upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not

I, but the grace of God which was with me' (1 Cor. 15:10).

`By the effectual working of His power' Moffatt translates `By the energy

of His power', which recognizes the presence of the Greek word energeia.  This

word is found only in Paul's epistles, and as follows.  The faith of the

inworking of God, associating the believer with the mighty power of resurrection

now (Eph. 1:19; Col. 2:12), and lastly, the Satanic travesty, with its

corresponding retributive justice in connection with the apostasy of the last

days (2 Thess. 2:9,11).  The word energeo `to inwork and energize' occurs four

times in Ephesians thus:

Purpose.  `According to the purpose of Him Who worketh all things after

the counsel of His own will' (Eph. 1:11).

Faith.  `His power to us-ward who believe ... which He wrought in Christ,

when He raised Him from the dead' (1:19,20).

Disobedience.  `The spirit that now worketh in the children of

disobedience' (2:2).

Fulness.  `Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all

that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us' (3:20).

What a full

parenthesis this chapter of Ephesians

is, started as it

was by the claim made by the apostle to having received a

peculiar ministry

associated with his imprisonment.  Yet there is more to be

considered before

this great claim concerning the Mystery and the Gentiles is

fully vindicated.

We have seen that the unsearchable riches of Christ, which Paul was

commissioned to preach among the Gentiles, were associated with the Mystery hid

in God and revealed for the first time to him as the prisoner of Christ Jesus.

We pick up the thread of the argument in Ephesians 3:9, where we read `And to

make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery'.  We have discussed (see

pages 329, 330) the revised reading `dispensation' instead of `fellowship' here,

and now take the revised reading for granted.  Ellicott's note is `The reading

koinonia "fellowship" has only the support of cursive MSS and is a mere

explanatory gloss'.  `To make all men see' kai photisai pantas (in the Received

Text).  The literal translation of these words must evidently be `and to

enlighten all', photisai being a part of the verb photizo.

There are four references to `light' in Ephesians, and one of them tells

us that `whatsoever doth make manifest is light' (Eph. 5:13).  In Colossians

where the same theme as that of Ephesians 3:1-13 is being unfolded, we read

concerning the Mystery which had been hid `but now is made manifest to His

saints' (Col. 1:26).  Here we have the same word `make manifest' phaneroo, that

is used in Ephesians 5:13, and the same word `hid' apokrupto that is found in

Ephesians 3:9 and in Colossians 1:26, together with the same words

`dispensation', `minister' and `mystery'.  This close comparison will enable us

to perceive the extent of the apostle's range when he said `to make all men