Ephesians 3:10

Eph_3:10-11

To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The purpose of redemption

I. Let us consider who are meant by the Church. Paul sometimes uses this appellation to denote a single society of Christians; but he more commonly uses the term to denote the whole number of the elect, or all who shall finally be sanctified and saved. This portion of mankind he considers as composing the Church universal, which is a spiritual body, of which Christ is the spiritual Head. In this comprehensive sense the apostle uses the term Church in the text. He means to signify by it the whole Church of the firstborn in heaven, or all who shall be set up as monuments to display the riches of Divine grace to the whole intelligent creation.

II. When the Deity formed His purpose of redeeming the Church from among men. The text tells us it was in eternity: According to the eternal purpose, which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. All the elect are said to have been chasen in Christ before the foundation of the world. Christ is called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And St. John tells us, he saw an angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth. These are plain declarations that the gospel scheme of salvation was formed in eternity; which perfectly accords with every just idea of the Divine character. God was self existent, independent, and absolutely perfect from eternity. He was infinitely able to form His whole plan of operation before He began to operate; and no good reason could possibly exist for His neglecting, a single moment, to fix all future events.

III. Why God was graciously pleased to devise and adopt, from eternity, the great scheme of mans redemption. To this inquiry the apostle gives a general answer in the text. He says, it was to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known, by the Church, the manifold wisdom of God. Moved by infinite benevolence, the Deity determined to make Himself known through the medium of His works; and, among all possible works, He saw the work of redemption to be the best adapted to answer this glorious and important purpose. He knew that His creatures could not see the natural and moral excellency of His nature, unless He actually displayed Himself in His works.

1. God chose the work of redemption, because it was the only one in which He could display all His perfections before the minds of His intelligent creatures.

2. Another reason why God devised and adopted the work of redemption, was, because there was no other way by which He could so clearly and fully manifest any of His perfections. We have just observed that there was no other way by which He could discover all His perfections; but we now farther observe, that there was no other by which He could display any of His perfections, in their highest beauty and glory.

3. There was another important reason why God determined to make: Himself known by the work of redemption. He saw it was necessary, not only to display all His perfections, and to display them all in the clearest manner, but also, to prepare the minds of all moral beings to view them with the greatest attention and sensibility. He meant not only to give them an opportunity to see Himself, but to awaken their attention, and fix it upon His great and amiable character. And nothing could be better adapted to this end than to place them in a situation which would render all the displays of His glory highly interesting to themselves. (N. Emmons, D. D.)

Gods purpose in the ultimate revelation of His grace

I. To create a society in which His wisdom should be illustrated and reelected.

1. By the manner in which the Church was called into existence. The self-exclusion of the Jew bringing about a universal comprehension of all who believe. The production and discovery of a motive power to which all sorts and conditions of men would respond, viz., the gospel. The foolishness of preaching contrasted with the mighty results achieved (comp. the whole passage-- 1Co_1:18-25). By the triumph of the Divine love over the divisions, the sorrows, and the sins of mankind.

2. By the relation of the Church to preceding ages.

II. Through the Church to display His wisdom to the spiritual universe. It is a manifestation to the highest intelligences--the angels. They are represented as having a special interest in the spiritual history of mankind. That which from its complexity and the vastness of the space and time in which it realized itself might be for the most part inscrutable to men, these great beings, with clearer insight and vaster spiritual range, would be able to trace and appreciate. Their greater moral refinement would also fit them the better for this review. (A. F. Muir, M. A.)

Angelic studies

The sublime plan of the gospel of the grace of God, which is so entirely beyond the compass of our natural faculties that we could never by searching have found it out, appears to have been equally beyond the grasp of angelic intelligence--a mystery that excited their wistful inquiry--until by the Church (that is to say, by the Divine counsel and conduct in forming and perfecting the Church) there is made known unto them the manifold wisdom of God, as they have never learned it before. They are appointed to exercise some sort of power over various parts of Gods creation, hence they are called principalities and powers. They are never represented as indifferent spectators of anything which our mortal race can do or suffer, but their sympathy with men is constant. Do they not watch over the saints? Is it not written, that they encamp round about them that fear the Lord?

I. The subject of our meditation resolves itself into a question, how exclusively through the Church do angels come to see the manifold wisdom of God? Some other matters in connection with this we shall have to speak of afterwards.

1. Who can doubt that the angels had seen much of the wisdom of God in creation? With faculties keener and more elevated than ours, faculties that have never been blunted by sin, they can perceive the various contrivances of Gods skill both in the animate and the inanimate world. What a scale of survey must a seraph have! How readily can we imagine an eye that takes in at once the landscape of the world! He need not confine himself to one single spot in Gods universe, but with rapid wings he can steer far and wide over the infinity of space. Yet with all that facility of observation, it seems that the angels have some parts of the wisdom of God to learn, and some lessons of heavenly science to study which creation cannot unfold to their view, to be ascertained and certified by them only through the transcendent work of redemption which the Lord has carried on in His Church.

2. The wisdom of God is clearly seen by angels in this, that though God was dishonoured in this world by sin, that sin has redounded to His greater honour. Satan, when he led men astray and tempted men to rebel, thought he had marred the glory of God, but he never did more palpably outwit himself. The serpent was exceeding wise, but God was wiser far. Satans craft was dexterous, but Gods wisdom was infinite in its prescience. Wisdom has outmatched craft. Is it not glorious to think that this world where God was dishonoured most, is the world where He shall be most revered? There is no such display of the attributes and perfections of Godhead in the whole universe beside as there is here.

3. This wisdom of God is to be seen in the way that our redemption was wrought. The doctrine of substitution is a marvel which, if God had never revealed, none of us could by any possibility have discovered. How could God be gracious and yet be just? How could He keep His law and yet at the same time show His mercy towards us? Angels could not have conjectured this, but when it was made known to them, how could they refrain to chant fresh songs to the praise of Him who could undertake so loving a responsibility?

4. The wisdom of God is seen through the Church in the Holy Spirits work as well as in the work of Christ. It is manifold wisdom. You know the childrens toy, the kaleidoscope. Every time you turn it there is some fresh form of beauty. You seldom see the same form twice. So it is with nature, each time and season has its special beauty. There is always variety in its scenery; diversities of form and colour are strewn throughout the world. You never saw two hills moulded to the same pattern, or two rivers that wound after the same fashion from their source down to the sea; nature is full of variety. So is the work of the Holy Spirit. In calling sinners to Christ, there is singleness of purpose but no uniformity of means. Gods wisdom is displayed equally in bringing you in that way, and in bringing me in another way. I believe there will be found evidence at the last of the wisdom of God in the very date, the very place, the very means in and by which every soul is brought to believe in Jesus; and angels will, no doubt, be able to perceive in every conversion some singular marks of beautiful originality proceeding from the inexhaustible Artist of Grace, the Holy Spirit.

5. That same wisdom will be seen in the biography of every convert--how the Lord afflicts, or how He comforts; how He upholds us, how He keeps back that which cannot yet be endured, how He gently leads us, how He makes us to lie down. We find fault sometimes with the way of Providence, because we do not understand it; when we shall get a clearer sight of it we shall see that every mark and line was dictated by His love, and ordered by His infinite counsel.

6. As each Christian shall be conformed to the likeness of Christ, angels will see in the products of grace fresh displays of the manifold wisdom of God. I could suppose that the death of a martyr must be such a spectacle as those holy watchers regard with extraordinary interest. Would they not have gathered around such a woman as Blandina, for instance, who was made to sit in a red-hot chair, after having been tossed upon the horns of a wild bull, yet constant to the last she maintained her faith in Christ while passing through the torture.

II. But ask you now, do angels gain anything by the Church of god? I think they do.

1. Certainly they acquire increased knowledge. With us knowledge is sometimes sorrow. Knowledge increases the joy of the angels, and I will tell you why, because it makes them take a greater delight in God when they see how wise and gracious He is. If it is possible for the angels to be happier than natural innocence and honourable service can render them, they must be happier through knowing and seeing more of God, as His attributes are reflected, and His perfections mirrored forth, in the Church.

2. Angels will be enriched by the society of the saints in heaven. Commerce always enriches, and commerce between angelic and human natures will be enriching to them both.

3. Again, to my imagining (can it he illusive?) angels are gainers by the Church because they get nearer to the throne of God than they were before. Another order of beings, our own to wit, is advanced. Surely when one creature gets near to God, all unfallen creatures are promoted.

4. Do you not think, too, that perhaps they can see God better in Christ than even they did before? Is it not possible that even they who erst did veil their faces with their wings in the presence of the Almighty, because the brightness of glory was excessive, may now stand with unveiled faces and worship God in Christ? I think it is so. They never saw much of God before until they saw God veiled in human flesh. There was too dazzling a splendour for them till the interposing medium of the manhood of Christ came in between them and the absolute Deity. It may be so.

III. What is all this to us?

1. Ought it not to make us prize the gospel? If the angels think so much of it, oh! what should we think?

2. How, too, should we study it, if it be the research of angelic intellects! Is the Church their schoolbook whence they learn lessons of the Divine wisdom, because no science is equal to that of the wisdom of God in Christ revealed in His Church? O do apply every faculty you have to acquire increasing knowledge of that which angels love to study.

3. And now take courage, ye feeble-minded ones, and never fear again the sneer of the man who calls the gospel folly. Account him to be the victim of folly who despises this manifold wisdom. Shall I set the judgment of a poor puny mortal against the judgment of an angel? I suppose that even Newton, and Kepler, and Locke, and those mighty master spirits, would be mere infants compared with seraphs. Ah! ye sceptics, sciolists, and scoffers, we can well afford to let you rail; but you can ill afford to rail when angels are awed into wonder, and so would you be if there were anything angelic about your temper, or anything of right wisdom in your attainments.

4. Last of all; if this be so, how we ought to love Christ who have a saving interest in it, and how they ought to tremble who have it not! (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The teaching of angels by the Church

Our text is one of the most remarkable of those intimations which lead to the belief, that this earth, in place of being detached from other portions of creation, is a scene for the development of Gods attributes, and centres on itself the eager regards of the superior orders of spiritual agency. We leave it to the philosopher to use this earth as the home of material for scientific pursuit; we leave it to the poet to admire it as covered with varieties of glorious scenery; here the earth is represented as the school of angels; principalities and powers are described as clustering over its assemblies, that they may learn the wisdom of the Almighty.

I. The indirect testimony which is given by the text to the superiority of the wisdom manifested in the work of redemption, as compared with the work of creation; for we may well suppose that the material fabric of the universe is subjected to the ken and the scrutiny of angels, in all the grandeur of its magnificent and in all the delicacy of its minuter portions. We may believe that when at the word of the Creator the army of worlds came forth from nothingness, angels looked admiringly on, as globe after globe took place amongst the ranks of the starry host; and ever since we may suppose they have been free to pass through the spreadings of space, to search into all that our Maker has fashioned, measuring the grandeur of His productions, and prying into the nicest contrivances of His creative skill. Yet we may conclude from the text, that all Gods wisdom in the works of creation is, as it were, cast aside by the angelic company, and they come and sit with the docility of children at the feet of the Church, and derive their lessons from the mighty interposition of which she is the subject. Does it not, then, follow in the way of consequence, that redemption must far surpass creation in the lessons which it teaches of the wisdom of God; that in the interference of the Redeemer for the salvation of our fallen race there is the greatest manifestation of that attribute whose name is sometimes used for that of the Eternal Son Himself? A redeemed sinner must be the wonder of wonders--if indeed angels return from traversing the circuits of the universe, and congregate upon this lowly globe, and find in the transactions of which it is the scene that preeminent teaching which they have elsewhere sought in vain; and that such is the case must be concluded from the statement of our text--That now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God.

