TO ME, THE VERY LEAST OF ALL
SAINTS: emoi to elachistotero panton hagion : (Proverbs
30:2,3;
Romans 12:10;
1 Corinthians 15:9;
Philippians 2:3;
1 Timothy 1:13,15;
1 Peter 5:5,6)
Remember that
Ephesians 3:2-13 is a single sentence in the original Greek text and as
such represents a "parentheses" in which Paul digresses to explain the
origin of the Church composed of believing Jew and Gentile who are now
one body in Christ.
Very least
- Vincent explains that "A comparative is formed upon a superlative:
"more least than all the saints".
NET Bible has "less
than the least of all saints" - for Paul to view himself as
less than the least of all the saints is to view himself as the most
unworthy object of Christ’s redemption.
Very least
(1646)
(elachistos superlative of elachus = little, short)
describes the least important. Paul is saying he is "more least than all
the saints". In fact, elachistos means "less than the least" and
expresses Paul's honest, deep self-abasement. In other words, Paul is
not exhibiting a sense of false humility but a true self-estimate
from a man filled with the Holy Spirit and one who knew his true
unworthiness in face of "gift of God's grace" and the perfect
righteousness of God. Paul wrote a similar self-estimate in other
letters in which there seems to be a progression (see table below).
Anyone who sees Christ in His glory realizes his own sinfulness and
uselessness. As Christ increased in Paul, Paul decreased (cf John 3:30).
Understanding the deep truths of God’s Word does not give a man a big
head; it gives him a broken and contrite heart.
Paul
(Paulus) means “little” in Latin, and perhaps Paul bore this name
because he realized how insignificant he really was.
Hughes
comments on "very least" writing that...
Again Paul bends the language.
He takes the Greek word for “least” or “smallest” and adds an ending
which is impossible linguistically, so that he comes out with the word “leaster.”
Some think he was playing off his Latin name Paulus, which meant
“little” or “small,” so that the idea is, “I am little by name, little
in stature, and morally and spiritually littler than the least of all
Christians.” I am Small Paul. (Hughes,
R. K.: Ephesians: The Mystery of the Body of Christ. Crossway Books)
Johnson
explains "the very least" this way...
By the way, Paul’s Latin name,
“Paul,” means “little.” And what he has done here is to take the word
least in the Greek text and make it a comparative. Now least is a
superlative. But he has said, “I who am leaster”; that’s what he’s done
in Greek. So he’s taken a superlative and made it a comparative. It’s as
if he’s to say, “I’m not simply the littlest, but the littlester of all
the saints.” He really feels that way because he persecuted the church
of God. (Ephesians
3:1-13 Dispensation of Grace Audio/Pdf
)
|
PROGRESSION of PAUL'S
ESTIMATE OF SELF |
|
55AD |
1Cor 15:9 For I am the least of
the apostles, who am not fit to be called an apostle,
because I persecuted the church of God. |
|
61AD |
Eph 3:8 To me, the very
least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the
Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, |
|
63-66AD |
1Ti 1:15 It is a trustworthy
statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. |
As you examine
this chart, you see that we come face to face with the phenomenon which
is frequently seen in the great leaders and saints of the past. It is
that the older they grow, the more acute is their own sense of sin and
of weakness in themselves. They see that what they once thought to be
natural strengths are really weaknesses. So if this is beginning to
happen to you, you are growing as a Christian. Paul never forgot the
wonder of being chosen to be a custodian of divine truth.
Saints
(40)
(hagios)
(Click
word study on
hagios) is literally holy one and
refers to one set apart (sanctified) for a special purpose. Hagios
describes every saint's position in Christ as set apart from that which
is secular, profane, and evil and on the other hand dedicated to worship
and service of God. We are holy ones both in character and
conduct set apart by God to be exclusively His, dedicated to Him and
manifesting holiness of heart and conduct.
Hagios was
used throughout the NT to speak of anyone or anything that represents
God’s holiness: Christ as the Holy One of God, the Holy
Spirit, the Holy Father, holy Scriptures, holy
angels, holy brethren, and so on.
The Gentiles
understood this term because among the pagans, hagios signified
separated and dedicated to the idolatrous gods
and carried no idea of moral or
spiritual purity. The
manmade gods were as sinful and degraded as the men who made them and
there simply was no need for a word that represented righteousness! The
worshipper of the pagan god acquired the character of that pagan god and
the religious ceremonies connected with its worship. The Greek temple at
Corinth housed a large number of harlots who were connected with the
"worship" of the Greek god. Thus, the set-apartness or holiness of the
Greek worshipper was in character licentious, totally depraved, and
sinful.
Barclay writes...
