and abide in Christ. If we want to take God’s grace in our lives and pay it forward as He intends, then we have to be willing to make Jesus Christ the Master of our lives; aligning my will with His will.
God’s grace is not just for us. God has called us to be good stewards of that grace by paying it forward, that other may experience every spiritual blessing that Christ has given us. Pay it forward.
In Christ, Brian
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