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"Eph. 3: 8 `Less than the least of all saints'. This pleasing oxymoron emphasizes the
Apostle's growth in grace (i.e. in his knowledge of what grace was to him, and what it
had done for him). Before this (in 60A.D.), he said: I was not a whit behind the very
chiefest apostles (II Cor. 11: 5). In 62A.D., he could say he was `less than the least of all
saints', while later than this (67A.D.), his knowledge of God's grace made him see
himself as `the chief of sinners'. (I Tim. 1: 15, 16)" (Figures of Speech).
It must not be thought that, by employing a figure of speech, the speaker is superficial;
it is we who note the figure, but at the time, the speaker is too deeply moved to be
conscious of the particular mould into which his language falls. Here, in Eph. 3: 8, the
Apostle means every word he said even though, by mathematics and logic one could
prove that it is impossible to be "less" than the `least'. Shakespeare knew this for a basic
truth of human nature when he employed the same figure in the words `The most
unkindest cut of all'. When Paul came to write subsequently to Timothy, the same
sensitiveness is evident:
"According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my
trust. And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, Who hath enabled me, for that he counted me
faithful, putting me into the ministry; who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor,
and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief"
(I Tim. 1: 11-13).
It is this deepening sense of personal unworthiness in the presence of increasing trust,
that made the Apostle, in his closing epistles, add the word `mercy' in his salutation
(I Tim. 1: 2; II Tim. 1: 2; Titus 1: 4), epistles written not to the church, but to fellow
servants. When the Apostle once more says `that I should preach', the emphasis is not on
"I", but on the wondrous grace that could stoop to use so earthen a vessel. There is, too,
another side to this. However humble a man may be, however, sincerely he may protest
his unworthiness, no personal opinions either of himself or others can alter or minimize
in the slightest degree a trust that has been given, a call made, a stewardship granted. The
Paul who could not, and would not magnify himself, did most rightly "magnify" his
`office' (Rom. 11: 13). Even though he was not meet to be called an apostle (I Cor. 15: 9)
he could also say:
"I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest apostles" (II Cor. 11: 5).
On either side of the opening words of Eph. 3: 7, 8 are the words `gift' and `grace'.
"According to the gift of the grace of God
(Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints)
is this grace given",
and it is in virtue of this gift that Paul can stress with all emphasis, yet with all humility,
the extraordinary nature of his apostleship and ministry. He returns, after this momentary
pause, to the thing that mattered most, the substance of the message entrusted to him.
"That I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ" (Eph. 3: 8).
In addition to the emphatic "I" and the repeated reference to `the Gentiles', the
Mystery and its peculiar theme is given a new title `the unsearchable riches of Christ'.