II. That the Church on earth instructs the angels in heaven with regard to the manifold wisdom of God. In order to this we should observe, that Gods purpose may be as much attained from the spirits which surround His throne, as from ourselves who sojourn in a distant corner of His empire. When Daniel had applied himself by fasting and prayer to understand the mystery of the restoration of his people, the angel Gabriel was commissioned to clear up to him the mystery. Then it is evident the angel was divinely instructed for this special occasion; that of himself he could have known little more than Daniel of Gods counsels respecting Jerusalem. And in like manner it may fairly be questioned, whether angels were more conversant than men with Gods plan of mercy towards this fallen creation; whether they were not left, like the Jews themselves, to read out from types and figures the scheme of human salvation. Our text seems to require us to suppose cherubim and seraphim bending over the earth, as under the Jewish law their golden emblems bent over the ark, and searching with intense earnestness into the display of the Divine wisdom there presented. The ark of the covenant was an abiding symbol of Gods gracious presence with His people, and typified those peculiar benefits which belonged to the covenants of peace mediated by Christ on behalf of the spiritual Israel. The covering of this ark, you will remember, was of massive gold, denominated the mercy seat. At each end of this mercy seat was a golden cherubim, placed in such an attitude that it seemed to bend over the ark, as if eagerly desirous to pry into its mysteries; and as if to assure us we are not wrong in thus interpreting the emblem, St. Peter expressly says of the things of redemption, that they are the things which the angels desire to look into, The Greek is still more emphatic than the English--Things which the angels desire to bend over; thus making the reference to the cherubim on the mercy seat both undeniable and explicit. But if angels are represented as bending over the ark if they are spoken of as desiring to look, rather than as actually looking, sure]y you may suppose, that previously to the Incarnation the mysteries of redemption were no more discovered to them than to men, but that they, as well as the Jews, were required to decipher a vast assemblage of types, and to gather from Divine intimations the splendid appointments of mercy. If there be justice in this supposition, then our text opens before you with beautiful clearness; for angels must have estimated far better than men the difficulties to be overcome, ere this earth could be restored to the favour of the Lord. They knew from near inspection the uncompromising character of every attribute of God, and perceiving that mercy was yet to be extended to the children of Adam, the problem which must have engaged their attention, whilst they clustered together in shining groups, would naturally be how God could punish the guilt, and yet pardon the guilty. Now if you combine the statements advanced--the first, that up to the period of the Incarnation angels, like men, had only partial glimpses of the scheme of redemption; the second, that Gods wisdom is extraordinarily manifested in human salvation: what conclusion can you reach, but that which is announced in our text? We think that no sooner had the High Priest in the Christian Church entered on His earthly sojourning, than the mystery which had for ages been hid in the eternal mind, of which only dim and shadowy notices had been vouchsafed to any finite intelligence--this mystery, we say, broke suddenly forth; a wave of delighted anthem went out from the thousand times ten thousand squadrons; with one accord the countless multitude of spirits swept their harp strings, and so loud was the minstrelsy and so wide the waving of the chorus, that the shepherds on Bethlehems plains caught the echo of the one, and the magi in the distant East caught the reverberation of the other. The very syllables of the chant which the shepherds heard proved that it was Gods wisdom at which the angels became suddenly enraptured. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill towards men, these were the very things which it was difficult to combine. This was the problem on which angelic wisdom had been vainly expended. Glory in heaven and peace on earth--these had appeared always utterly irreconcilable; and now that it was made evident that they could be reconciled, now that God had developed His purpose, and it was found that through this purpose Mercy and truth met together, righteousness and peace embraced each other--oh! it must have been the display of wisdom which preeminently shone forth. It was not the love, for they knew long ago that infinite love had moved God to the planning redemption; it was not the justice, for in their debates they had always calculated on a justice which could never pass by iniquity; it was not the holiness, for it would have been to undeify Deity to suppose Him capable of admitting the unclean into communion with Himself; but it was the wisdom that amazed them--the manifold wisdom--manifold, for it had reconciled every opposing interest; it had provided for every possible emergency; it had left no point neglected, whether in the attributes of the Creator or the necessities of the creature. This wisdom manifested in the Church, whose foundation was just laid upon earth, we believe to have filled with ecstasy the angelic company--yea, to have made such a new epoch in the heavenly annals, that an apostle might be warranted in declaring the gospel to have been published for this very intent--That now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God. But enough on the general scheme of redemption: let us turn to its particular and individual application, and see whether we cannot equally find the teaching of angels by the Church. If you consult the context you will find, that our text had a primary reference to the calling of the Gentiles, and their admission into privileges which had hitherto been confined to the Jews; and if you contrast the legal and Christian dispensations, you will find a great manifestation of wisdom in that process of extension which made the Gentiles fellow heirs with the Israelites. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

The reciprocal duties of Church members

The passage naturally leads us to consider, first, the end for which Churches are formed; and, secondly, the means by which that end may be best accomplished. In looking at the end for which Churches are formed, we shall find in this passage very full information.

I. They were formed to the intent that all men might see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God. The intention, therefore, for which Churches were formed, beyond the salvation of the members of those Churches, was, you perceive, two-fold. It had reference, in the first place to men, in the second to angels. The two objects which Christ had in view were, the instruction of the world, and the instruction of angels.

II. Let us, then, consider how these things were to be accomplished.

1. In order to show the manifold wisdom of God in the fellowship of the Church, first to men and then to angels, or we may say at once both to men and to angels, it is necessary that the Church should be instructed. If the Churches of Christ are without instruction, we cannot expect that either men or angels will learn anything of the wisdom of God from them. The darker the Churches are, the more impressive will be the indications of Divine wisdom working in them, and Divine wisdom formed in them. If the angels, who see God and are like Him--if the angels who understood the glory of His character and the splendour of His works--on turning from it to look into the Churches of Christ, find in them a vagueness of vision which would seem to indicate that the light has scarcely ever shone upon them, can they learn anything from such a spectacle? Ignorant Churches are a reproach in the earth, and ignorant Churches are a reproach among the angels in heaven. Angels know the light contained in the oracles of truth; they know its wide diffusion--they see Churches formed upon a pretended acceptance of that truth; and they do not behold the light which those Churches profess to have received.

2. But not only must there be mutual instruction, there must also be mutual charity. In carrying out the end for which God formed Churches, the members ought mutually to cultivate the spirit Of Christian charity.

3. But, in the next place, among the reciprocal duties of Church members for the purpose of carrying out the end for which Churches were formed, we must place that of mutual encouragement to appear together in every good work. Another thing which we think belongs to the mutual and reciprocal duties of Church members is a constant and ready acknowledgment of one another. Now bear in mind these duties as the reciprocal duties of Church members, so far as the exhibition of their case to the world and to angels is concerned.

4. Let us now look at the duty that devolves upon Church members to support and maintain one anothers characters. If all were to act as they ought to do in this matter, Churches would stand out in strength; they would appear like so many families, the spirit of Christian love would bind them together and produce the outward aspect of inward unity, and both angels and men would learn the nature of Christian feeling, and see the manifold wisdom of God in the Church. But what is there, it may be asked, to oppose the exercise of these duties. We answer, generally, the depravity of the human mind. Were we to go into details we should occupy more time than we can appropriate to the subject. All we shall say is, that there is pride in the mind of man, and that the unity of the Church is injured by the indulgence of that pride; there is jealousy in the mind of man, and the unity of the Church is injured by the indulgence of that jealousy; there is selfishness in the mind of man, and the unity of the Church is injured by the indulgence of that selfishness; there is worldliness in the mind of man, and the Church is kept back by that worldliness: a variety of features of mind and character will occur to yourselves, all of which operate against the right discharge of the reciprocal duties of Church members. (J. Burnet.)

The noblest exhibition

What an idea does this give us of the importance of the Church! Brethren, never let us despise any more the meanest member of it, since there is more to be beheld in the Church than in creation in its utmost breadth.

I. The grand object of attention in the Church to the principalities and powers, is the scheme and plan of saving the Church. It is this that they so much admire and wonder at. They understand how God so hated sin that He laid vengeance on His only begotten, and yet, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life. As in the crowns of Oriental princes the most precious jewels shone in clusters, so as in one wonderful corona all the infinite attributes of God shine out at once in all their combined glory around Thy cross, O Jesu, earths wonder and heavens prodigy! But, further, when the angels see that by this great plan all the ruin that sin brought upon mankind is removed, they again wonder at the wisdom of God.

II. The wisdom of God is made known to angels and principalities in the various dispensations through which the Church has passed. Oh! brethren, the angels, when they compare the past with the present, and again, the present with the past, the choosing of the Jewish olive, and the leaving out of the rest of the trees, and anon, the grafting in of the Gentiles from the wild olive, and the casting out of the natural branches, how much they must have admired the singular variety of Gods dispensations, when they know, as certainly they do, that His grace remains the same! In climbing or in descending a lofty mountain, one is struck with the sudden change of views. You looked on the right just now, and you saw a populous city in the plain; but you turn a corner, and looking through a break in the forest you see a broad lake; and in a moment or two your road winds again, and you will see a narrow valley and another range of mountains beyond. Every time you turn, there is a new scene presented to you. So it would seem to the angelic spirits.

III. They mainly see the wisdom of God in His Church, in the Churchs covenant head and representative. Oh! when first they heard that the Lord of life and glory was to be made flesh and to dwell among us, how they must have admired the plan of heavens going down to earth that earth might come up to heaven!

IV. The manifold wisdom of God is made known to principalities and powers in the conversion of every child of God. That ingenious toy called the kaleidoscope at every turn presents some new form of beauty, so the different converts who are brought to Christ by the preaching of the Word are every one unlike the other; there is something to distinguish each case; hence by them to the very letter our text is proved, the manifold wisdom, the much varied wisdom of God is displayed. I have sometimes understood the word manifold, as comparing grace to a precious treasure that is wrapped up in many folds, first this, then the next, then the next must be unfolded, and as you unwrap fold after fold, you find something precious each time; but it will be long ere you and I shall have unwrapped the last fold and shall have found the wisdom of God in its pure glittering lustre, lying stored within as the angels behold it in the Church of the living God.

V. The principalities and powers to this day find great opportunities for studying the wisdom of God in the trials and experience of believers, in the wisdom which subjects them to trial, in the grace which sustains them in it, in the power which brings them out of it, in the wisdom which overrules the trial for their good, in the grace which makes the trial fit the back or strengthens the back for the burden.

VI. And lastly, beyond all controversy, when the last of Gods people shall be brought in, and the bright angels shall begin to wander through the heavenly plains and converse with all the redeemed spirits, they will then see the manifold wisdom of God. Two questions in conclusion: First, to the children of God. Do you think you and I have sufficiently considered that we are always looked upon by angels, and that they desire to learn by us the wisdom of God? And, lastly, what, think some of you, would angels say of your walk and conversation? (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Angels--scholars of the kingdom of Christ

Angels are students here, earnestly bent on learning, if possible, the notes of the ultimate chorus, not simply of heaven and earth, but of all things and God. They are more than willing to enter into the human school of Divine mysteries. Even under the old typical dispensation, the cherubim were represented with heads inclined downward,--suggesting that it was already known in the Heavenly Court, that God is preparing His chief work below. He is not redeeming men for their sakes only, but for His own sake, and for heavens sake also. To all principalities and powers, the peculiar dominion of Jesus Christ, is to be the mirror of mirrors for reflecting the manifoldness of the Divine Nature. Paul says: The mystery which from the beginning hath been hid in God, is revealed unto men to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in the heavenlies might be made known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God. Hitherto they have known but little of the richly various (πολυποίκιλος) wisdom of God. The Son of Man draws together the elders of heaven and the children of time. His work, as the Restitutor of all things (because of its centrality and universal bearings), mightily attracts all spirits, not only the unfallen, but the fallen. From the death and ascension of Christ, the universe has been dated anew. From that great crisis of spiritual wrath, from that great triumph of eternal love, all things in heaven, and all things in earth, and all things in hell, are advancing towards a new issue. The ascension of Christ has made heaven higher and greater than it was before. The new height, as a new centre, is making a new circumference. Heaven is intensely interested in this new opening of Gods wonders, and diligently cooperating with Christ in His work. (J. Pulsford.)

Twilight ages changed to sunlight

I have seen, in the early hours of the morning twilight, the Alps appear under a sky still dark, their summits livid and frozen. The lake which bathed their feet stretched out a grey, motionless surface, and the pale rays of a setting moon seemed but to light up the dread kingdom of death. Some hours have passed away, when suddenly these same peaks become resplendent with life; the glittering snow on the background of dazzling azure, the glaciers erect towards the east their bright ridges, the foaming torrents cutting with their cataracts the green mountain brows, and the dark forest trembles in the morning wind, The lake, quivering in its turn, faithfully retraces in its blue mirror the incomparable picture. Nature had not changed, but the sun had arisen. (E. Bersier, D. D.)

Example of Gods manifold wisdom and power

And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life. There is a meaning in these sublime words which is seldom noticed. Innumerable millions of animalculae are found in water, which are never noticed by the unaided sight from their minuteness. Eminent naturalists have discovered not less than 30,000 in a single drop! How inconceivably small must each be; and yet each a perfect animal, furnished with the whole apparatus of bones, muscles, nerves, heart, arteries, veins, lungs, viscera in general, etc. What a proof is this of the manifold wisdom of God! But the fruitfulness of fishes is another point intended in the text; no creatures are so prolific as these. A tench lays 1,000 eggs, a carp 20,000, and Lewenhock counted in a middle-sized cod, 9,384,000! Thus, according to the good purpose of God, the waters bring forth abundantly. And what a merciful provision is this for the necessities of man! Many hundreds of thousands of the earths inhabitants live for a great part of the year on fish only. Fish afford, not only a wholesome, but a very nutritive diet: they are liable to few diseases, and generally come in vast quantities to our shores, when in their greatest perfection. In this also we may see that the kind providence of God goes hand in hand with His creative energy; while He manifests His wisdom and His power, He makes provision for the sustenance of man through all his generations. (Clarke.)

God manifests Himself

Alexander of Russia used often to ride in a plain carriage, incognito. A man on the road asked if he might ride with him. He got into the carriage, and after a while was inquisitive as to the name of the man with whom he was riding. He said, Are you a lieutenant? No, said the king. Are you a major? No, said the king. Are you a general? No, said the king; but I am something higher than that. The man said, Then you must be the emperor, and was overwhelmed with his company. In this world God appears to us in strange ways. He takes us up in the chariot of His providence to ride with Him, and we know Him not. At death the disguise will be gone, and for the first time it will be known to us that we have been riding with the King. (Dr. Talmage.)

The pursuit of wisdom

How shall we describe you to others? asked a disciple of Confucius. He answered, Say that I am one who, in his thirst for knowledge, forbears to eat, who forgets sorrow in the joy of attainment, and who hardly has time to notice the advance of old age. At another time he said, My only merit is to study wisdom without satiety, and to teach others without weariness. These things trouble me, not to live virtuously enough, not to discuss questions thoroughly enough, not to conform practice to doctrine sufficiently, not to reform the bad entirely. (H. R. Haweis, M. A.)

