Ephesians 3:13

Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. WHEREFORE - since our spiritual privileges are such (), 'I entreat you not to be dispirited' [ engkakein (G1457a)]: so intimate was their Christian union with him that they were in danger of losing heart at his afflictions, as though their own. FOR YOU - in your behalf. WHICH IS YOUR GLORY - since God loved you so much as both to give His Son for you and to permit His apostles to suffer 'tribulations' (Chrysostom) in preaching the Gospel to you Gentiles (note, ). My tribulations are your "glory," as your faith is furthered thereby ()....

13._Wherefore I desire. _His reason for alluding formerly to his imprisonment is now manifest. It was to prevent them from being discouraged when they heard of his persecution. (134) O heroic breast, which drew from a prison, and from death itself, comfort to those who were not in danger! He says that, he endured _tribulations for _the Ephesians, because they tended to promote the edification of all the godly. How powerfully is the faith of the people confirmed, when a pastor does not hesitate to seal his doctrine by the surrender of his life! And accordingly he adds, _which is your glory. _Such lustre was thrown around his instructions, that all the churches among whom he had labored, had good reason to glory, when they beheld their faith ratified by the best of all pledges....

13-19 The apostle seems to be more anxious lest the believers should be discouraged and faint upon his tribulations, than for what he himself had to bear. He asks for spiritual blessings, which are the best blessings. Strength from the Spirit of God in the inner man; strength in the soul; the strength of faith, to serve God, and to do our duty. If the law of Christ is written in our hearts, and the love of Christ is shed abroad there, then Christ dwells there. Where his Spirit dwells, there he dwells. We should desire that good affections may be fixed in us. And how desirable to have a fixed sense of the love of God in Christ to our souls! How powerfully the apostle speaks of the love of Christ! The breadth shows its extent to all nations and ranks; the length, that it continues from everlasting to everlasting; the depth, its saving those who are sunk into the depths of sin and misery;...

Verse 13. _I DESIRE THAT YE FAINT NOT_] In those primitive times, when there was much persecution, people were in continual danger of falling away from the faith who were not well grounded in it. This the apostle deprecates, and advances a strong reason why they should be _firm_: "I suffer my present imprisonment on account of demonstrating your privileges, of which the Jews are envious: I bear my afflictions patiently, knowing that what I have advanced is of God, and thus I give ample proof of the sincerity of my own conviction. The sufferings, therefore, of your apostles are _honourable_ to you and to your cause; and far from being any cause why you should _faint_, or _draw back_ like _cowards_, in the day of distress, they should be an additional argument to induce you to persevere....

WHEREFORE I DESIRE THAT YE FAINT NOT - The connection here is this. Paul was then a prisoner at Rome. He had been made such in consequence of his efforts to diffuse the Christian religion among the Gentiles; see the notes at Ephesians 3:1. His zeal in this cause, and the opinions which he held on this subject, had roused the wrath of the Jews, and led to all the calamities which he was now suffering. Of that the Ephesians. he supposes, were aware. It was natural that they should be distressed at his sufferings, for all his privations were endured on their account. But here he tells them not to be troubled and disheartened. He was indeed suffering; but he was reconciled to it, and they should be also, since it was promoting their welfare. The word rendered “faint” - ἐκκακέω egkakeō - means literally, to tu

EXPOSITION EPHESIANS 3:1 DIGRESSION ON THE ADMISSION OF THE GENTILES TO THE KINGDOM OF GOD. EPHESIANS 3:1 FOR THIS CAUSE. The reference is not merely to the last statement or illustration, but to the whole view of the purpose of God toward the Gentiles unfolded in Ephesians it. The apodosis does not come in till verse 14, at the beginning of which this conjunctive clause is repeated. I PAUL, THE PRISONER OF CHRIST JESUS FOR YOU GENTILES. He introduces himself in order to make known the feelings which w

WHEREFORE I DESIRE THAT YE FAINT NOT AT MY TRIBULATIONS FOR YOU,.... The apostle was a man attended with many tribulations, and great afflictions, which he did not suffer as an evildoer, either from God or men; wherefore he was not ashamed of them, but gloried in them; yea, he took pleasure in them, having much of the presence of God in them; they did not come to him unawares, he always expected them, and was helped to look to the glory which should follow them, the view of which greatly supported him under them; and these tribulations were endured for the sake of the elect, for Christ's body's sake; the church, and among others, for the Ephesians, for the sake of preaching the Gospel among them, and for the confirmation of their faith in it; and yet they were a stumbling to them, they were ready to faint at them; but he desires they would not, since they were on account of the Gospel, w...

EPHESIANS 3:13 u`mw/n (2) {A} The second instance of u`mw/n in ver. Ephesians 3:13, supported by early and weighty witnesses, is replaced in later manuscripts with h`mw/n — which is totally inappropriate in the context. In later Greek the vowels h and u came to be pronounced alike, and inattentive scribes tended to confuse them....

3. THE MYSTERY MADE KNOWN Chapter S 2:11-3:21 _ 1. The condition of the Gentiles (Ephesians 2:11)_ 2. But now in Christ Jesus (Ephesians 2:13) 3. The new and great relationship (Ephesians 2:19) 4. The Mystery made known and Paul's ministry (Ephesians 3:1) 5. The prayer (Ephesians 3:14) 6. The doxology (Ephesians 3:20) With the eleventh verse of the second chapter we reach a new divisio

A DIGRESSION. PAUL THE PRISONER AND HIS RELATION TO THE MYSTERY. A knowledge of Paul's story may be presumed among those who read this letter: they will have heard how he was entrusted with the mission of proclaiming to the Gentiles God's dispensation of grace towards them (Ephesians 3:1 f.); it was by revelation, as aforesaid (_cf. Ephesians 1:17_), that the glorious secret of God was made known to him how fully they can judge for themselves by reading the passage (Ephesians 3:13) in which he has already summed it up (Ephesians 3:3 f.). This secret, hidden from former generations, was now revealed in the Spirit to the apost