Ephesians 3:2

If ye have heard of Lit. if so be that ye heard of. This phrase occasions the question, Could this Epistle have been addressed to a Church familiar with St Paul? And it has thus seemed, to some extreme critics, an argument against the genuineness of the Epistle, a lapsus plumœon the part of a fabricator; and, in very different quarters, an argument against the special destination to Ephesus (see Introduction, ch. 3). Not here to notice the anti-Paulineinference it is enough to say of the anti-Ephesianthat it proves too much. What was known of Paul in the Ephesian Church would practically be known of him throughout the missions of Asia (see Acts 19:10; Acts 19:26), so that the phrase remains as difficult as before. The true account of it, surely, is that it is a phrase of almost irony, an allusion to well-known fact under the disguise of hypothesis. His Gentile commission was no new thing, and was widely known, when this clause was written; but a natural and beautiful rhetoric prefers to treat it as if possibly obscure or forgotten. That St Paul had never been silent at Ephesus on the subject appears from Acts 19:8-9, where we see him withdrawing the converts from the synagogue.

the dispensation The stewardship. For the figure, cp. 1Co 4:1-2; 1 Corinthians 9:17; Colossians 1:25; 1 Peter 4:10.

the grace of God which is given me Such is the grammatical connexion; not the "stewardship" but the "grace" is the thing given. And the "grace" is explained by Romans 1:5 ("grace and apostleship") and below, Ephesians 3:7-8. It was the loving gift of commission and inspiration to preach Christ among the Gentiles. For similar allusions to his life-work cp. Acts 22:21; Acts 26:17-18; Romans 1:5; Romans 11:13; Galatians 2:2; Galatians 2:9.