Manifold wisdom

A blind tortoise lived in a well. Another tortoise, a native of the ocean, in its inland travels happened to tumble into this well. The blind one asked of his new comrade whence he came. From the sea. Hearing of the sea, he of the well swam round a little circle, and asked, Is the water of the ocean as large as this? Larger, replied he of the sea. The well tortoise then swam round two thirds of the well, and asked it the sea was as big as that. Much larger than that, said the sea tortoise. Well, then, asked the blind tortoise, is the sea as large as this whole well? Larger, said the sea tortoise. If that is so, said the other, how big, then, is the sea? The sea tortoise replied, You having never seen any other water than that of your well, your capability of understanding is small. As to the ocean, though you spent many years in it, you would never be able to explore the half of it, nor to reach the limit, and it is utterly impossible to compare it with this well of yours. The tortoise replied, It is impossible that there can be a larger water than this well; you are simply praising up your native place in vain words. (J. Gilmour, M. A.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eph 3:10-12. To the intent that now — Under the gospel dispensation, the last and best dispensation of divine grace and mercy to fallen man; unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places — To all the various orders of angelic beings; might be made known by the church — Namely, by what is done in and for it; the manifold wisdom of God — Discovering itself gradually in such a beautiful and well-ordered variety of dispensations. By this the apostle seems to intimate that the Church of Christ is the grand theatre in which the divine wisdom is most signally displayed, including, doubtless, the manifestation made therein of the whole process of Christ for the accomplishment of man’s redemption and salvation. According to the eternal purpose — The original plan adjusted in the Divine Mind, and to be executed in due time in and by Jesus Christ our Lord; in, or through whom we have boldness and access with confidence — Such as those petitioners have who are introduced to the royal presence by some distinguished favourite; the word παρρησια, rendered boldness, implies unrestrained liberty of speech, such as children use in addressing an indulgent father, when, without fear of offending, they disclose all their wants, and make known all their requests.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

Eph_3:10. To the intent that now … might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God.—The Church as it expands from a “little flock” to a “multitude which no man can number” is to declare the multiform wisdom of God, ever fertile in new modes of operation. “Manifold” represents a word used to describe a floral wreath as consisting of “variegated “flowers.

Eph_3:12. In whom we have boldness.—Originally meaning as regards speech. In Christ the reconciled child of God has the right of speaking to God without reserve. The same word is translated “confidence” in 1Jn_5:14, A.V: “It is the free, joyful mood of those reconciled to God” (Meyer). And access.—As in Eph_2:13. With confidence.—Hardly as equal to assurance—certainly never self-assurance, but in quiet leaning on the arm of Christ.

Eph_3:13. I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations.—Compare 2Co_4:1-16, where the same word is used. As an agonised sufferer, heroically suppressing every sign of pain, begs those who wait on him not to give way to grief; as Socrates, having quaffed the poison, rallies his friends, who have broken out into uncontrollable weeping, with the words, “What are you doing, my friends? What! such fine men as you are! Oh, where is virtue?”; so (with a possible reminiscence of Act_20:36-38) St. Paul begs his readers not to lose heart.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Eph_3:10-13

The Manifold Wisdom of God—

I. Seen in the development of a long-cherished plan.—

1. This plan was carried out by Christ. “According to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ” (Eph_3:11). The plan is here called the “eternal purpose,” and that purpose was the redemption of man, and the personage selected for its accomplishment was the Lord Jesus Christ. This was the unchanging theme of “the gospel of which the apostle was made a minister,” this the divinely freighted argosy of “the unsearchable riches of Christ,” the veiled and sacred repository of all heavenly mysteries. The plan is significantly called the manifold wisdom of God”—as manifold as mysterious, for there is variety in the mystery and mystery in every part of the variety. The wisdom is seen, not so much in one act as in the masterly combination of a multitude of acts, all marshalled and disposed with consummate skill to the attainment of one grand end; just as the light that fills and irradiates the valley, penetrating every nook and crevice and clothing every object with beauty, is produced, not by a solitary ray, but by manifold rays poured from the central sun, and all uniting in one harmonious illumination. The crowning wisdom of the plan was in God appointing His only Son as the agent in carrying it out. He, the sinless One, must suffer for sin; the Innocent die for the guilty, and by dying conquer sin. Only thus could the righteous claims of the violated law be fully satisfied, the offence of the sinning one condoned, the authority of the divine government maintained, and the character of the Holy One vindicated to the whole universe.

2. That the plan has been accomplished is evident from the attitude assumed towards man and towards God by believers (Eph_3:13).—As regards the attitude of the believer towards man, he has now “boldness” in declaring the whole truth, and towards God he has “access with confidence by the faith of Him”—he has confidential fellowship with God. Both these experiences are the result of the redeeming plan, and would have been impossible without it.

II. Seen in the indifference to suffering its revelations inspire.—“I desire that ye faint not [do not lose heart] at my tribulations for you, which is your glory” (Eph_3:13). Paul had no anxiety for himself. He almost playfully alludes to his imprisoned state: “The prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles” (Eph_3:1). His soul was too full of heavenly visions and of the practical bearing of the gospel on the destiny of the race to be harassed about his personal suffering. When he thought about it at all it was to rejoice in the honour of being allowed to suffer for such a cause, and in the opportunities afforded of spreading the gospel in quarters that might otherwise have been closed to him. But the Church feared for their champion’s life, and was troubled about his prolonged sufferings and imprisonment. The apostle assures his friends there was more reason for joyous boasting than for pity and dread. The sufferings and misfortunes of the Church have been overruled in promoting her enlargement. The flames of the martyrs have illumined the truth, and the captivity of its professors has prepared the throne of its universal empire. Personal religion has grown stronger by opposition and suffering, and the Church has multiplied by the very means which were intended to destroy her.

III. Seen in making the Church of the redeemed the means of instructing the heavenly intelligences (Eph_3:10).—These lofty beings, with their vast knowledge and gigantic powers, learn something from the divine treatment of sinful, rebellious men. They gain new light, fresher and more expansive views, regarding the character and perfections of God; and perhaps the chief point on which their angelic knowledge will be increased is in the glorious revelations the gospel unfolds of the infinite love of God. The Church on earth, with all its contradictions and imperfections, presents a magnificent picture of self-denial, devotion, and praise; but this is only a faint representation of the splendour of the Church above in its more completed state. The Church above is society organised; the Church below is society organising. The heavenly intelligences are watching both processes, and their wondering adoration is being continually excited as they observe the building up and ever-advancing completion of the redeemed community. If there is one thing more than another that amazes “the principalities and powers”—amazes them more than the manifold wisdom of God unfolded to them by the Church—it must surely be the apathy and indifference of men on earth to their redemptive blessings!—that so much has been done to make man wise, and he remains willingly and contentedly ignorant; that God has been so prodigal of His wealth, and man is so slow to appreciate and seize the proffered enrichment; that God offers the abundant bread of eternal life, and man prefers to starve in lean and comfortless poverty, and grumbles against heaven that he is so poor; that salvation is pressed on his acceptance, and man persists in perishing; that “heaven lies about him in his infancy,” and the celestial gate opens before him in every subsequent stage of life, and yet man resists the alluring glory, and stumbles at last into the bottomless chasm of eternal darkness.

Lessons.—

1. The wisdom of God is continually presenting new illustrations of its manifoldness.

2. The most signal display of divine wisdom is seen in the redemption of the race.

3. The future history of the Church will reveal new features in the manifold wisdom of God.

GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES

Eph_3:10. The Manifold Wisdom of God—

I. Seen in the gradual unfolding of His great purpose to save the human race.—

1. This process suited the revelation to men’s nature and condition as finite and sinful beings. Had the revelation been more rapid and brilliant it could not have been so readily appreciated, nor could men have dared to hope they had any share in it. It was adapted to the infantile state of the Church and the world when the mind is most powerfully affected by sensible objects.

2. This method was a training for appreciating the fuller discoveries of the divine will. It has been an education and discipline, has provoked inquiry, and encouraged full submission to the will of God and faith in His wisdom and power.

II. Seen in the means He employed to carry out His saving purpose.—

1. By the gift of His Song of Solomon 2. As a subsidiary means, by the institution of preaching, and by selecting men, and not angels, as instruments in spreading the knowledge of gospel redemption.

III. Seen in using the Church of the redeemed as an object-lesson in teaching the heavenly intelligences.—The Church teaches the angels:

1. By its composition.

2. By its marvellous history.

3. By its glorious completion.

Learn.—

1. The dignity and glory of the Church. 2. Let it be your all important concern to become a member of this spiritual community.

Eph_3:11-13. Access to God.

I. We have access.—The word signifies an approach to some object. Here it intends a near approach to God in worship, or such a state of peace with God as allows a freedom of intercourse. It is a familiar expression suited to convey the idea of great condescension on God’s part and high privilege on ours.

II. We have boldness of access.—The word signifies a freedom of speaking in opposition to that restraint which we feel when in the presence of one we dread and in whose goodness we can place no confidence. It expresses the fulness of that liberty which under the gospel all Christians enjoy of drawing near to God, and that freedom of spirit with which we should come to God. The disposition of our hearts should correspond with the liberal and gracious dispensation under which we are placed. We should come to God with a spirit of love, in opposition to servile fear. This boldness imports frequency in our approaches to God. Slaves, under fear, stand at a distance. Children, invited by the goodness of a father, come often into his presence.

III. We have access with confidence.—This confidence is elsewhere called a better hope and the full assurance of faith. It is opposed to doubting and distrust. Confidence in prayer is a full reliance on God; but this may be accompanied with a humble diffidence of ourselves.

IV. All our hope of success in prayer must rest upon the mediation of Christ (Eph_3:12).—In His name we are to come before God; and in the virtue of His atonement and intercession we may hope for acceptance.

V. Access to God a refuge in trouble (Eph_3:13).—Fearing lest his sufferings in the cause of the gospel should dishearten his converts, the apostle sets before them a view of their security under the protection of divine grace. Dangers were before them; but what had they to fear who had boldness of access to God? It was one of the glories of their religion that He who preached it was not ashamed to suffer for it.

Lessons.—

1. In the apostle Paul we have a noble example of benevolence.

2. New converts should be assisted and encouraged.

3. Our best support under trouble is boldness of access to God.

4. Let the grace and condescension of God encourage us to come often into His presence.—Lathrop.

Eph_3:12. Access to God in Prayer.—Prayer is to be exercised with the greatest caution and exactness, being the most solemn intercourse earth can have with heaven. The distance between God and us, so great by nature and yet greater by sin, makes it fearful to address Him; but Christ has smoothed a way, and we are commanded to come with a good heart, not only in respect of innocence, but also of confidence.

I. There is a certain boldness and confidence very well becoming our humblest addresses to God.—It is the very language of prayer to treat God as our Father. The nature of this confidence is not so easily set forth by positive description as by the opposition it bears to its extremes. It is opposed:

1. To desperation and horror of conscience.

2. To doubtings and groundless scrupulosities.

3. To rashness and precipitation.

4. To impudence.

II. The foundation of this confidence is laid in the mediation of Christ

III. The reason why Christ’s mediation ought to minister such confidence to us.—His incomparable fitness for the performance of that work. Considering Him:

1. In respect to God, with whom He has to mediate. God sustains a double capacity of Father and Judge. Christ appears not only as an Advocate, but as a Surety, paying down the utmost justice can exact.

2. In reference to men for whom He mediates. He is a friend, brother, surety, lord or master.

3. In respect to Himself.

(1) He is perfectly acquainted with all our wants and necessities.

(2) He is heartily sensible of and concerned about them.

(3) He is best able to express and set them before the Father.

IV. Whether there is any other ground that may rationally embolden us in our addresses to Him.—If there is, it must be either:

1. Something within us as the merit of our good actions. But this cannot be—

(1) because none can merit but by doing something absolutely by his own power for the advantage of him from whom he merits;

(2) because to merit is to do something over and above what is due.

2. Something without us. This must be the help and intercession either of angels or saints. Angels cannot mediate for us—

(1) because it is impossible for them to know and perfectly discern the thoughts;

(2) because no angel can know at once all the prayers that are even uttered in words throughout the world. These arguments are still more forcible against the intercession of saints. The invocation of saints supposed to arise:

1. From the solemn meetings used by the primitive Christians at the saints’ sepulchres, and there celebrating the memory of their martyrdom.

2. From those seeds of the Platonic philosophy that so much leavened many of the primitive Christians.

3. From the people being bred in idolatry. But the primitive fathers held no such thing; and the Council of Trent, that pretended to determine the case, put the world off with an ambiguity. Christ is the only true way.—R. South.

Eph_3:13. Courage under Suffering.—

1. Affliction and tribulation for the gospel is a trial not only to those under it, but to others who look on, and are in no less hazard to be thereby brangled (made to disagree) in their confidence, blunted in their zeal, and rendered remiss in their forwardness, than the person himself who suffers.

2. A faithful minister suffering for truth will not be so solicitous for his own outward estate as for the Church and people of God, lest they be turned aside, or made to faint by reason of his sufferings. This may guard from discouragement when we consider the excellent worth of truth, and how those who suffer for it have not cast themselves without necessity upon their sufferings, but were necessitated to meet them in the way of their calling.

3. So honourable is it to suffer for Christ and truth that not only the persons who suffer are honoured, but also all such as have interest in them, who should not faint, but rather glory in them and take encouragement from them.—Fergusson.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

Chapter 13

EARTH TEACHING HEAVEN

Eph_3:10-13

"The mystery hidden since the ages began, in God who created all things": so the last paragraph concluded. The added phrase "through Jesus Christ" is a comment of the pious reader, that has been incorporated in the received text; but it is wanting in the oldest copies, and is out of place. The apostle is not concerned with the prerogatives of Christ, but with the scope of the Christian economy. He is displaying the breadth and grandeur of the dispensation of grace, the infinite range of the Divine plans and operations of which it forms the centre. Its secret was cherished in the Eternal Mind. Its foundations are laid in the very basis of the world. And the disclosure of it now being made brings new light and wisdom to the powers of the celestial realms.

"There is nothing covered," said Jesus "which shall not be revealed, and hidden which shall not be known." The mysteries which God sets before His intelligent creatures are promises of knowledge; they are drafts, to be honoured in due time, upon the treasures of wisdom hidden in Christ. So this great secret of the destiny of the Gentile world was "from all ages hidden, in order that now through the Church it might be made known," and by its means Gods wisdom, to these sublime intelligences. This intention was a part of the "plan of the ages" formed in Christ (Eph_3:11). God designed by our redemption to bless higher races along with our own. The elder sons of God, those "morning stars" of creation, are schooled and instructed by what is transpiring here upon earth.

