Ephesians Devotionals
Bob Morris
Administering Grace (Ephesians 3:2-3)
Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly.
Christ is Risen! He is Risen indeed!
"When he ascended on high, he...gave gifts to his people." (Eph. 4: 8)
Administering God’s Grace – To Paul and By Paul
What Christians first heard about “Saul” after his Damascus Road experience was unsettling indeed. When Saul began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God immediately after his conversion, “All those who heard him were astonished and asked, ‘Isn’t he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on his name? And hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?’” (Acts 9: 21). In effect, the Osama Bin Laden of his day was now a preacher of the gospel! Or was he? Later, Saul tried to join the disciples in Jerusalem, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple (Acts 9: 26).
Along came Barnabas to “administer God’s grace that was given to him for Saul”. Barnabas took Saul to the apostles and told them what God had done in his life. That led not only to his acceptance by the church in Jerusalem, but the whole church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoying a time of peace and strengthening (Acts 9: 31). Barnabas as an outsider (Cypriot) had a key role to play in the church in Jerusalem.
A parallel today is the welcome of Muslim converts into the existing church where it is often a minority community in a host Muslim culture. Often with good reason, “converts” are looked on with suspicion; too often they have been sent in to Christian communities as spies to find pretexts for doing harm to the church. It is often outsiders or foreigners who have a key role in meeting with converts and, when they prove to be genuine, introducing them to existing fellowships of believers.
Now Paul has the responsibility of administering God’s grace to the Gentiles, where once he only administered grief to them. God has graciously revealed to Paul the wonderful truth of God’s purpose in uniting all things, including Jew and Gentile, in Christ. Paul had referred to this earlier in the letter (Chapter 1: 9-10), where he outlined all the blessings that are ours because of it.
This then is the good news which we share as well. We, too, have a responsibility to “administer God’s grace” to others. Peter reminds us of that: “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms” (1 Peter 4: 10 as it is worded in an earlier edition of the NIV).
Gracious Father, grant that we should be faithful stewards of the grace which you have extended to us, and may we serve others in your name, as graciously as you did us.
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