Charles Ellicott Commentary Ephesians 3:10

"to the intent that now unto the principalities and the powers in the heavenly [places] might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God," — Ephesians 3:10 (ASV)

In this verse, Saint Paul proceeds to consider the manifestation of God in Christ as made known not only to humankind but also to the angels—the principalities and powers in the heavenly places—who are described (1 Peter 1:12) as desiring to look into the consummation of the gospel mystery.

In the same sense, the Apostles, in their ministry of the gospel, are said to be a spectacle to angels and to men (1 Corinthians 4:9). In a magnificent passage in the Epistle to the Hebrews (Hebrews 12:22), Christians are encouraged in their warfare by knowing that it is waged before the city of the living God and an innumerable company of angels. The angels are, therefore, represented to us as not only ministering in the Church of Christ but also learning from its existence and experiences to know more and more of the wisdom of God.

Thus, we gain a glimpse of a purpose extending beyond this world in the supreme manifestation of God’s mercy in Christ, fulfilled for higher orders of God’s rational creatures, aiding even them in their progress toward the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ, which is life eternal. (There is a notable passage on a similar idea in Butler’s Analogy, Part 1, Chapter 3, section 5.)

This world, itself a speck in the universe, may be—perhaps as a scene of exceptional rebellion against God, certainly as a scene of God’s infinite goodness—a lesson to other spheres of being, far beyond our conception.

Possibly, this view of angels as our fellow-learners in the school of Christ may have been specially emphasized in light of the worship of angels, about which we read in Colossians 2:18. However, it accords well with the wide sweep of thought characteristic of this Epistle, literally gathering up all things in Christ.

The manifold wisdom.—The word “manifold” (properly, many-coloured, or wrought in many details) is used here (and nowhere else) for the wisdom of God, as “fulfilling itself in many ways” (the sundry times and divers manners of Hebrews 1:1). It is manifested, therefore, in the infinite variety of both the teaching and the life of the Church—manifold, yet one, as embodying but one life, the life of Jesus Christ.