To some this will appear to be mere extravagance. They see in such expressions the marks of an unrestrained enthusiasm, of theological speculation pushed beyond its limits and unchecked by any just knowledge of the physical universe. This censure would be plausible and it might seem that the apostle had extended the mission of the gospel beyond its province, were it not for what he says in Eph_3:11 : This "purpose of the ages" God "made in the Christ, even Jesus our Lord." Jesus Christ links together angels and men. He draws after Him to earth the eyes of heaven. Christs coming to this world and identification with it unite to it enduringly the great worlds above us. The scenes enacted upon this planet and the events of its religious history have sent their shock through the universe. The incarnation of the Son of God gives to human life a boundless interest and significance. It is idle to oppose to this conviction the fact of the littleness of the terrestial globe. Spiritual and physical magnitudes are incommensurable. You cannot measure a mans soul by the size of his dwelling-house. Science teaches us that the most powerful forces may exist and operate within the narrowest space. A microscopic cell may contain the potential life of a world. If our earth is but a grain of sand to the astronomer, it has been the home of Godhead. It is the world for which God spared not to give His own Son! Here, then, lies the centre of the apostles thoughts in this paragraph: Gods all-comprehending purpose in Christ. The magnitude and completeness of this plan are indicated by the fact that it embraces in its purview the angelic powers and their enlightenment. So understanding it, our human faith gains confidence and courage (Eph_3:12-13).

I. The textual critics restore the definite article which later copyists had dropped before the word Christ in Eph_3:22. We have already remarked the frequency of "the Christ" in this epistle. Once besides this peculiar combination of the names of our Saviour occurs-in Col_2:6, where Lightfoot renders it the Christ, even Jesus the Lord. So it should be rendered in this place. St. Paul sets forth the purpose of "God who created all things." He is looking back through "the ages" during which the Divine plan was kept secret. God was all the time designing His work of mercy, pointing meanwhile the hopes of men by token and promise to the Coming One. The Messiah was the burden of those prophetic ages. That inscrutable Christ of the Old Testament, the veiled mystery of Jewish hope, stands manifested before us and challenges our faith in the glorious person of "Jesus our Lord." This singular turn of expression identifies the ideal and the real, the promise and fulfilment, the dream of Old Testament prophecy and the fact of New Testament history. For Jesus our Lord is the very Christ to whom the generations before His coming looked forward out of their twilight with wistful expectancy.

Not without meaning is He called "Jesus our Lord." The "principalities and powers" of the heavenly places are in our view (Eph_3:10). These potentates some of the Asian Christians were fain to worship. "See ye do it not," Paul seems to say. "Jesus, the Christ of God, is alone our Lord; not these. He is our Lord and theirs. {Eph_1:21-22} AS our Lord He commands their homage, and gives them lessons through His Church in Gods deep counsels." Everything that the apostle says tends to exalt our Redeemer and to enhance our confidence in Him. His position is central and supreme, in regard alike to the ages of time and the-powers of the universe. In His hand is the key to all mysteries. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning, middle, and end of Gods ways. He is the centre of Israel-Israel of the world and the human ages; while the world of men is bound through Him to the higher spheres of being, over which He too presides. There is a splendid intellectual courage, an incredible boldness and reach of thought in St. Pauls conception of the sovereignty of Christ. Remember that He of whom these things are said, but thirty years before died a felons death in the sight of the Jewish people. It is not our Lord Jesus Christ, whose name is hallowed by the lips of millions and glorified by the triumphs of centuries upon centuries past, but the Nazarene with the obscurity of His life and the cruel shame of Calvary fresh in the recollection of all men. With what immense force had the facts of His glorification wrought upon mens minds-His resurrection and ascension, the witness of His Spirit and the virtue of His gospel-for it to be possible to speak of Him thus, within a generation of His death! While "the foolishness of preaching" such a Christ and the weakness in which He was crucified were patent to all eyes, unrelieved by the influence of time and the glamour of success, how was it that the first believers raised Jesus to this limitless glory and dominion? It was through the conviction, certified by outward fact and inward experience, that "He liveth by the power of God." Thus Peter on the day of Pentecost: "By the right hand of God exalted, He has shed forth this which ye now see and hear." The resurrection from the dead, the demonstration of the Spirit, proved Jesus Christ to be that which He had claimed to be, the Saviour of men and the eternal Son of God.

The supremacy here assigned to Christ is a consequence of the exaltation described at the close of the first chapter. There we see the height, here the breadth and length of His dominion. If He is raised from the grave so high that all created powers and names are beneath His feet, we cannot wonder that the past ages were employed in preparing His way, that the basis of His throne lies in the foundation of the world.

II. The universe is one. There is a solidarity of rational and moral interests amongst all intelligences. Granting the existence of such beings as the angels of Scripture, we should expect them to be profoundly concerned in the redeeming work of Christ. They are the "watchers" and "holy ones" spoken of by the later Isaiah and Daniel, whom the Lord has "set upon the walls of Jerusalem" and who survey the affairs of nations. Such was "the angel who talked" with Zechariah in his vision, and whom the prophet overheard pleading for Jerusalem. In the Apocalypse, again, we find the angels acting as Gods unseen executive. We decline to believe that these superhuman creatures are nothing more than apocalyptic machinery, that they are creations of fancy employed to give a livelier aspect to spiritual truth. "Cannot I pray to my Father, and He shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?" So Jesus said, in the most solemn hour of His life. And who can forget His tender words concerning the little children, whose "angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in heaven"?

The apostle Paul, who denounces "worship of the angels" in the fellow epistle to this, earnestly believed in their existence and their interest in human affairs. If he did not write the words of Heb_1:14, he certainly held that "they are ministering spirits sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation." Most clearly is their relationship to the Church affirmed by the words of the revealing angel to the apostle John: "I am a fellow-servant with thee and with thy brethren the prophets, and with them that keep the words of this book."

Christs service is the high school of wisdom for the universe. These princes of heaven win by their ministry to Christ and His Church a great reward. Their intelligence, however lofty its range, is finite. Their keen and burning intuition could not penetrate the mystery of Gods intentions toward this world. The revelations of the tatter days-the incarnation, the cross, the publication of the gospel, the outpouring of the Spirit-were full of surprises to the heavenly watchers. They sang at Bethlehem; they hid their faces and shrouded heaven in blackness at the sight of Calvary. They bent down with eager observation and searching thought "desiring to look into" the things made known to men, {1Pe_1:12} -close and sympathetic students of the Churchs history. The apostle felt that there were other eyes bent upon him than those of his fellow-men, and that he was acting in a grander arena than the visible world. "We are a spectacle," he says, "to angels and to men." So he enjoins faithfulness on Timothy, and with Timothy on all who bear the charge of the gospel, "before God and Christ Jesus, and the elect angels." What is public opinion, what the applause or derision of the crowd, to him who lives and acts in the presence of these august spectators?

"Through the Church," we are told the angels of God are now having His "manifold wisdom made known" to them. It is not from the abstract scheme of salvation, from the theory or theology of the Church that they get this education, but through the living Church herself. The Saviours mission to earth created a problem for them, the development of which they follow with the most intense and sympathetic interest. With what solicitude they watch the conflict between good and evil and the varying progress of Christs kingdom amongst men! Many things, doubtless, that engage our attention and fill a large space in our Church records, are of little account with them; and much that passes in obscurity, names and deeds unchronicled by fame, are written in heaven and pondered in other spheres. No brave and true blow is struck in Christs battle but it has the admiration of these high spectators. No advance is made in character and habit, in Christian intelligence and efficiency and the application of the gospel to human need, but they notice and approve. When the cause of the Church and the salvation of mankind go forward, when righteousness and peace triumph, the morning stars sing together and the sons of God shout for joy. The joy that there is in the presence of the angels of God over the repenting sinner, is not the joy of sympathy or pity only; it is the delight of growing wisdom, of deepening insight into the ways of God, into the heart of the Father and the love that passes knowledge.

One would suppose, from what the apostle hints, that our world presents a problem unique in the kingdom of God, one which raises questions more complicated and crucial than have elsewhere arisen. The heavenly princedoms are learning through the Church "the manifold wisdom of God." His love, in its pure essence, those happy and godlike beings know. They have lived for ages in its unclouded light. His power and skill they may see displayed in proportions immensely grander than this puny globe of ours presents. Gods justice, it may be, and the thunders of His law have issued forth in other regions clothed with a splendour of which the scenes of Sinai were but a faint emblem. It is in the combination of the manifold principles of the Divine government that the peculiarity of the human problem appears to lie. The delicate and continuous balancing of forces in Gods plan of dealing with this world, the reconciliation of seeming incompatibilities, the issue found from positions of hopeless contradiction, the accord of goodness with severity, of inflexible rectitude and truth with fatherly compassion, afford to the greatest minds of heaven a spectacle and a study altogether wonderful. So amongst ourselves the child of a noble house, reared in cultured ease and shielded from moral peril, in visiting the homes of poverty in the crowded city, finds a new world opened to him, that can teach him Divine lessons if he has the heart to learn. His mind is awakened, his sympathies enriched. He hears the worlds true voice, "the still, sad music of humanity." He measures the heights and depths of mans nature. A host of questions are thrust "upon him," whose urgency he had scarcely guessed; and wide ranges of truth are lighted up for him, which before were distant and unreal. The highest have ever to learn from the lowest in Christs school, the seeming-wise from the simple; even the pure and good, from contact with the fallen whom they seek to save.

And "the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places" are, it seems, willing to learn from those below them. As they traced the course of human history in those "eternal times" during which the mystery lay wrapped in silence, the angel watchers were too wise to play the sceptic, too cautious to criticise an unfinished plan and arraign a justice they could not yet understand. With a dignified patience they waited the uplifting of the curtain and the unravelling of the entangled plot. They looked for the coming of the Promised One. So in due time they witnessed and, for their reward, assisted in His manifestation. With the same docility these high sharers of our theological inquiries still wait to see the end of the Lord and to take their part in the denouement of the time-drama, in the revelation of the sons of God. Let us copy their long patience. God has not made us to mock us. "What thou knowest not now," said the great Revealer, the Master of all mysteries, to His disciple, "thou shalt know hereafter."

These wise elder brothers of ours, rich in the lore of eternity, foresee the things to come as we cannot do. They are far above the smoke and dust of the earthly conflict. The doubts that shake the strongest souls amongst us, the cries of the hour which confuse and deceive us, do not trouble them. They behold us in our weakness, our fears, and our divisions; but they also look on Him who "sits expecting till His enemies are made His footstool." They see how calmly He sits, how patiently expectant, while the sound of clashing arms and the rage and tumult of the peoples go up from the earth. They mark the steadiness with which through century after century, in spite of refluent waves, the tide of mercy rises, and still rises on the shores of earth. Thrones, systems, civilisations have gone down; one after another of the powers that strove to crush or to corrupt Christs Church has disappeared; and still the name of Jesus lives and spreads. It has traversed every continent and sea; it stands at the head of the living and moving forces of the world. Those who come nearest to the angelic point of view, and judge of the progress of things not by the froth upon the surface, but by the trend of the deeper currents, are the most confident for the future of our race. The kingdom of Satan will not fall without a struggle-a last struggle, perhaps more furious than any in the past-but it is doomed, and waning to its end. So far has the kingdom of Christ advanced, so mightily does the word of God grow and prevail in the earth, that faith may well assure itself of the promised triumph. Soon we shall shout "Alleluia! The Lord God Omnipotent reigneth!"

III. Suddenly, according to his wont, the apostle drops down from the heights of contemplation to the level of ordinary fact. He descends in Eph_3:12 from the thought of the eternal purpose and the education of the angels to the struggling Church. The assurance of its life in the Spirit corresponds to the grandeur of that Divine order to which it belongs. "In whom," he says-in this Christ, the revealed mystery of ages past, the Teacher of angels and archangels" we have our freedom and confident access to God through faith in Him."

If it be "Jesus our Lord" to whom these attributes belong, and He is not ashamed of us, well may we draw near with confidence to the Father, unashamed in the presence of His holy angels. We have no need to be abashed, if we approach the Divine Majesty with a true faith in Christ. His name gives the sinner access to the holiest place. The cherubim sheathe their swords of flame. The heavenly warders at this passport open the golden gates. We "come unto Mount Sion, the city of the living God, and to an innumerable company of angels." Not one of these mightinesses and ancient peers of heaven, not Gabriel or Michael himself, would wish or dare to bar our entrance.

"We have boldness and access," says the apostle, as in Eph_1:7 : "We have redemption in His blood." He insists upon the conscious fact. This freedom of approach to God, this sonship of faith, is no hope or dream of what may be; it is a present reality, a filial cry heard in a multitude both of Gentile and Jewish hearts. {comp Eph_2:18}

This sentence exhibits the richness of synonyms characteristic of the epistle. There are boldness and access, confidence as well as faith. The three former terms Bengel nicely distinguishes: "libertatem oris in orando," and "admissionem in fiducia in re, et corde"-freedom of speech (in prayer), of status, and of feeling. The second word {as in Eph_2:18 and Rom_5:2} appears to be rather active than passive in its force, denoting admittance rather than access. So that while the former of the parallel terms (boldness) describes the liberty with which the newborn Church of the redeemed address themselves to God the Father and the unchecked freedom of their petitions, the latter (admittance) takes us back to the act of Christ by which He introduced us to the Fathers presence and gave us the place of sons in the house. Being thus admitted, we may come with confidence of heart, though we be less than the least of saints. Accepted in the Beloved, we are within our right if we say to the Father:-

"Yet in Thy Son divinely great,

We claim Thy providential care.

Boldly we stand before Thy seat;

Our Advocate hath placed us there!"

