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Efésios 3

BLIVRE · Chapter 3/6

1Por isso eu, Paulo, [sou] prisioneiro de Cristo Jesus, para o benefício de vós, gentios.

2Se é que já ouvistes da responsabilidade acerca da graça de Deus, que me foi dada para vós;

3que por revelação me foi dado a conhecer este mistério (conforme já [vos] escrevi um pouco;

4quando o ledes, podeis entender o meu entendimento deste mistério de Cristo).

5Esse mistério em outras gerações não foi dado a conhecer aos seres humanos , como agora foi revelado pelo Espírito aos seus santos apóstolos e profetas:

6[isto é, ] que os gentios são conjuntamente herdeiros, [membros] de um mesmo corpo, e participantes da sua promessa em Cristo por meio do evangelho.

7Eu fui feito servidor desse [evangelho] conforme o dom da graça de Deus, que me foi dada segundo a operação do seu poder.

8A mim, o menor de todos os santos, foi dada esta graça de anunciar entre os gentios, por meio do Evangelho, as inimagináveis riquezas de Cristo,

9E para esclarecer a todos qual é a comunhão do mistério que desde as eras passadas esteve oculto em Deus, que criou todas as coisas por meio de Jesus Cristo,

10para que a multiforme sabedoria de Deus seja agora manifestada pela igreja aos domínios e autoridades nos lugares celestes,

11conforme o eterno propósito que ele cumpriu em Cristo Jesus, nosso Senhor,

12no qual temos coragem e acesso confiante pela fé nele.

13Portanto, eu [vos] peço que não vos desanimeis em minhas aflições por vós. Elas são a vossa glória.

14Por causa disso me ponho de joelhos diante do Pai do nosso Senhor Jesus Cristo;

15do qual toda a família nos céus e na terra recebe nome.

16[Oro] para que, conforme a sua riquíssima glória, ele vos conceda que sejais fortalecidos com poder pelo seu Espírito no interior de cada um,

17para que Cristo habite em vossos corações pela fé. [Oro] para que vós estejais enraizados e firmados no amor,

18e assim possais compreender, com todos os santos, qual é a largura, comprimento, profundidade, e altura,

19e conhecer o amor de Cristo, que excede o entendimento, para que sejais cheios de toda a plenitude de Deus.

20E quanto àquele que é poderoso para fazer tudo muito mais abundantemente do que pedimos ou pensamos, segundo o poder que opera em nós,

21a ele seja a glória na Igreja, em Cristo Jesus, por todas as gerações para todo o sempre, Amém!

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Paul explains his special role in revealing the mystery, once hidden, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs together with the Jews in the promise of Christ. He prays fervently that the Ephesians would be strengthened in their inner being and grasp the immensity of Christ's love.

Explanation

Paul describes himself as “the prisoner of Jesus Christ” (not merely of Rome), emphasizing that his imprisonment had a greater spiritual purpose. The “mystery” he reveals — something once hidden but now made known — is the full inclusion of the Gentiles as heirs together with Israel in the promise of Christ, a plan Paul describes as prepared from eternity but only revealed with the coming of Christ. The powerful prayer that closes the chapter asks for inner strengthening by the Spirit, so that Christ would dwell in believers' hearts through faith, and that they might grasp, even without fully exhausting it, the “breadth, and length, and depth, and height” of Christ's love. The practical application today is to seek to experience that love ever more deeply, recognizing that it “passeth knowledge” — surpassing all rational understanding.

Fun facts

  • The phrase 'unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages' (v.21) is one of the earliest doxologies (formulas of praise) directed specifically at the church as an instrument of God's glory, rather than at God alone.
  • The concept of 'mystery' in Ephesians (also used in chapters 1, 5, and 6) reflects vocabulary common to the Greco-Roman mystery cults of the time, but Paul completely redefines it as a truth now publicly revealed by God, not a secret reserved for initiates.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Efésios 3:1Paul describes himself as “the prisoner of Jesus Christ” for the sake of the Gentiles, linking his imprisonment directly to the mission of bringing them the gospel, a theme he returns to throughout the chapter.
  2. Efésios 3:2Paul assumes the Ephesians have already heard of the specific role God gave him, administering this grace directed toward the Gentiles, even without being sure how much detail they knew.
  3. Efésios 3:3Paul writes this letter while imprisoned, probably in Rome, and calls “mystery” something that was once hidden but has now been revealed to him — not a mystery in the sense of a puzzle, but a plan of God only now made public.
  4. Efésios 3:4Paul invites his readers to notice, from the letter itself, that he has a true understanding of this “mystery of Christ” that he is describing.
  5. Efésios 3:5Paul explains that this mystery, the full inclusion of the Gentiles, had not been clearly revealed in past generations, and has only now been shown by the Spirit to the holy apostles and prophets.
  6. Efésios 3:6The “mystery” is explained directly here: the Gentiles became “fellowheirs” with the Jews in God’s promise, something that would have sounded shocking to any Jew of the time used to thinking of the covenant as exclusive to Israel.
  7. Efésios 3:7Paul credits his role as a minister of this gospel not to his own merit, but to a gift of God’s grace, which works in him with power.
  8. Efésios 3:8Paul describes himself with exaggerated humility, “less than the least of all saints,” right before highlighting the size of the task he received: preaching among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.
  9. Efésios 3:9Paul spells out the goal of his ministry: to show publicly how this plan, hidden in God from the beginning, is finally revealed through the church made up of Jews and Gentiles.
  10. Efésios 3:10‘Principalities and powers in heavenly places’ picks up the language of spiritual hierarchies from chapter 1. Here Paul says that the very existence of the church, Jews and Gentiles united, serves as a demonstration, even to these spiritual forces, of God’s manifold wisdom.
  11. Efésios 3:11Paul reinforces that all of this is neither chance nor a recent plan: it is part of an eternal purpose God always had in Christ.
  12. Efésios 3:12Paul describes the practical result of this plan for believers: direct, confident access to God, made possible only through faith in Christ, without barriers or intermediaries.
  13. Efésios 3:13Paul asks the Ephesians not to be discouraged by the tribulations he faces for their sake, and turns the argument around: this suffering is actually a reason for glory on their behalf.
  14. Efésios 3:14Paul physically describes his posture of prayer, kneeling before the Father, marking the seriousness and intensity of the request he is about to make.
  15. Efésios 3:15Paul makes a wordplay in the original Greek between “Father” (pater) and “family” (patria): every family, in heaven and on earth, receives its name and identity from Him.
  16. Efésios 3:16Paul asks that God strengthen the Ephesians on the inside, in the “inner man,” through the power of His Spirit, and not only in outward circumstances.
  17. Efésios 3:17Paul continues the request: that Christ may dwell in their hearts through faith, creating a solid foundation of love, like deep roots and a firm base.
  18. Efésios 3:18‘The breadth, and length, and depth, and height’ of Christ’s love do not describe a literal measurement, but use architectural language of dimensions to express something too immense to fit into a single word.
  19. Efésios 3:19Paul asks that they know the love of Christ even while knowing that this love surpasses anything human understanding can fully grasp, so that they may be filled with all the fulness of God.
  20. Efésios 3:20Paul describes God’s power as able to do far more than anyone asks or imagines, because that power is already at work within believers themselves.
  21. Efésios 3:21Paul closes this long prayer with a doxology: all glory returns to God, through the church and through Christ, throughout all the generations still to come.

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