Ephesians 3:9 and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.

◄ Ephesians 3:9 ►

Parallel Verses

Cross References

Romans 11:25
For I would not, brothers, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.

Romans 16:25
Now to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began,

Ephesians 3:2
If you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:

Ephesians 3:3
How that by revelation he made known to me the mystery; (as I wrote before in few words,

Ephesians 3:4
Whereby, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)

Ephesians 6:19
And for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel,

Colossians 1:26
Even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:

Colossians 3:3
For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

Colossians 4:3
With praying also for us, that God would open to us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I am also in bonds:

Revelation 4:11
You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for you have created all things, and for your pleasure they are and were created.

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Commentaries

Matthew Henry's Commentary

3:8-12 Those whom God advances to honourable employments, he makes low in their own eyes; and where God gives grace to be humble, there he gives all other needful grace. How highly he speaks of Jesus Christ; the unsearchable riches of Christ! Though many are not enriched with these riches; yet how great a favour to have them preached among us, and to have an offer of them! And if we are not enriched with them it is our own fault. The first creation, when God made all things out of nothing, and the new creation, whereby sinners are made new creatures by converting grace, are of God by Jesus Christ. His riches are as unsearchable and as sure as ever, yet while angels adore the wisdom of God in the redemption of his church, the ignorance of self-wise and carnal men deems the whole to be foolishness.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

9. to make all men see—Greek, "to enlighten all" (Eph 1:18; Ps 18:28; Heb 6:4). "All" (compare Col 1:28).

fellowship—The oldest manuscripts read, "economy," or "dispensation" (compare Col 1:25, 26; and see on [2365]Eph 1:10, above). "To make all see how it hath seemed good to God at this time to dispense (through me and others, His stewards) what heretofore was a mystery." Ellicott explains it, "the arrangement," or "regulation" of the mystery (the union of Jews and Gentiles in Christ) which was now to be humbly traced and acknowledged in the fact of its having secretly existed in the counsel of God, and now having been revealed to the heavenly powers by means of the Church.

from the beginning of the world—Greek, "from (the beginning of) the ages." Compare Eph 1:4; Ro 16:25; 1Co 2:7. The "ages" are the vast successive periods of time, marked by successive stages of creation and orders of beings.

in God—"hidden in" His counsels (Eph 1:9).

created all things by Jesus Christ—God's creation of the world and all things therein is the foundation of the rest of the "economy," which is freely dispensed according to the universal power of God [Bengel]. AS God created "the whole range of things" (so the Greek), physical and spiritual alike, He must have an absolute right to adjust all things as He will. Hence, we may see His right to keep the mystery of world-wide salvation in Christ "hidden in Himself," till his own good time for revealing it. The oldest manuscripts omit "by Jesus Christ."