"Wherefore," concludes the imprisoned apostle, "I beg you not to lose heart at my afflictions for you." Assuredly Paul did not pray that he should not lose heart, as some interpret his meaning. But he knew how his friends were fretting and wearying over his long captivity. Hence he writes to the Philippians: "I would have you know that the things which have happened to me have turned out rather to the furtherance of the gospel." Hence, too, he assures the Colossians earnestly of his joy in suffering for their sake. {Ephesians 1}

The Church was fearful for Pauls life and distressed by his prolonged sufferings. It missed his cheering presence and the inspiration of his voice. But if the Church is so dear to God as the pages of this letter show, and grounded in His eternal purposes, then let all friends of Christ take courage. The ark freighted with such fortunes cannot sink. St. Paul is a martyr for Christ, and for Gentile Christendom! Every stroke that falls upon him, every day added to the months of his imprisonment helps to show the worth of the cause he has espoused and gives to it increased lustre: "my afflictions for you, which are your glory."

Those that love him should boast rather than grieve over his afflictions. "We make our boast in you amongst the Churches of God," he wrote to the distressed Thessalonians, {2Th_1:4} "for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and afflictions"; so he would have the Churches think of him. When good men suffer in a good cause, it is not matter for pity and dread, but rather for a holy pride.

William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.

3:10 The church is meant to showcase to the entire universe God’s wisdom in its rich variety, as expressed in his plan of redemption (see Rom 11:33-36). • the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places: See Eph 1:21 and corresponding study note.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Eph 3:10. Νῦν) now, first: comp. Eph 3:5.—ταῖς ἀρχαῖς καὶ ταῖς ἐξουσίαις, to the principalities and powers) good, or even bad; but in a different way to the one, as compared with the other.—διὰ, by) from those things which happen to the Church; for it (the Church) is the theatre in which the Divine works are displayed. Comp. 1Co 4:9.—πολυποίκιλος) Syr[45] Vers. renders it, full of varieties.—σοφία, wisdom) The angels are particularly conversant about this object.

[45] yr. the Peschito Syriac Version: second cent.: publ. and corrected by Cureton, from MS. of fifth cent.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eph_3:10. Ἵνα] not ecbatic (Thomas, Boyd, Zanchius, Estius, Koppe, Rosenmüller, Flatt, Meier, Holzhausen), introduces the design, not, however, of τῷ τὰ πάντα κτίσαντι, as, in addition to those who understand κτίσ. of the ethical creation, also Harless would take it.[178] The latter sees in Τῷ ΤᾺ ΠΆΝΤΑ ΚΤΊΣΑΝΤΙ ἽΝΑ Κ.Τ.Λ. an explanation how the plan of redemption had been from all ages hidden in God; inasmuch as it was He who created the world, in order to reveal in the church of Christ the manifoldness of His wisdom. But the very doctrine itself, that the design of God in the creation of the world was directed to the making known of His wisdom to the angels, and by means of the Christian church, has nowhere an analogy in the N.T.; according to Col_1:16, Christ (the personal Christ Himself) is the aim of the creation of all things, even of the angels, who are here included in τὰ πάντα. But as ΓΝΩΡΙΣΘῇ evidently corresponds to the ἈΠΟΚΕΚΡΥΜΜΈΝΟΥ, and ΝῦΝ to the ἈΠῸ ΤῶΝ ΑἸΏΝΩΝ, we cannot, without arbitrary disturbance of the whole arrangement of this majestic passage, regard ἽΝΑ ΓΝΩΡΙΣΘῇ as other than the design of τοῦ ἀποκεκρ. ἀπὸ τῶν αἰώνων ἐν τῷ Θεῷ. This statement of aim stands in exact significant relation to the vocation of the apostle, Eph_3:8 f., through which this very making known to the heavenly powers was partly effected. The less is there reason for taking ἵνα γνωρ. κ.τ.λ., with de Wette (on Eph_3:11) and Hofmann, Schriftbew. I. p. 361 (who are followed by Schenkel), after earlier expositors, as defining the aim of the preaching of Paul, Eph_3:8 f.; in which case, besides, it would be offensive that Paul should ascribe specially to his work in preaching as its destined aim that, in which the other apostles withal (comp. in particular Act_15:7), and the many preachers to the Gentiles of that time (such as Barnabas), had a share. The joining on to the adjectival element ἀποκεκρ. κ.τ.λ. produces no syntactical incongruity, but is as much in keeping with the carrying forward of the discourse by way of chain in our Epistle, as in accord with the reference of so significant a bearing to Eph_3:8 f.

ΓΝΩΡΙΣΘῇ ΝῦΝ] The emphasis is not upon ΝῦΝ (Rückert and others), but upon ΓΝΩΡΙΣΘῇ, in keeping with the ἈΠΟΚΕΚΡ.: in order that it should not remain hidden, but should be made known, etc.

ταῖς ἀρχαῖς κ. τ. ἐξουσίαις] See on Eph_1:21. The angelic powers are to recognise in the case of the Christian church the wisdom of God;what a church-glorifying design, out of which God kept the μυστήριον from the beginning locked up in Himself! To the heavenly powers (comp. 1Pe_1:12), which therefore are certainly not thought of as abstractions, the earthly institute is to show the wisdom of God; an even, however, is quite arbitrarily inserted before ταῖς ἀρχ. (Grotius, Meier). The explanation of the diabolic powers (Ambrosiaster, Vatablus, not Estius), which Vorstius, Bengel, Olshausen, Hofmann, Bleek at least understand as included, is entirely foreign to the context (it is otherwise at Eph_6:12), even though ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις (comp. Eph_1:3; Eph_1:20) were not added. Throughout the whole connection the contrast of earth and heaven prevails. Wrongly, too, we may add, secular rulers (Zeger, Knatchbull), Jewish archons (Schöttgen, Locke), heathen priests (van Til), and Christian church-overseers (Zorn), have been understood as here referred to (comp. Eph_1:21); while Koppe would embrace quicquid est vi, sapientia, dignitate insigne, and would only not exclude the angels on account of ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρ.

ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρ. is, as always in our Epistle (see on Eph_1:3), definition of place: in heaven, not: in the case of the heavenly things, which are to be perceived in connection with the church (Zeltner, comp. Baumgarten), and such like (see in Wolf). It is most naturally to be combined (comp. Eph_6:12) with ταῖς ἀρχ. κ. τ. ἐξουσ., in which case it was not needful to place ΤΑῖς before ἘΝ ΤΟῖς ἘΠΟΥΡΑΝΊΟΙς, seeing that the ἘΝ ΤΟῖς ἘΠΟΥΡΑΝ., more precisely fixing the definition of the notion of the ἈΡΧΑΊ and ἘΞΟΥΣΊΑΙ (for even upon earth there are ἈΡΧΑΊ and ἘΞΟΥΣΊΑΙ), is blended into a unity of notion with those two words (Fritzsche, ad Rom. I. p. 195), so that there is no linguistic necessity for connecting, as does Matthies,[179] ἘΝ ΤΟῖς ἘΠΟΥΡ. with ΓΝΩΡ.

The question why Paul did not write simply ΤΟῖς ἈΓΓΈΛΟΙς is not to be answered, with Hofmann, to the effect, that the spirits ruling in the ethnic world are intended, because such a special reference of the general expression τ. ἀρχ. κ. τ. ἐξουσ. must have been specified (by the addition of τῶν ἐθνῶν, or something of that sort); but to the effect, that the designation of the angels on the side of their power and rank, in contradistinction to the ΔΙᾺ Τῆς ἘΚΚΛΗΣΊΑς, serves for the glorifying of the ἐκκλησία. The Designation corresponds to the fulness and the lofty pathos by which the whole passage is marked. In Eph_1:21, also, an analogous reason is found, namely, the glorifying of Christ. It is to be observed, in general, that the name ἄγγελος does not occur at all in our Epistle.

ΔΙᾺ Τῆς ἘΚΚΛΗΣΊΑς] The Christian church (i.e. the collective body of believers regarded as one community, comp. 1Co_12:28; 1Co_10:32; 1Co_15:9; Gal_1:11; Php_3:6; Col_1:18; Col_1:24,hence not betraying the later Catholic notion) is, in its existence and its living development, as composed of Jews and Gentiles combined in a higher unity, the medium de facto for the divine wisdom becoming known, the actual voucher of the same; because it is the actual voucher of the redemption which embraces all mankind and raises it above the hostile contrast of Judaism and heathenism,this highest manifestation of the divine wisdom (Rom_11:32 f.). To the angels, in accordance with their ministering interest in the work of redemption (Mat_18:10; Luk_15:7; Luk_15:10; 1Co_11:10; Heb_1:14; 1Pe_1:12), the church of the redeemed is therefore, as it were, the mirror, by means of which the wisdom of God exhibits itself to them.

πολυποίκιλος] Eur. Iph. T. 1149; Eubul. in Athen. xv. p. 679 D; Orph. v. 11, lx. 4. It signifies much-manifold, i.e. in a high degree manifold, quite corresponding to the Latin multivarius. That it signifies very wise (Wolf, Koppe, Rosenmüller) has been erroneously assumed from Aesch. Prom. 1308, where ποίκιλος means crafty. As πολυποίκιλος, the wisdom of God manifests itself to the angels through the church, inasmuch as the counsel of the redemption of the world is therein presented to them in its universal realization, and they thus behold the manifold ways and measures of God, which He had hitherto taken with reference to the Jews and Gentiles, all now in their connection with the institute of redemption,all uniting in this as their goal. The church is thus for them, as regards the manifold wisdom of God, the central fact of revelation; for the πολυποικίλους ὁδοὺς Θεοῦ, which they before knew not as to their ultimate end, but only in and by themselves (and how diverse were these ways with the Jews and with the Gentiles!), they now see in point of fact, through the church (haec enim operum divinorum theatrum est, Bengel), as ΠΟΛΥΠΟΊΚΙΛΟς ΣΟΦΊΑ. Thus by the appearing of the ἘΚΚΛΗΣΊΑ as a fact in the history of salvation, the wisdom of the divine government of the world has been on every side unveiled and brought to recognition. Entirely without warrant, Baur assumes, p. 429, that the Gnostic σοφία, with its heterogeneous forms and conditions (comp. Iren. Haer. i. 4. 1), was present to the mind of the writer.

[178] So also Baur refers it, p. 425, but explains the thus resulting aim of the creation from the doctrine of the Valentinians.

[179] The whole apprehension of our passage by Matthies is mistaken. He refers τῷ τὰ πάντα κτίσ. to all that God has either created in the natural reference of the term, or accomplished in a spiritual respect for the salvation of men. According to his view, ἵνα applies to τῷ τὰ π. κτίσ.; the ἀρχαὶ καὶ ἐξουσίαι are the high and mighty ones who live in the world, or even in an invisible spiritual manner play their part in the same; τὰ ἐπουράνια is to be taken as the actually subsisting aggregate of all that is heavenlyas the kingdom of God. In the heavenly kingdom the wisdom of God becomes manifest by means of the church, and particularly to these high and mighty ones, because these are now, in the heavenly kingdom founded by Christ, brought, by means of the church, to the consciousness of their powerlessness.Thus, in fact, there are, as well in the notion of κτίζειν as in that of ἀρχαὶ κ. ἐξουσ., two wholly different conceptions combined, in opposition to the hermeneutic principle of the unity of the sense; τὰ ἐπουράνια is arbitrarily generalized in a spiritualistic way, and the thought that the ἀρχαὶ καὶ ἐξουσίαι are brought to the consciousness of their powerlessness is purely imported, and the more mistakenly, inasmuch as it is Gods σοφία, not His δύναμις, of which it is here said that it is made manifest to the ἀρχαὶ καὶ ἐξουσ.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eph 3:10 . ἵνα γνωρισθῇ νῦν ταῖς ἀρχαῖς καὶ ταῖς ἐξουσίαις ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις : in order that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenlies might be made known . To make the manifold wisdom of God known where formerly it was not understood is now declared to be the object in view. But the object of what? The creation of all things, says Harless; who connects the ἵνα γνωρισθῇ immediately with the τῷ τὰ πάντα κτίσαντι . But, while it is true that redemption is sometimes exhibited in relation to creation (Joh 1:1-14 , etc.), and while Christ Himself is presented at times not only as the author and ground of creation but also as its end or object (Col 1:16 ), the idea resulting here on that view would be that the purpose of God in creating all things was the proclamation of His wisdom to the angelic world by the Church . This, however, would be a statement without any parallel elsewhere in the NT. It is better, therefore, to connect the sentence immediately with the τοῦ μυστηρίου τοῦ ἀποκεκρυμμένου , as is done by Meyer and many more. In that case the idea would be that the “mystery” was long hidden indeed, but hidden only with the design of being made known, and that on the widest possible scale to angels no less than to men in due time ( cf. the general statement of principle in Mar 4:22 ). There is much to be said in support of this, e.g. , the antithesis of the νῦν to the ἀπὸ τῶν αἰώνων , and the γνωρισθῇ to the ἀποκεκρυμμένου , etc. But it is best to take the verse as referring to the previous ἐδόθη ἡ χάρις αὕτη , etc. (Ell., Alf.; and substantially De Wette, Hofm., etc.). The main idea in the paragraph from Eph 3:7 onwards is unmistakably that of the marvellous call and commission of Paul, and the wonder of the grace that made an Apostle and preacher of him is magnified the more by the Divine purpose revealed in that commission, to wit, the making known the manifold wisdom of God in His ways with sinful men and with the outcasts of the Gentile world in particular. It is objected indeed that this is to make Paul claim for his own preaching and as his own special work what belonged to other Apostles and preachers no less than to him. But all that is stated here goes in point of fact to enhance the idea of Paul’s own personal insignificance, the extraordinary and unmerited nature of his call, and his absolute indebtedness to grace. “For this sublime cause,” as Alford admirably expresses it, “the humble Paul was raised up to bring about he, the least worthy of the saints that to the heavenly powers themselves should be made known, by means of those whom he was empowered to enlighten” the manifold wisdom of God. The ἀρχαί and ἐξουσίαι can only mean good angels ( cf. under Eph 1:21 above); and these names of dignity (the term ἄγγελος is not used in this Epistle) are appropriate here as suggesting again the greatness of Paul’s commission, and perhaps also (as Mey. thinks) the glory put upon the ἐκκλησία . That the ἀρχαί and ἐξουσίαι cannot mean any orders of earthly powers Jewish, Gentile or Christian rulers or the like, is shown by the ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις . Nor can they refer to demonic powers, whether by themselves alone or as part of the angelic world, for this would scarcely be consistent with the mention of the Church , and further the Divine power would in that case be more in point than the Divine wisdom . Nor again is there anything in the context to suggest that Paul has in view the angels that ministered the law and the elemental powers honoured by the heathen (V. Soden). The ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις here, as elsewhere in the Epistle, has the sense = in heaven ; see under Eph 1:3 above. The ἐν , therefore, has its proper local sense, and is not = in respect of , as if the clause meant “in the case of the heavenly things”. As the phrase makes one idea, too, with the ἀρχαῖς and ἐξουσίαις , defining them as heavenly , it requires no ταῖς after the ἐξουσίαις . διὰ τῆς ἐκκλησίας : through the Church . The Church , therefore, that is, as is evidently meant here, the whole body of believers in the unity in which Jew and Gentile are now made one, is the means by which the Divine wisdom is to be made known and Paul’s commission in that respect made good. The Church, which it was his high Apostolic vocation to build up by bringing multitudes of Gentile believers into its membership the Church in which the breaking down of ancient barriers and the removal of the old enmity were now seen, was itself the living witness to the Divine σοφία , the “mirror,” as Calvin puts it, “in which angels contemplate the wonderful wisdom of God”. And that Divine wisdom is described as πολυποίκιλος (a word found only this once in the NT) not with any reference to Gnostic ideas of σοφία (as Baur imagined), for the use of such a term as this in that connection is of later date (Iren., Haer. , i., 4, 1); nor simply in the sense of very wise , for which Aesch., Prom. , 1308, is mistakenly cited; but as = multivarius, multiformis (Vulg.), having a great variety of forms . The adj. is used of the rich variety of colours in cloths, flowers, paintings, etc. (Eurip., Iph. T. , 1149; Eubulus, ap. Athen. , 15, p. 679 D; Orph. Hym. , vi., 11; lxi., 4). In different ways had God dealt with men, with the Jew in one way and with the Gentile in another, in the long course of the ages. But in all these He had had one great end in view. Now in the Church the realisation of that end is seen, and in that great spiritual harmony angels can perceive the manifoldness and majesty of that Divine wisdom which by ways so diverse had been working to this great result. That angels have an interest in man’s redemption and desire to look into it is stated in 1Pe 1:12 . Here it is indicated that they are capable of an enlargement of insight into it.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

