Essays in Ephesians #23

Ephesians 3: 13-15

So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory. For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. Ephesians 3:13–15 ESV

As Paul encourages his friends in Ephesus not to “lose heart” over because he is suffering, he  is about to break forth into one of the most glorious, heart moving prayers in the entire Bible, let us picture him at this moment in time. He doesn’t look very special. A first century description of Paul says he was a small frail man, bald-headed, with bowed legs and a large nose. People said his bodily presence was weak and his speech of no account. He lived with a constant thorn in the flesh. God acknowledged Paul’s weakness saying, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

This outwardly weak, aging, unimpressive man is a prisoner under house arrest in Rome. (Later, before his death, He will be imprisoned as a criminal in the Mamertine, a dungeon.) During this house arrest, Paul continues his work—to fulfill the call given to him by God. Visitors come, talks with them about Jesus, he teaches, writes letters and prays for the young churches. Nevertheless, he is suffering. His arm is chained with an halusis, a short length of chain that binds his wrist to the wrist of a highly trained Roman soldier from the Praetorium guard. The soldiers change shifts every four hours, but Paul, the traveler, the adventurer, the man whose heart is yearning to take the message of Jesus to the entire Gentile world, must stay put: he gets little or no personal privacy or bodily relief from the physical restraint of his chains.

Paul realistically acknowledges the difficulty in his situation, but he doesn’t live there. His heart and mind are fixed on the purposes of God’s eternal plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in Heaven and on earth in Christ Jesus. As he writes in Ephesians 3:1, he is “a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of the Gentiles.” He is not losing heart because of outward circumstances; his faith and humility are steadfast. Not thinking of himself, his heart turns with love toward the Ephesians and the believers in Asia as if to say, “Now don’t you lose heart over what I am suffering for you. This isn’t about you or me, it’s about Jesus and the Father, who loves us, and about His plan for all men for all the ages to come.” Paul’s faith and humility are sure, held fast in God.

He could honestly write, “what I am suffering for you, which is [for] your glory” because his life was fully surrendered and given to God. To Paul, life was Jesus Christ, in whom he lived and moved—that is why he could tell believers that his suffering was their glory.” His yielding to God, like Jesus’ yielding on the cross,  released the power and glory of God. Paul did not fail in faith under trial: He was fully aligned with God.

Rome was a difficult city for Christians: they were ostracized, ridiculed, despised and persecuted. Roman graffiti depicted them worshipping a God with a donkey’s head. Paul would have seen the scorn, and felt it, but His view was bigger. He had seen Jesus! Jesus lived in him; He lived in Jesus. 

During this season of imprisonment, while writing to the Philippians, he says,

I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Philippians 1: 12-14

Although Paul was imprisoned by Caesar, long before Caesar’s chains bound his body, he had been fettered to Christ. That’s his real bondage: outwardly, he wears the chains of man, but looking closer, inwardly he is a man captured by faith through grace into obedient service for the love of God. It is for this love alone that Paul suffers. Paul has sacrificed his self-will to God the Father—before whom he bows his knees and in whom he lives and moves and has his being.

Do you think it possible that some of the soldiers in the Imperial Guard became believers? Could they have influenced others for Christ? Perhaps, as they were sent out from Rome into all of Europe and Great Britain, they carried the message of the gospel much further than Paul could have traveled.

Were the letters Paul wrote from prison to the Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon all part of God’s plan? I think so. He has preserved them for almost two thousand years and His Holy Spirit has spoken through them to millions of men and women who, along with Paul, bow to their knees before the Father of all the families of the earth. We don’t know all the details of God’s plans, but we do know that He is always good. And we know that

For those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to His purposes. Romans 8: 28 

Without doubt, the purposes of God were more important to Paul than his own life and he never lost faith.

Father, may we never lose heart over difficult circumstances. Keep us firm and steadfast in Your Spirit. Give us the kind of humility and the kind of faith and grace that that filled Your Son—and that He gave to His servant, Paul.