SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/19/2019 10:43 AM
My Worship Time
Focus: PT-3
“The Prisoner of the Mystery”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Ephesians
3:1-4
Message of the verses: “1 For this reason
I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles- 2 if indeed
you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you;
3 that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. 4 By referring to this, when you read you can understand
my insight into the mystery of Christ,”
We
have mentioned that there is a parenthesis which begins with the words found in
verse two and goes all the way to verse thirteen, and this was to emphasize his
divine authority for this teaching. John
MacArthur writes “The Greek first-class conditional clause indicates that the
condition (‘if indeed you have heard…’) is assumed to be true. Paul is therefore saying, ‘As I am sure you
have already heard…’”
What
Paul is saying that they heard was “the stewardship of God’s grace which was
given” to Paul on behalf of those he is writing too, the Gentiles. MacArthur writes “oikonomia (stewardship) primarily referred to the management of a
household, business, or other concern on behalf of someone else. A steward was a responsible for taking care
of that which belonged to someone else.
He supervised such things as buying, selling, bookkeeping, planting,
harvesting, storing, the preparation of meals, the assignment of duties to
slaves, and whatever else needed to be done.”
I want to quote verse two in from the KJV of the Bible to make a
point: “If ye have heard of the
dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward.” You see that the word “oikonomia” is
translated as “dispensation” in the KJV of the Bible. As I was listening to the sermon from John
MacArthur on these verses he explained the use of this word and while preaching
through the book of Ephesians he was using the KJV of the Bible as later on he
would change to the NASB in his sermons.
If you have ever read the Schofield Study Bible you will see that he
speaks of different dispensations throughout the Bible. For instance the first dispensation,
according to him would be the age of innocence which happened after God had
created Adam and Eve, and before their fall.
What we see by using this word “oikonomia” and translating it as
“stewardship” is that Adam and Eve had the stewardship of taking care of God’s
creation of the earth. Today in the
church age we could say it is the dispensation of grace, and during the
millennial kingdom the dispensation will be when Christ rules the earth from
David’s throne in Jerusalem. Paul did not ask for the ministry that he had,
as God gave it to him “12 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened
me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, 13a even though
I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor.” 15 But I have written very boldly to you on
some points so as to remind you again, because of the grace that was given me
from God, 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a
priest the gospel of God, so that my offering of the Gentiles may become
acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 15:15-16).” Gal. 2:9 “and recognizing the grace that had
been given to me, James and Cephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars,
gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, so that we might go
to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.” It was by
God’s grace that Paul was given this stewardship of God’s grace. In 1 Corinthians 9:16-17 we read that Paul
articulates the sense of divine compulsion behind the ministry that God had
given to him. “16
For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if
I do not preach the gospel. 17 For if I do this voluntarily, I have a reward;
but if against my will, I have a stewardship entrusted to me.” The following is from the Phillips
paraphrased version including verse 18 “16 For I take
no special pride in the fact that I preach the gospel. I feel compelled to do
so; I should be utterly miserable if I failed to preach it. 17 If I do this work
because I choose to do so then I am entitled to a reward. But if it is no
choice of mine, but a sacred responsibility put upon me, 18 what can I expect
in the way of reward? This, that when I preach the gospel, I can make it
absolutely free of charge, and need not claim what is my rightful due as a
preacher.”
John
MacArthur puts this truth that Paul is writing about into practical terms for
all who are believers, and with this quote we will end this SD.
“Every believer is a steward
of the calling, spiritual gifts, opportunities, skills, knowledge, and every
other blessing he has from the Lord.
Everything we have belongs to the Lord, and we are therefore entrusted
as stewards to manage our lives and everything we possess in behalf of the One
to whom they belong. We are faithful
stewards when we use what we have to minister to those within the family of God
and witness to those who are without.
‘As each one has received a special gift,’ Peter admonishes us, ‘employ
it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God’ (1
Peter 4:10).”
I want to say one more thing and that
is that the explanation of “Spiritual Gifts” are found in 1 Cor. 12; Romans 12;
Ephesians 4; and 1 Peter 4, so that helps us understand why Peter wrote what he
wrote in chapter four of 1 Peter.
Answer
to yesterday’s Bible question: “Ahab and
Jezebel” (1 Kings 21:4-5).
Today’s
Bible question: “What is the longest
verse in the Bible?”
Answer
in our next SD.
I want
to say that this question for today which is to be answered in tomorrow’s SD
will be the last one. We will then begin by giving a quote from a
“famous” person and then on the next day give the verse or verses to help
understand the quote, or perhaps where it comes from. I think this will be something helpful for
all of us.
1/19/2019 11:29 AM
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