Ephesians Chapter 3 verse 8 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 8. - Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints; not only of apostles and prophets, but even of all believers - a profound expression of humility, founded not only on his persecuting career, but on his consciousness of sin, of inborn rebellion against God's Law, of fountains of unlawful desire in his flesh (Romans 7:18; 1 Timothy 1:13-15), making him feel himself to be, in heart and essence, the chief of sinners. The sense of sin is not usually in proportion to the acts of outward transgression, but to the insight into the springs of evil in one's heart, and the true nature of sin as direct antagonism to the holy God. Was this grace given. The third time in this chapter that he speaks of his office as a fruit of grace, showing that, notwithstanding his being a prisoner on account of it, and all the perils it involved (2 Corinthians 11:24-27), he was overwhelmed with God's unmerited goodness in conferring it on him. It was substantially the post of a foreign missionary, with hardly one human comfort! To preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; εὐγγελίσασθαι, to evangelize, to proclaim good tidings. The force of the εὐ is not given in "preach," but the idea is amply conveyed by the words that follow. The balance of authority for τοῖς ἔθνεσι, "to the Gentiles," and ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσι, "among the Gentiles," is about equal; the meaning really the same. Ἔθνος, heathen, was almost an offensive name; yet with that name the apostle associates the highest blessings of God. The unsearchable riches of Christ; two attractive words, riches and unsearchable, conveying the idea of the things that are most precious being infinitely abundant. Usually precious things are rare; their very rarity increases their price; but here that which is most precious is also boundless - riches of compassion and love, of merit, of sanctifying, comforting, and transforming power, all without limit, and capable of satisfying every want, craving, and yearning of the heart, now and evermore. The thought of his having such riches to offer to all made him regard his office as most glorious, raised him far above the point of view from which the world would despise it, and filled him with adoring gratitude to God for having conferred it on him.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(8) Less than the least of all saints.--Compare with this expression of deep humility the well-known passages 1Corinthians 15:9-10; 2Corinthians 11:30; 2Corinthians 12:9-11; 1Timothy 1:12-16. It may be noted that in each case his deep sense of unworthiness is brought out by the thought of God's especial grace and favour to him. Thus in 1Corinthians 15:9-10, the feeling that he is "the least of the Apostles, not meet to be called an Apostle," rises out of the contemplation of the special manifestation of the risen Lord to him as "one born out of due time;" in 2Corinthians 11:30; 2Corinthians 12:9-11, "boasting" has been forced upon him, and so, having been compelled to dwell on the special work done by him, and the special revelations vouchsafed to him, he immediately adds, "though I am nothing;" in 1Timothy 1:12-16, as also here, it is the greatness of his message of universal salvation which reminds him that he was "a persecutor and injurious," "the chief of sinners," and "less than the least of all saints." Elation in the sense of privilege--"the glorying in that which we have received," so emphatically rebuked in 1Corinthians 4:7--is the temptation of the first superficial enthusiasm; deep sense of weakness and unworthiness, the result of second and deeper thought, contrasting the heavenly treasure with the earthen vessels which contain it (2Corinthians 4:7). Possibly there is a "third thought," deeper still, belonging to the times of highest spiritual aspiration, which loses all idea of self, even of weakness and unworthiness, in the thought of "the strength made perfect in weakness," and the consciousness (as in Philippians 4:12-13) that "we can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth us." See this last brought out in peculiar fulness and freedom in 2Corinthians 5:13 to 2Corinthians 6:10; a passage almost unique in its disclosure of spiritual experience. . . .