10. ἵνα γνωρισθῇ νῦν. Dependent perhaps on ἀποκεκρυμμένου (so Lightfoot), cf. Mar 4:22; or on φωτίσαι (so Hort apparently).

ταῖς ἀρχαῖς καὶ ταῖς ἐξουσίαις ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις. Superhuman intelligences either good (Eph 1:21; Col 2:10) or evil (Eph 6:12; Col 2:15). For the interest of Angels in human concerns cf. Mar 13:32; 1Co 2:8; 1Co 4:9; 1Co 11:10; 1Ti 3:16; 1Pe 1:12. Cf. Angels as fellow servants, Rev 19:10; Rev 22:6-9.

διὰ τῆς ἐκκλησίας, Eph 1:22, Eph 3:21, Eph 5:23-32. The Society made up of the two now harmonized elements, and so embodying God’s purpose of love. See Hort on 1Pe 1:12, who says: ‘St Peter’s words receive important illustration from their often noticed affinity to Eph 3:10. St Paul there represents the present making known of the manifold wisdom of God through the Church to the principalities and powers as one purpose of his preaching of the Gospel to the Gentiles: and the remarkable phrase “through the Church” is explained by part of the preceding paragraph (Eph 2:14-18) on the founding of the two, “Israel and the Nations,” in Christ into one new man, the reconciliation of them both in one body to God, and the announcement of peace to them that were far off and peace to them that were nigh. The Church in virtue of this its Catholicity was not only the herald of God’s all-embracing peace to the ears of men, but its visible embodiment in the eyes of men and of angels. Its very existence was a memorial of Divinely appointed barriers Divinely broken down, and a living sign of a Will and a Power which would work on till the victory of love was universal and complete. Neither to angels nor to men were the last resources of the manifold Wisdom as yet disclosed: but a sufficient pledge of the “unsearchable riches” contained in it was already given in the Gospel, and in the living community created by the Gospel.’

ἡ πολυποίκιλος σοφία τοῦ θεοῦ. ‘The very complex wisdom of God’ as displayed in His ordering of human affairs in ways which baffle human powers of anticipation. See 1Co 1:21; Rom 11:33; Mat 11:19 = Luk 7:35. Cf. ποικίλης χάριτος, 1Pe 4:10.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eph_3:10

To the intent that now might be made known, ἵνα γνωρισθῇ νῦν. If this clause depend on the immediately preceding, then the apostle teaches that creation is in order to redemption. God created all things in order that by the church might be made known his manifold wisdom. This is the supralapsarian view of the order of the divine purposes, and as it is the only passage in Scripture which is adduced as directly asserting that theory, its proper interpretation is of special interest. It is objected to the construction just mentioned

1. That the passage would then teach a doctrine foreign to the New Testament, viz. that God created the universe in order to display his glory in the salvation and perdition of men; which supposes the decree to save to precede the decree to create, and the decree to permit the fall of men.

2. Apart from the doctrinal objections to this theory, this connection of the clauses is unnatural, because the words who created all things, is entirely subordinate and unessential, and therefore not the proper point of connection for the main idea in the whole context. That clause might be omitted without materially affecting the sense of the passage.

3. The apostle is speaking of his conversion and call to the apostleship. To him was the grace given to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ, and teach all men the economy of redemption, in order that through the church might be made known the manifold wisdom of God. It is only thus that the connection of this verse with the main idea of the context is preserved. It is not the design of creation, but the design of the revelation of the mystery of redemption of which he is here speaking.

4. This interpretation is further sustained by the force of the particle now as here used. Now stands opposed to hid from ages. God sent Paul to preach the Gospel, in order that what had been so long hid might now be made known. It was the design of preaching the Gospel, and not the design of creation of which the apostle had occasion to speak. The natural connection of ἵνα, therefore, is with the verbs εὐαγγελίσασυαι and φωτίσαι, which express the main idea in the context. Paul, says Olshausen, contrasts the greatness of his vocation with his personal nothingness, and he therefore traces the design of his mission through different steps. First, he says, he had to preach to the heathen; then, to enlighten all men concerning the mystery of redemption, and both, in order to manifest even to angels the infinite wisdom of God.

The Bible clearly teaches not only that the angels take a deep interest in the work of redemption, but that their knowledge and blessedness are increased by the exhibition of the glory of God in the salvation of men.

The expression, ἡ πολυποίκιλος σοφία, manifold wisdom, refers to the various aspects under which the wisdom of God is displayed in redemption; in reconciling justice and mercy; in exalting the unworthy while it effectually humbles them; in the person of the Redeemer, in his work; in the operations of the Holy Spirit; in the varied dispensations of the old and new economy, and in the whole conduct of the work of mercy and in its glorious consummation. It is by the church redeemed by the blood of Christ and sanctified by his Spirit, that to all orders of intelligent beings is to be made, through all coming ages, the brightest display of the divine perfections. It is ταῖς ἀρχαῖς καὶ ταῖς ἐχουσίαις ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις that this exhibition of the manifold wisdom of God is to be made διὰ τῆς ἐκκλησίας. This gives us our highest conception of the dignity of the church. The works of God manifest his glory by being what they are. It is because the universe is so vast, the heavens so glorious, the earth so beautiful and teeming, that they reveal the boundless affluence of their maker. If then it is through the church God designs speedily to manifest to the highest order of intelligence, his infinite power, grace and wisdom, the church in her consummation must be the most glorious of his works. Hence preaching the Gospel, the appointed means to this consummate end, was regarded by Paul as so great a favor. To me, less than the least, was this grace given.

Charles Hodge — Commentary on Romans (1835), First Corinthians (1857), and Ephesians (1856) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

God never had but one way only, to save men by: but it had divers fashions and forms.

The unlooked for calling of the Gentiles, was as it were a glass to the heavenly Angels, wherin they might behold the marvellous wisdom of God.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

The design of God in giving Paul grace to proclaim to the Gentiles the mystery of salvation heretofore hidden.

now--first: opposed to "hidden from the beginning of the world" (Eph 3:5).

unto the principalities and--Greek adds "the"

powers--unto the various orders of good angels primarily, as these dwell "in the heavenly places" in the highest sense; "known" to their adoring joy (Ti1 3:16; Pe1 1:12). Secondarily, God's wisdom in redemption is made known to evil angels, who dwell "in heavenly places" in a lower sense, namely, the air (compare Eph 2:2 with Eph 6:12); "known" to their dismay (Co1 15:24; Col 2:15).

might be known--Translate, "may be known."

by the church--"by means of," or "through the Church," which is the "theater" for the display of God's manifold wisdom (Luk 15:10; Co1 4:9): "a spectacle (Greek, 'theater') to angels." Hence, angels are but our "fellow servants" (Rev 19:10).

manifold wisdom--though essentially one, as Christ is one, yet varying the economy in respect to places, times, and persons (Isa 55:8-9; Heb 1:1). Compare Pe1 4:10, "stewards of the manifold grace of God." Man cannot understand aright its single acts till he can survey them as a connected whole (Co1 13:12). The call of the Church is no haphazard remedy, or afterthought, but part of the eternal scheme, which, amidst manifold varieties of dispensation, is one in its end.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 10. That now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places] Who are these principalities and powers? Some think evil angels are intended, because they are thus denominated, Eph 6:12. Others think good angels are meant; for as these heavenly beings are curious to investigate the wondrous economy of the Gospel, though they are not its immediate objects, see 1Pe 1:12, it is quite consistent with the goodness of God to give them that satisfaction which they require. And in this discovery of the Gospel plan of salvation, which reconciles things in heaven and things on earth-both men and angels, these pure spirits are greatly interested, and their praises to the Divine Being rendered much more abundant. Others imagine the Jewish rulers and rabbins are intended, particularly those of them who were converted to Christianity, and who had now learned from the preaching of the Gospel what, as Jews, they could never have known. I have had several opportunities of showing that this sort of phraseology is frequent among the Jews, and indeed not seldom used in the New Testament. Dr. Macknight, whose mode of arguing against this opinion is not well chosen, supposes that "the different orders of angels in heaven are intended, whose knowledge of God's dispensations must be as gradual as the dispensations themselves; consequently their knowledge of the manifold wisdom of God must have been greatly increased by the constitution of the Christian Church." Of this there can be no doubt, whether the terms in the text refer to them or not.

By the Church] That is, by the Christians and by the wonderful things done in the Church; and by the apostles, who were its pastors.

The manifold wisdom of God] Ἡ πολυποικιλος σοφια· That multifarious and greatly diversified wisdom of God; laying great and infinite plans, and accomplishing them by endless means, through the whole lapse of ages; making every occurrence subservient to the purposes of his infinite mercy and goodness. God's gracious design to save a lost world by Jesus Christ, could not be defeated by any cunning skill or malice of man or devils: whatever hinderances are thrown in the way, his wisdom and power can remove; and his infinite wisdom can never want ways or means to effect its gracious designs.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

10. That now to the principalities and powers. Some are of opinion that these words cannot apply to angels, because such ignorance, as is here supposed, could not be found in those who are permitted to behold the brightness of God’s countenance. They choose rather to refer them to devils, but without due reflection; for what could have been regarded as extraordinary in the assertion, that, by the preaching of the gospel and the calling of the Gentiles, information was, for the first time, conveyed to devils? There can be no doubt that the apostle labors to place in the strongest light the mercy of God toward the Gentiles, and the high value of the gospel. For this purpose he declares, that the preaching of the gospel exhibits the manifold grace of God, with which, till now, the heavenly angels themselves were unacquainted. The wisdom of God, therefore, which was manifested by uniting Jews and Gentiles in the fellowship of the gospel, ought to be regarded by men with the highest admiration.

He calls it πολυποίκιλον σοφίαν, manifold wisdom, because men are accustomed to try it by a false standard, confining their view to a particular department, and thus forming a most inadequate conception of the whole. The Jews thought, for example, that the dispensation under the law, with which they were acquainted and familiar, was the only form in which the wisdom of God could be seen. But, by making the gospel to be proclaimed to all men without exception, God has brought forth to view another instance and proof of his wisdom. Not that it was new wisdom, but that it was so large and manifold, as to transcend our limited capacity. Let us rest assured that the knowledge, whatever it may be, which we have acquired, is, after all, but a slender proportion. And if the calling of the Gentiles draws the attention, and excites the reverence, of angels in heaven, how shameful that it should be slighted or disdained by men upon earth!

The inference which some draw from this passage, that angels are present in our assemblies, and make progress along with ourselves in knowledge, is a groundless speculation. We must always keep in view the purposes for which God appointed the ministry of his word. If angels, who are permitted to see the face of God, do not walk in faith, neither do they need the outward administration of the word. The preaching of the gospel, therefore, is of no service but to human beings, among whom alone the practice exists. Paul’s meaning is this: “The church, composed both of Jews and Gentiles, is a mirror, in which angels behold the astonishing wisdom of God displayed in a manner unknown to them before. They see a work which is new to them, and the reason of which was hid in God. In this manner, and not by learning anything from the lips of men, do they make progress.”