If ever we are privileged to preach
or to teach the message of the love of God or to do anything for Jesus
Christ, we must always remember that our greatness lies not in ourselves
but in our task and in our message. Toscanini was one of the greatest
orchestral conductors in the world. Once when he was talking to an
orchestra when he was preparing to play one of Beethoven’s symphonies
with them he said:
“Gentlemen, I am nothing; you are
nothing; Beethoven is everything.”
He knew well that his duty was not to
draw attention to himself or to his orchestra but to obliterate himself
and his orchestra and let Beethoven flow through.
Leslie Weatherhead tells of a talk he
had with a public schoolboy who had decided to enter the ministry of the
Church. He asked him when he had come to his decision, and the lad said
he had been moved to make it after a certain service in the school
chapel. Weatherhead very naturally asked who the preacher had been, and
the lad answered that he had no idea; he only knew that Jesus Christ had
spoken to him that morning. That was true preaching.
The tragic fact is that there are so
many who are more concerned with their own prestige than with the
prestige of Jesus Christ; and who are more concerned that they should be
noticed than that Christ should be seen. (Barclay,
William: New Testament Words:. Westminster John Know Press, 1964)
THIS GRACE WAS GIVEN: edothe
(3SAPI) e charis aute: (1 Chronicles
17:16;
29:14,15;
Acts 5:41;
Romans 15:15-17)
Grace
(5485)
(charis)
in simple terms is God's unmerited favor and supernatural enablement and
empowerment for salvation and for daily sanctification. Grace is
everything for nothing to those who don't deserve anything. Jowett
defined grace as "holy love on the move".
Given
(1325)
(didomi) means to grant someone an opportunity or occasion to do
something. The
passive voice
indicates God was the Giver.
TO PREACH TO THE GENTILES THE
UNFATHOMABLE RICHES OF CHRIST: tois ethnesin euaggelisasthai (AMN)
to anexichniaston ploutos tou Christou: (16,19;
1:7,8;
2:7;
Psalms 31:19;
John 1:16;
Romans 11:33;
1 Corinthians 1:30;
2:9;
Philippians 4:19;
Colossians 1:27;
2:1-3;
Revelation 3:18)
We see Paul's
missionary zeal in this verse, a zeal which should stimulate those of us
who have been chosen, adopted, redeemed and sealed by the Spirit to
carry this same message of untraceable spiritual riches of Jesus Christ
to those who have not heard His glorious name.
Preach
(2097)
(euaggelizo from eu = good, well + aggéllo =
proclaim, tell) means to announce good news (gospel) or bring glad
tidings.
In the OT
euaggelizo was used of any kind of good news including the joyful
tidings of God's kindnesses especially as they related to the promised
Messianic blessings. In the NT euaggelizo was used especially of
the glad tidings of the coming kingdom of God and of the salvation
through Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God Who took away the sins of the
world.
Gentiles
(1484)
(ethnos) refers to non-Jews or the heathen. When ethnos
is preceded by the definite
article ("the") in the Greek, it means "the nations" which is
synonymous with the Gentiles marking them out as a distinct
class. The Gentiles implies those who practice idolatry and are
ignorant of the true God.
All of mankind can be divided into
Jew and Gentile and thus "Gentile" is a synonym for anyone who is
non-Jew, who is not a member of the "chosen people". The Hebrew word
corresponding to Gentile is goyim. From Genesis 12 onward the
majority of the Scriptures are about the Jews, with the Gentiles
mentioned as they interface with the Jews. The NT does have more mention
of the Gentiles after the formation of the Church, but the last book,
the book of Revelation is predominantly Jewish with over 200 OT quotes
or allusions to OT passages.
Johnson
explains that...
Here Paul speaks of the mystery of
that ministry. The divine power is measured out unto Paul, and the gift
of grace has been given him to evangelize the untraced riches of Christ
and to illuminate this arrangement (Ephesians
3:1-13 Dispensation of Grace Audio/Pdf)
Unfathomable
(421)
(anexichniastos from a = without + exichniázo =
explore) means past finding out, impossible to comprehend, immeasurable,
unsearchable, impossible to be traced out. The riches of Christ
cannot be traced out step-by-step. The word means they cannot be tracked
out (“untrackable"), that they are so vast you cannot discover
their end. It suggests a labyrinth or maze.
Translators have
used words like inexplorable, or untraceable, inexhaustible,
illimitable, inscrutable, incalculable, and infinite.
Theodoret, one of
the earlier church fathers, said,
“And why are you preached if the
riches are unsearchable? For this very thing,” he says, “I preach
because they are unsearchable.”
Riches (4149)
(ploutos from pletho
= fill) defines a plentiful supply, an abundance, plentitude.
