Here every feature is in harmonious balance. Paul's stewardship "for you" is no mere

office, it is accompanied by afflictions "for you" that would be enough to daunt the

boldest. This stewardship or dispensation "filled up" the Word of God, but not without a

personal appreciation of the afflictions of Christ, which were also to be "filled up". The

object for which the sufferings were borne was "the body, the church"; the dispensation

which filled up the Word of God was "the mystery", and "the mystery" is the name of

that phase of God's dealings with men under which He reveals His secret purpose

concerning a particular company of the redeemed. These are taken out mainly from

among Gentiles, who are blessed beyond the highest aspirations of Israel, or the terms of

their covenants. Thus is revealed a secret purpose never committed to writing until found

a place in the prison ministry of the apostle Paul.

We therefore take up our study at the second division of the apostle's ministry, and

consider what he intends to convey in the words: "According to the dispensation of God

which is given to me for you." The word translated "dispensation" is oikonomia. It is the

word translated "stewardship" in Luke 16: 2. The word is made up of two Greek words

meaning "house management". In meaning, the old English word "steward" is not far

removed from it, for literally a steward was a sty-ward, from the Anglo-Saxon stigu, a

farm, and weard, a ward or guard.

The apostle refers to this particular stewardship in Eph. 3: 2 and 9 (R.V.), and in

Col. 1: 25. Though the references are not many in number, they are so complete and full

that nothing but unbelief or blindness can prevent the reader from seeing how distinct this

ministry of the apostle must be from all that went before, and from all that was going on

around him:--

Several items of importance in this statement need bringing into prominence.

(1)  Paul's dispensation or stewardship is here intimately connected with his

imprisonment as "the prisoner of Christ Jesus."--We therefore regard as synonymous

his stewardship of the mystery and his prison ministry. They are, so far, interchangeable.

Not until he became the prisoner of Christ Jesus was the dispensation of the mystery

entrusted to him, for until his earlier activities ceased with imprisonment, he was

fulfilling another office. Paul was always the apostle of the Gentiles and a steward of the

mysteries of God (I Cor. 4: 1), such as the mystery of change (I Cor. 15: 51), or the

mystery of Israel's blindness (Rom. 11: 25), but the ministry of his earlier epistles, though

to the Gentiles, did not minister to them "the mystery".

(2) This imprisonment is definitely "for you Gentiles" and to "you-ward".--While

the believing Jews is not actually excluded from this stewardship, the fact remains that

few Hebrew believers in Christ ever seem to embrace the doctrine of the prison epistles.

The mystery is essentially concerned with the Gentile believer.