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(10) In this verse St. Paul passes on to consider the manifestation of God in Christ as brought home not only to the race of man but to the angels—“the principalities and powers in the heavenly places”—who are described (1Pe_1:12) as “desiring to look into” the consummation of the gospel mystery. In the same sense the Apostles, in their ministration of the gospel, are said to be a spectacle to angels and to men (1Co_4:9); and in a magnificent passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb_12:22), Christians are encouraged in their warfare by knowing it to go on before “the city of the living God” and “an innumerable company of angels.” The angels are, therefore, represented to us as not only ministering in the Church of Christ, but learning from its existence and fortunes to know more and more of the wisdom of God. Hence we gain a glimpse of a more than world-wide purpose in the supreme manifestation of God’s mercy in Christ, fulfilled towards higher orders of God’s rational creatures, aiding even them in progress towards the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ, which is life eternal. (There is a notable passage on a kindred idea in Butler’s Analogy, Part i., c. Iii. § 5.) This world, itself a speck in the universe, may be—perhaps as a scene of exceptional rebellion against God, certainly as a scene of God’s infinite goodness—a lesson to other spheres of being, far beyond our conception. Possibly this view of angels as our fellow-learners in the school of Christ may have been specially dwelt upon in view of the worship of angels of which we read in Col_2:18; but it accords well with the wide sweep of thought characteristic of this Epistle, literally “gathering up all things in Christ.”

The manifold wisdom.—The word “manifold” (properly, many-coloured, or wrought in many details) is used here (and nowhere else) for the wisdom of God, as “fulfilling itself in many ways” (the “sundry times and divers manners” of Heb_1:1). It is manifested, therefore, in the infinite variety both of the teaching and the life of the Church—manifold, yet one, as embodying but one life, the life of Jesus Christ.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

10. now] In the great “fulness of the times;” the age of the Gospel.

the principalities and powers] See on Eph_1:21. Here, as there, the reference is to “governments and authorities” in the world of holy Angels. “These things angels covet to look into” (1Pe_1:12); as we find them doing, for example, in the closing visions of Daniel. To their pure and powerful but still finite intelligences the work of man’s Redemption is not only a touching interest, an object of benevolent attention; it is indescribably important, as a totally new and unique revelation of the Mind and Ways of their Lord, and perhaps (though here the hints of Scripture are few and dark) as indicating how their own bliss stands secure.—See some excellent pages on this last subject in The Incarnation of the Eternal Word, by the Rev. Marcus Dods, (1835) pp. 7–25.

in heavenly places] See on Eph_1:3.

might be known] The verb implies the gift of information ab extra. The angelic mind, like the human, needs and is capable of such information.

by the church] Better, through. The means of information to these exalted students is God’s way of redemption and glorification for His saints of our race; His action for and in “the blessed company of all faithful people.” The thought is one to stimulate the feeblest and most solitary Christian; while yet its chief concern is with the aggregate, the community, in which the grace which works freely and primarily in the individual attains its perfect harmony and speaks to the heavenly “watchers” (Dan_4:13, &c.) with its full significance.

the manifold wisdom] Lit., “the much variegated wisdom.” The adjective is stronger (by the element “much,”) than that in 1Pe_4:10 (“manifold grace”). It occurs only here in N.T. The reference probably is to the complicated problem of man’s redemption, met and solved by the “unsearchable riches” of the work of Christ. Alike as a race and as individuals, man presented difficulties innumerable to the question, how shall God be just, and the justifier, and sanctifier, of this race? But every difficulty was, and is, met in “Christ, the Wisdom of God” (1Co_1:24; 1Co_1:30).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places,.... By whom are meant, not civil magistrates, much less evil angels, but the good angels, the angels in heaven; See Gill on Eph 1:21.

might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God; not the perfection of wisdom, nor Jesus Christ the wisdom of God, nor the holy Scriptures; but the Gospel, which is the pure produce of the wisdom of God; which is gloriously displayed in the several doctrines of it; as in election, in choosing men in Christ for the security of their persons, in founding it not upon their works, but his own grace, for the security of his purpose, and in pitching on such persons as he has, for the magnifying of his grace: and in redemption, which is seen in the person of the Redeemer, who is both God and man; and in the manner in which it is effected, being both for the glory of God's grace and mercy, and for the honour of his justice and holiness; and wherein Satan is mortified, sin is condemned, and the sinner saved: and in justification, whereby sinful men become just with God: God is just, and yet the justifier of him that believes; the ungodly is justified, and yet not justified in his ungodliness, but from it: and in the pardon of sin, in which iniquity is forgiven, and yet vengeance is taken on men's inventions; it is an act of mercy, and yet of justice; it is by price, and yet of free grace; and the like may be observed of all other doctrines of the Gospel. And it may be called "manifold", because of its various doctrines and promises and because of the various instances of wisdom in them, and the various persons to whom it is made known, and the various times in which it is displayed: and now under the Gospel this is more clearly known, or made known to the angels by the church of God, through the ministry of the word in it, on which angels attend, being desirous to look more diligently into the mysteries of it; and by the displays of the wisdom and grace of God unto his church and people.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

10 To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,

Ver. 10. Might be known by the Church] As by a glass or theatre.

The manifold wisdom, &c.] Gr. πολυποικιλος, that hath abundance of curious variety in it, such as is seen in the best pictures or textures. This the very angels look intently into (as the cherubims in the tabernacle did into the mercyseat), and are much amused and amazed thereat. They see then man’s salvation by Christ is a plot of God’s own devising. Their experimental knowledge is much increased by their observation of God’s daily dealing with his people.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

To the intent - Greek, “that” Ἵνα Hina. The sense is, that it was with this design, or that this was the purpose for which all things were made. One grand purpose in the creation of the universe was, that the wisdom of God might be clearly shown by the church. It was not enough to evince it by the formation of the sun, the stars, the earth, the seas, the mountains, the floods. It was not enough to show it by the creation of intelligent beings, the formation of immortal minds on earth, and the various ranks of the angelic world. There were views of the divine character which could be obtained only in connection with the redemption of the world. Hence the universe was created, and man was made upon the earth, not merely to illustrate the divine perfections in the work of creation, but in a still more illustrious manner in the work of redemption. And hence the deep interest which the angelic hosts have ever evinced in the salvation of man.

That now - the word “now” - νυν nun - is missing in the Vulgate, Syriac, and Arabic; and is omitted by many of the fathers; see Koppe. If it is to be retained, it means that this display is to be made under the gospel. “Now, since the Messiah is come; now, under the Christian dispensation, this revelation is to be made to distant worlds.”

Unto the principalities and powers - To the angelic hosts - the intelligent beings that surround the throne of God; see the notes at Eph 1:21.

By the church - By the incarnation of the Redeemer to save it; by I the mercy shown to it; by the wise arrangement made to recover his people from the fall; and by all the graces and beauties which that redeemed church will evince on earth and in heaven.

The manifold wisdom of God - Literally, “much-variegated.” It means the “greatly-diversified wisdom.” It does not mean merely that there was “great” wisdom, but that the wisdom shown was diversified and varied; like changing, Variegated colors. There was a “beautiful and well-ordered variety of dispensations” toward that church, all of which tended to evince the wisdom of God. It is like a landscape, or a panoramic view passing before the mind, with a great variety of phases and aspects, all tending to excite admiration. In the redemption of the church, there is not merely one form or one phase of wisdom. It is wisdom, ever-varying, ever-beautiful. There was wisdom manifested when the plan was formed; wisdom in the selection of the Redeemer; wisdom in the incarnation; wisdom in the atonement; wisdom in the means of renewing the heart, and sanctifying the soul; wisdom in the various dispensations by which the church is sanctified, guided, and brought to glory. The wisdom thus shown is like the ever-varying beauty of changing clouds, when the sun is reflected on them at evening. Each aspect is full of beauty. One bright; cloud differs in appearance from others; yet all tend to fill the mind with elevated views of God.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

That the manifold wisdom of God, and his other divine perfections of mercy, of justice, &c. may be more known, and seen executed by the coming of his Son, according to his eternal decrees of sending a Redeemer, in whom they are to believe, and have a hope and confidence of their eternal salvation. (Witham)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Principalities and powers in heavenly places; good angels, Col 1:16; 1Pe 3:22.

Might be known by the church; not effectually, as a teacher or instructor of angels present in church assemblies; but objectively, as a mirror in which they might behold and contemplate the manifold wisdom of God.

The manifold wisdom of God: exceedingly, or many ways, various. The Divine wisdom is in itself one simple thing, but appearing in so great variety of works, it is said to be various. This may be best understood of the whole economy of men’s redemption, and God’s governing his church in several ages, the several forms of the church, the various ways of revealing the Divine will, the different measures of light let out in different times, the different dispensations of the covenant of grace before the law, under the law, under the gospel, to the Jews, to the Gentiles, &c.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

10. All these things—namely, the Gentile call and its apostleship—take place to the intent, or in order that, the future heavenly worlds might realize the God they have.

Principalities and powers—Note, Rom_8:38.

In heavenly—In the supernals. See note on Eph_1:1.

By the church—The glorious and finally glorified.

Manifold—Many-formed, variegated; showing itself around infinite complexities in bringing out the clear, the right, and the glorious.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

To the intent indicative of the purpose of the remarkable arrangement or dispensation according to which the eternal Divine purpose, which had been concealed from the beginning of the ages, was now made knownthat there might b e made known to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places; that a lesson might be given to the unfallen angels. Their interest in the scheme of man"s redemption is often referred to. (1Pe_1:12) Even the highest powers of heaven have yet much to learn respecting God. The dispensation of God"s grace to man is one of their lesson-books. Dr. Chalmers shows ("Astronomical Discourses") how this meets the objection that so dread a sacrifice as the life of God"s Son could not have been made for one poor planet; in its indirect bearings we do not know what other orders of beings have derived most vital lessons from this manifestation of the attributes of God. However men may scorn the salvation of Christ and all that belongs to it, the highest intelligences regard it with profound interest. By the Church the manifold wisdom of God. Through the Church, now constituted, according" to the revealed mystery, of Jew and Gentile, all redeemed by Christ"s blood and renewed by his Spirit, there is exhibited to the angels the manifold wisdom of God. The precise line of thought is this: God from eternity, had a purpose to put Jew anti Gentile on precisely the same footing, but concealed it for many ages, until he revealed it in the apostolic age, when he appointed Paul his minister to announce it. The purpose of this whole arrangement was to enlighten the principalities and powers of heaven in the manifold wisdom of God. How in his manifold wisdom? In this way. During these preparatory ages, when God"s gracious dealings were with the Jews only, all kinds of false religions were developing among the heathen, and their diversified influence and effects were becoming apparent in many ways the divergent tendencies of men, especially in religious matters, were being developed; but in the new turn given to things by the breaking down of the middle wall in Christ, the manifold wisdom of God was shown in transforming many of these most diverse elements, unifying them, building them up into a great spiritual body, into a holy, most beautiful, most symmetrical temple. When all things seem to be flying asunder into the most diverse and antagonistic elements, God gives a new turn, as it were, to providence, and lo! a glorious symmetrical and harmonious structure begins to rise.

Vers. 10, 11.

The Church the means of angelic enlightenment.

The Divine purpose in the dispensation already described was to make known to the angels the manifold wisdom of God.

I THE ANGELS RECEIVE INSTRUCTION THROUGH THE CHURCH. This implies:

1. That the angels are not omniscient, for they have something still to learn.

2. That the angels are in communication with the Church on earth as well as in heaven. They rejoice over the conversion of sinners; they minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation; (Heb_1:14) they stand in immediate relation to the individual man (Mat_18:10; Luk_15:10 Luk_16:22) The apostles regard themselves as spectacles to angels" as well as men, in the insults heaped upon them by an ungrateful world. (1Co_4:9) The Apostle Peter was liberated from prison by an angel. Angels are present in the assembly of the saints. (1Co_11:10) They are associated with the redeemed in heaven, (Heb_12:22) so as to derive much information concerning the kingdom of God.

3. The angels desire increased knowledge of the ways of God with man. This might be inferred from the fact that they come specially into the foreground at great turning-points in the history of the kingdom of God, such as the founding of the old and new covenants, and the humiliation and exaltation of Christ. But they are expressly represented as desiring "to look into" the great realities of redemption, (1Pe_1:12) and here they are instructed in the manifold wisdom of God by means of the Church.

II THE INSTRUCTION CONVEYED BY THE CHURCH IS "THE GREATLY DIVERSIFIED WISDOM OF GOD." It is a curious fact that the interest of the angels is not in the power or the goodness of God, but in his wisdom, as if to imply that the work of redemption represents the highest order of intelligence. It is also a high honor to man that he should first receive the knowledge which the angels are to receive through man. But the angels, by their great age for they may be thousands of years old have advantages that short-lived man does not possess for comparing the wisdom of God as manifest in widely distant ages. But the wisdom here referred to centers in the Church the spiritual body constituted in Christ, and its variety is manifest in the original plan of salvation, in the selection of a Redeemer, in the incarnation, in the atonement, in the application of salvation to Gentile and Jew, in the spread el the Greek language, in the triumph of the Roman law, and in all the dispensations by which the Church has been led onward to her final destiny. Thus our earth, though a mere speck in space, becomes, in the eyes of angels, the brightest of stars; for it is the platform of that Church which mirrors forth "the manifold wisdom of God.

III IT IS THE CHURCH WHICH IS THE MEDIUM OF ANGELIC INSTRUCTION. Not specifically the preaching of apostles, nor human preaching, but the Church as the exhibition in its long and checkered history of the wisdom of God.

IV THIS EXHIBITION OF THE MANIFOLD.WISDOM WAS INVOLVED IN THE ORIGINAL PLAN OF SALVATION. "According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." The scheme was fixed in the counsel of peace; it was executed in all its parts in and through Jesus Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge; and it found historical realization in the progress and kingdom of God, apart from all dispensational limitations. T.C.