Ploutos literally describes material prosperity riches or wealth. It
refers to an abundance of possessions exceeding the norm of a particular
society. Figuratively, as used in this verse, ploutos describes
spiritual abundance in Christ in Whom all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge are hidden (see note
Colossians 2:3)
When a person trusts the Lord Jesus, he immediately becomes a infinitely
rich spiritually for in Christ he possesses inexhaustible treasures. We
can never find that wealth apart from Christ.
Hughes
asks...
What are the implications of this?
Primarily, that Christ always enriches life. How mistaken the young man
was who rejected the gospel saying, “Don’t preach Christ to me. I’ve got
enough problems already.” Christ never subtracts from life; he always
enriches it with untrackable riches. A corresponding implication for us
is that we have a responsibility to share these riches with others. (Hughes,
R. K.: Ephesians: The Mystery of the Body of Christ. Crossway Books)
Unfathomable
Riches -
A. T. Pierson was powerful preacher,
educator, and missionary statesman at the turn of the 20th Century. He
once tried to preach on God’s blessings as described in Ephesians 1-3, a
section of Scripture that continually talks about our unsearchable
wealth and riches in Christ. Pierson said:
In the words of the text, “the
unsearchable riches of Christ,” “unsearchable” literally means
riches that can never be explored. You not only cannot count or measure
them, but you can form no estimate of them; and you not only can form no
estimate of them, but you never can get to the end of your
investigation. There is a boundless continent, a world, a universe of
riches, that still lies before you, when you have carried your search to
the limits of possibility. I feel as though I had a theme, about which
no man ought to speak. An archangel’s tongue could do no justice to it.
Pierson nevertheless tried to point
out the truths about the believer’s wealth as described in these three
chapters. Then he told his congregation:
I sink back exhausted, in the vain
attempt to set before this congregation the greatest mystery of grace
that I ever grappled with. I cannot remember, in thirty years of Gospel
preaching, ever to have been confronted with a theme that more baffled
every outreach of thought and every possibility of utterance than the
theme that I have now attempted in the name of God to present.
Blaikie expresses it
well:
Two attractive words, riches
and unsearchable, conveying the idea of the things that are most
precious being infinitely abundant. Usually precious things are rare;
their very rarity increases their price; but here that which is most
precious is also boundless—riches of compassion and love, of merit, of
sanctifying, comforting and transforming power, all without limit, and
capable of satisfy (Blaikie,
W G: Ephesians in The Pulpit Commentary. Ages Software)
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Our Daily Bread
devotional "From Rags To Riches"...
During the Great Depression, a man
named Mr. Yates owned a huge piece of land in Texas where he raised
sheep. Financial problems had brought him to the brink of bankruptcy.
Then an oil company, believing there might be oil on his land, asked for
permission to drill.
With nothing to lose, Mr. Yates agreed. Soon, at a shallow depth, the
workmen struck the largest oil deposit found at that time on the North
American continent. Overnight, Mr. Yates became a billionaire. The
amazing thing, though, is that the untapped riches were there all along.
He just didn't know it!
Are you a spiritual "Mr. Yates" who is unaware of the riches you already
own in Christ? When Paul wrote his letter to the Ephesians, he revealed
hidden treasure by preaching "the unsearchable riches of Christ"
(Ephesians 3:8). His goal was to make all Christians see how wealthy
they actually are (Ephesians 3:9).
Paul not only preached but also prayed that believers might recognize
and use their spiritual wealth, that they would be strengthened within,
established in love, powerful in prayer, and filled with God Himself.
Read Ephesians 3:14-21 again, and claim your unlimited spiritual
resources today. --JEY (Our
Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by
permission. All rights reserved)
Why do we live like paupers,
When riches we possess?
We have become joint heirs with Christ
With blessings measureless. --Sper
To be rich in God is far better than to be rich in goods.
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Our Daily Bread
devotional "He Has What We Need"...
What makes the gospel such good news?
Paul summarized it in Ephesians 3:8 as "the unsearchable riches of
Christ." Those who receive the living Christ into their lives are free
to enjoy His spiritual riches. But are we using all that He has given to
us?
Author Bob George has observed that it's possible for a Christian to
live as a "practical atheist." That's a person who, despite right
doctrine, "approaches life as if he were the only resource available."
Such an approach is as unnecessary and impractical as buying a powerful
car and then pushing it.
The apostle Paul's passion for the Ephesian believers was that they
might realize that all their needs could be met by Christ's resources.
He prayed for them and asked God the Father to give them spiritual
strength, close fellowship with Christ, and better understanding of His
love for them, resulting in greater Christlikeness (Eph. 3:16-19). He
prayed because he believed our God is able to do "exceedingly abundantly
above all that we ask or think" (v.20).
Are you enjoying Christ's treasures? Or are you pushing on in your own
strength? Paul's prayer gives us reason to be thankful. God has
everything we need. --JEY (Our
Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by
permission. All rights reserved)
Empty hands I lifted heavenward,
And He filled them with a store
Of His own transcendent riches
Till my hands could hold no more. --Nicholson
God wants to be everything to every one of us at every moment.
