Sunday, January 27, 2019

PT-4 "The Preaching of the Mystery" (Eph. 3:7-9)


SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/27/2019 1:31 PM



My Worship Time                                                    Focus:  PT-4 “The Preaching of the Mystery”



Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 3:7-9



            Message of the verses:  7 of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. 8  To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, 9  and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things;”



            I mentioned yesterday that this SD will be very short because of the way my Sunday’s go, and today was even a bit more stressful as I woke up to 3 inches of snow and had to get out there early to get the driveway cleared out along with my sidewalks.



            We will be looking at verse nine in this SD and in that verse we see the word “administration” in it and the Greek word for that is “oikonomia” a word that we have already looked at as it was translated “stewardship” in verse two.  The following is first of all how many times this Greek word is translated “dispensation” and then “stewardship” in the KJV of the Bible, and then we see the meaning of the word after that.

“AV-dispensation 4, stewardship 3; 7

1) the management of a household or of household affairs

1a) specifically, the management, oversight, administration, of other’s property

1b) the office of a manager or overseer, stewardship

1c) administration, dispensation”



            John MacArthur writes “Paul is saying, in effect, ‘I am not only called in the vertical area to preach the unfathomable riches of Christ, but in the horizontal area to teach about the ‘administration,’ the stewardship or dispensation, of the mystery of the church age.’  The first area deals with our relationship to God and the second with our daily living and our ministry to each other as fellow believers.”



            Now I have for a long time viewed the cross of Christ having these two areas that deal with our relationship with God as the vertical part of the cross and our relationship with fellow believers as the horizontal part of the cross.  This, to me, also goes along with the two greatest commandments that are mentioned by Jesus in the gospels:  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depends all the Law and the Prophets.”



            It was the mission of Paul to bring to light, or we could say reveal, the full expression of the operation of this great truth of both the Gentiles and the Jews as being one, and this truth hidden for so very long in the mind of God the Creator, but now we can see it.



Verse related to yesterday’s quote:  “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and confidence shall be your strength.”  (Isaiah 30:15).



1/27/2019 1:51 PM

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