The manifold wisdom of God.

I THE MANIFOLD WISDOM OF GOD IS PUT FORTH IN THE REDEMPTION OF THE WORLD. God is the great Thinker. All our philosophy is the attempt of man to spell out some of the ideas of God. What wisdom was requisite for the creation of the world and the ordering of all things, from the movements of a star down to the life of a cell! What wisdom is involved in the government of the world, maintaining life and gladness, developing the latent resources of the universe, making all things work together for good, ruling great kingdoms and individual lives in justice and mercy! But a higher wisdom is required for redemption. It is more difficult to regenerate than to create, to regain Paradise than to form it at the first.

1. Not only are the power and goodness of God needed for this work, but also his wisdom. Preaching may be foolish, but the gospel preached is the wisdom of God. The highest intellectuality has been exercised in working out the world"s redemption.

2. St. Paul sees this especially in the breadth of the results in the inclusion of Gentile with Jew. High wisdom is broad, and liberal charity requires much intelligence. Comprehensiveness should not be a matter of vague sentiment. To be effective it must be fortified by ripe wisdom.

3. This wisdom is manifold. God has many interests to consider, many conflicting forces to deal with, and many issues to provide for. Therefore

(1) different men may have different views, and yet all be in the right.

(2) Many purposes may be aimed at in redemption beyond what we can see, and thus many processes which to us look meaningless find their end. The water is not taken over the mill-wheel simply that it may find its nearest course to the river; nor is the Christian led over a broken path because that is the nearest way to heaven.

II THE MANIFOLD WISDOM OF GOD IS MADE KNOWN THROUGH THE CHURCH TO THE HIGHEST INTELLIGENCES. The Church is the manifestation of a wisdom that was hidden before Christianity appeared. Truth is explained by illustration, and the Church is a concrete illustration of Divine wisdom. It is not in the thinking and teaching of Divine wisdom by Christians, but in their very existence as such, that the wisdom of God is revealed. To be a redeemed soul is to be a proof of that wisdom, just as for one who had been incurably sick to be a healthy man was to be a living proof of the healing power of Christ. This revelation was made to other worlds and higher intelligences.

1. God cares for other worlds than our own; elsewhere processes of education are being carried on with creatures in whom God takes interest.

2. We are called to minister instruction to other worlds. The service is mutual; angels are ministering spirits to men, men are instructive witnesses of redemptive wisdom to angels. Thus the lowest can help the highest. An angel can learn lessons from a man, as a man can find instruction in an insect. Our lives, then, are linked to other worlds. What happens to us has bearings elsewhere. This thought may help us to face some mystery of life. As in the case of Job, what is humanly unintelligible may be explained when it is seen that the beings of another sphere are being instructed through our experience.

3. If the highest intelligences desire to look into" these things, and see the manifold wisdom of God in them, surely we men should treat the works of redemption with profound reverence, and regard the study of them as worthy of our highest thought. W.F.A.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

That the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church - By what is done in the church, which is the theatre of the divine wisdom.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Observe here, 1. The title given to the holy angels; they are styled principalities and powers, because God makes us of their powerful ministry in governing the kingdoms and principalities of this world: and they are said to be in heavenly places; not as if they were never here upon earth below, but because the ordinary place of their residence is heaven above.

Observe, 2. That the angels are not omniscient and all knowing. The wisdom of God in the work of redemption was a secret unknown to the glorious angels; they did not know it until God made it known unto them.

Observe, 3. That God did not make the mystery of the gospel, or the glorious work of redemption, known unto the angels immediately, but occasionally, by the revelation of it first to the church, and by the church to them: as if the apostles had said, "Had it not been for the light given to, and spread abroad in, the church, the angels had been in the dark about the mysteries of the gospel to this day. By the church is made known unto the angels the manifold wisdom of God."

Quest. But how could the church communicate this knowledge to angels?

Ans. Either the angels did gather up their knowledge of these mysteries, by the ministry of the apostles preaching them to the world in a way of information; or else they saw, as in a glass, the manifold wisdom of God, and the dispensations of his mercy, grace, and goodness, towards his church, in a way of contemplation.

Observe, 4. The title here given to the work of redemption, it is styled, the maniflod wisdom of God.

O, how full of variety was the wisdom of God in man’s recovery! It is of many folds and plaits, manifold in kind, manifold in degree, manifold in its administration. There are manifold secrets in this wisdom: some less perfectly seen, some more perfectly understood, and some that will never perhaps be thoroughly understood. Doubtless, there are some secrets in the wisdom of God, which it belongs only to God to understand and know. Blessed be God that so much of the manifold wisdom of God, in the glorious work of redemption, is made known unto us, as will eternally ravish and delight us.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

10. To the intent. The mystery had been hidden during all the ages, but was now revealed in order that the manifold wisdom of God might be made known. It was made known, (1) To the Gentiles by preaching the gospel. (2) To Jews. This is implied in the “all” of verse 9. (3) “To principalities and powers in heavenly places;” that is, to angelic beings. See 1 Peter 1:12. By the church. As the fruit of God's wisdom revealed in the gospel, and especially by the union of Jews and Gentiles in one body.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places would come to know the many-sided nature of the wisdom of God

"God will make his great wisdom known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places through the Church"

rulers and authorities

These words share similar meanings. Paul uses them together to emphasize that every spiritual being will know God's wisdom. (See: Doublet)

in the heavenly places

"in the supernatural world." The word "heavenly" refers to the place where God is. See how this is translated in Ephesians 1:3.

the many-sided nature of the wisdom of God

God's complex wisdom (See: Metaphor)

according to the eternal plan

"in keeping with the eternal plan" or "consistent with the eternal plan"

translationWords

church

rule

authority

heaven

wise

God

Jesus

lord

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

10.] that (general purpose of the whole: more properly to be referred perhaps to ἐδόθη than to any other one word in the last two verses. For this sublime cause the humble Paul was raised up,—to bring about,—he, the least worthy of the saints,—that to the heavenly powers themselves should be made known, by means of those whom he was empowered to enlighten, &c. Cf. Chrys.: καὶ τοῦτο δὲ χάριτος ἦν, τὸ τὸν μικρὸν τὰ μείζονα ἐγχειρισθῆναι, τὸ γενέσθαι τούτων εὐαγγελιστήν) there might be made known (emphatic, as opposed to ἀποκεκρ. above—‘no longer hidden, but …’) now (has the secondary emphasis: opposed to ἀπὸ τῶν αἰώνων) to the governments and to the (Stier notices the repetition of the article. It perhaps here does not so much separate the two ἀρχαί and ἐξ. as different classes, as serve to elevate the fact for solemnity’s sake) powers (see ch. 1:21 and note) in the heavenly places (see ch. 1:3 note. The ἀρχ. and ἐξ. are those of the holy angels in heaven; not, as has been vainly imagined, Jewish rulers (Locke, Schöttg.): Christian rulers (Pel.): good and bad angels (Beng., Olsh.). These are excluded, not by ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις, see ch. 6:12, but by the general tenor of the passage, as Ellic., who adds well: “evil angels more naturally recognize the power, good angels the wisdom of God”) by means of the Church (ὅτε ἡμεῖς ἐμάθομεν, τότε κἀκεῖνοι διʼ ἡμῶν, Chrys. See also Luk 15:10; 1Pe 1:12: and cf. Calvin’s note here. “That the holy angels are capable of a specific increase of knowledge, and of a deepening insight into God’s wisdom, seems from this passage clear and incontrovertible.” Ellic. “Vide, quantus honos hominum, quod hæc arcana consilia per ipsos, maxime per apostolos, Deus innotescere angelis voluit. Ideo angeli post hoc tempus nolunt ab apostolis coli tanquam in ministerio majore collocatis, Rev 19:10, et merito.” Grot. But as Stier well notices, it is not by the Apostles directly, nor by human preaching, that the Angels are instructed in God’s wisdom, but by the Church;—by the fact of the great spiritual body, constituted in Christ, which they contemplate, and which is to them the θέατρον τῆς δόξης τοῦ θεοῦ) the manifold (πολυποίκιλος, so far from being a word found only here (Harl., Stier), occurs in Eur., Iph. Taur. 1149, πολυποίκιλα φάρεα: in a fragment of Eubulus, Ath. xv. 7, p. 679, στέφανον πολυποίκιλον ἀνθέων, and twice in the Orphic hymns, in this figurative sense: πολυποίκιλος τελετή, v. 11; π. λόγος, lx. 4) wisdom of God (how is the wisdom of God πολυποίκιλος? It is all one in sublime unity of truth and purpose: but cannot be apprehended by finite minds in this its unity, and therefore is by Him variously portioned out to each finite race and finite capacity of individuals—so that the Church is a mirror of God’s wisdom,—chromatic, so to speak, with the rainbow colours of that light which in itself is one and undivided. Perhaps there was in the Apostle’s mind, when he chose this word, an allusion to the πτέρυγες περιστερᾶς περιηργυρωμέναι καὶ τὰ μετάφρενα αὐτῆς ἐν χλωρότητι χρυσίου, the adornment of the ransomed church, in Ps. 67:13. See Heb 1:1; 1Pe 4:10),

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

10-13. It is God’s purpose, that even the angelic powers should learn through the Church the varied wisdom of God as shown in His eternal purpose in Christ

10. ἵνα γνωρισθῇ νῦν ταῖς ἀρχαῖς καὶ ταῖς ἐξουσίαις ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις διὰ τῆς ἐκκλησίας ἡ πολυποίκιλος σοφία τοῦ Θεοῦ. “To the end that now might be made known to the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places the much varied wisdom of God.” ἵνα is supposed by some to be connected with the whole of the preceding, or specially with ἐδόθη, κ.τ.λ. This would make St. Paul ascribe to his own preaching a result in which the other apostles had their share. But as γνωρισθῇ directly opposed to ἀποκεκρ., and νῦν to ἀπὸ τῶν αἰώνων, the most natural interpretation is that the secret or mystery was concealed in former times in order that now the wisdom of God might be manifested in its fulfilment. Braune, however, connects ἵνα with τίς ἡ οἰκ. τοῦ μ. “The arrangement is directed to this end, that the wisdom of God,” etc.

ταῖς ἀρχαῖς καὶ ταῖς ἐξουσίαις. Understood by some of the older expositors of earthly powers in general, or of Jewish rulers in particular (so Locke), or again of heathen priests, or of Church authorities; all from unwillingness to admit the sublime thought of the apostle, that God’s wisdom in the scheme of redemption is an object of contemplation to heavenly intelligences. Comp., on the contrary, 1Pe 1:12, “which things angels desire to look into.”

V. Soden, comparing Col 2:10-15, understands the words of the angelio powers which ministered the law on the one hand, and on the other hand the elemental spirits which claimed the veneration of the heathen. To both was it now made manifest that the enmity was at an end.

ἐν τοις ἐπουρανίοις local, cf. 1:3, 20. It qualifies the preceding substantive notwithstanding the absence of the article, which is not necessary in the case of local definitions. Cf. Demosth. c. Pantaen, p. 967, τοῖς ἔργοις ἐν Μαρωνείᾳ: Aeschines, Fals. Leg. 42, τὴν τρίτην πρεσβείαν ἐπὶ τὸ κοινὸν τῶν Ἀμφικτυόνων (Bernhardy, p. 322 f.).

διὰ τῆς ἐκκλησίας, i.e. as Theodoret expresses it, διὰ τῆς περὶ τὴν ἐκκλησίαν οἰκονομίας. The Church is the phenomenon, which by its existence is a proof and exhibition of the Divine wisdom as manifested in a scheme of redemption which is world wide.

πολυποίκιλος does not mean “very wise,” as has been hastily inferred from the use of ποίκιλος in Aesch. Prom. Vinct. 315, where, however, the word means “crafty.” πολυποίκιλος is used by Eurip. Iph. Taur. 1149, of cloth; by Eubulus, ap. Athen. 15, p. 679d, of flowers. In a figurative sense, as here, it occurs in the Orphica (lxi. 4, of discourse), and in Theophilus. The Latin here has “multiformis.” The word probably refers to the variety of God’s dealings with Jews and Gentiles in former times, which are now seen to have worked to one end. Gregory of Nyssa (Hom. viii. in Cant. Cant. followed by Theoph. and Oecum.) gives a striking interpretation. “Before the incarnation of our Saviour the heavenly powers knew the wisdom of God only as simple and uniform, effecting wonders in a manner consonant with the nature of each thing. There was nothing ποίκιλον. But now by means of the οἰκονομία, with reference to the Church and the human race, the wisdom of God is known no longer as simple, but as πολυποίκιλος, producing contraries by contraries; by death, life; by dishonour, glory; by sin, righteousness; by a curse, blessing; by weakness, power. The invisible is manifested in flesh. He redeems captives, Himself the purchaser, and Himself the price.” The thought is no doubt striking, but the adjective πολυπ. does not suggest παράδοξον. Perhaps, indeed, the word has been too much pressed by some expositors, and is only suggested by the thought of the great apparent difference and real harmony between the Christian dispensation and that which preceded it.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

To the intent that. Connect with the matter of the two preceding verses. Grace was given me to preach Christ and to enlighten men as to the long - hidden mystery of the admission of the Gentiles, in order that now, etc.

Now. In contrast with all ages.

Principalities and powers. Good angels. See on ch. Eph 1:21.

By the Church [δια] . Better, through, as Rev. By means of the Church. This agrees with what was said of the Church as the fullness of God, ch. 1 23.

Manifold wisdom [πολυποικιλος σοφια] . A very striking phrase. The adjective occurs only here, and means variegated. It is applied to pictures, flowers, garments. Poikilon is used in the Septuagint of Joseph 's coat, Gen 37:3. Through the Church God 's wisdom in its infinite variety is to be displayed - the many - tinted wisdom of God - in different modes of power, different characters, methods of training, providences, forms of organization, etc.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.