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C H
Spurgeon's devotionals from Morning and Evening on Ephesians
3:8...
The apostle Paul felt it a great
privilege to be allowed to preach the gospel. He did not look upon his
calling as a drudgery, but he entered upon it with intense delight. Yet
while Paul was thus thankful for his office, his success in it greatly
humbled him. The fuller a vessel becomes, the deeper it sinks in the
water. Idlers may indulge a fond conceit of their abilities, because
they are untried; but the earnest worker soon learns his own weakness.
If you seek humility, try hard work; if you would know your nothingness,
attempt some great thing for Jesus. If you would feel how utterly
powerless you are apart from the living God, attempt especially the
great work of proclaiming the unsearchable riches of Christ, and you
will know, as you never knew before, what a weak unworthy thing you are.
Although the apostle thus knew and confessed his weakness, he was never
perplexed as to the subject of his ministry. From his first sermon to
his last, Paul preached Christ, and nothing but Christ. He lifted up the
cross, and extolled the Son of God who bled thereon. Follow his example
in all your personal efforts to spread the glad tidings of salvation,
and let “Christ and him crucified” be your ever recurring theme. The
Christian should be like those lovely spring flowers which, when the sun
is shining, open their golden cups, as if saying, “Fill us with thy
beams!” but when the sun is hidden behind a cloud, they close their cups
and droop their heads. So should the Christian feel the sweet influence
of Jesus; Jesus must be his sun, and he must be the flower which yields
itself to the Sun of Righteousness. Oh! to speak of Christ alone, this
is the subject which is both “seed for the sower, and bread for the
eater.” This is the live coal for the lip of the speaker, and the
master-key to the heart of the hearer. (March 2, Evening)
--- --- ---
My Master has riches beyond the count
of arithmetic, the measurement of reason, the dream of imagination, or
the eloquence of words. They are unsearchable! You may look, and study,
and weigh, but Jesus is a greater Saviour than you think him to be when
your thoughts are at the greatest. My Lord is more ready to pardon than
you to sin, more able to forgive than you to transgress. My Master is
more willing to supply your wants than you are to confess them. Never
tolerate low thoughts of my Lord Jesus. When you put the crown on his
head, you will only crown him with silver when he deserves gold. My
Master has riches of happiness to bestow upon you now. He can make you
to lie down in green pastures, and lead you beside still waters. There
is no music like the music of his pipe, when he is the Shepherd and you
are the sheep, and you lie down at his feet. There is no love like his,
neither earth nor heaven can match it. To know Christ and to be found in
him—oh! this is life, this is joy, this is marrow and fatness, wine on
the lees well refined. My Master does not treat his servants churlishly;
he gives to them as a king giveth to a king; he gives them two heavens—a
heaven below in serving him here, and a heaven above in delighting in
him for ever. His unsearchable riches will be best known in eternity. He
will give you on the way to heaven all you need; your place of defence
shall be the munitions of rocks, your bread shall be given you, and your
waters shall be sure; but it is there, there, where you shall hear the
song of them that triumph, the shout of them that feast, and shall have
a face-to-face view of the glorious and beloved One. The unsearchable
riches of Christ! This is the tune for the minstrels of earth, and the
song for the harpers of heaven. Lord, teach us more and more of Jesus,
and we will tell out the good news to others. (August 22, Evening)
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Our Daily Bread
devotional "Whose Prisoner?"...
A story is told of Scottish minister
Alexander Whyte, who was able to look at the bleakest situation and yet
find something to be thankful for. On a dark Sunday morning when the
weather was freezing, wet, and stormy, one of his deacons whispered,
“I am sure the preacher won’t be able
to thank God for anything on a day like this. It’s absolutely horrible
outside!”
The pastor began the
service by praying,
“We thank Thee, O God, that the weather is not
always like this.”
The apostle Paul also saw the best in every situation. Consider his
circumstances as he wrote to the church in Ephesus while he awaited
trial before the Roman emperor Nero. Most people would have concluded
that he was a prisoner of Rome. But Paul saw himself as a prisoner of
Christ. He thought of his hardship as an opportunity to bring the gospel
to the Gentiles.
These words of Paul should challenge us:
“To me, who am less than the least of
all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the
Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Ephesians 3:8).
Paul, a prisoner of Christ, saw
himself as being given the privilege to serve God and present the
“riches of Christ” to many.
Whose prisoner are we? —Albert Lee (Our
Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by
permission. All rights reserved)
Afflictions may
test me,
They cannot destroy;
One glimpse of Thy love
Turns them all into joy. —Willett
The trials that imprison you need not limit God’s work in you.
