Charles Ellicott Commentary Ephesians 3:8

"Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, was this grace given, to preach unto the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;" — Ephesians 3:8 (ASV)

Less than the least of all saints.—Compare with this expression of deep humility the well-known passages 1 Corinthians 15:9–10; 2 Corinthians 11:30; 2 Corinthians 12:9–11; 1 Timothy 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 special grace and favour to him.

Thus, in 1 Corinthians 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 2 Corinthians 11:30 and 2 Corinthians 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 granted to him, he immediately adds, though I am nothing. In 1 Timothy 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 1 Corinthians 4:7—is the temptation of the first superficial enthusiasm. A deep sense of weakness and unworthiness is the result of second and deeper thought, contrasting the heavenly treasure with the earthen vessels which contain it (2 Corinthians 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 that we can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth us. See this last brought out in peculiar fullness and freedom in 2 Corinthians 5:13 to 6:10, a passage almost unique in its disclosure of spiritual experience.

The unsearchable riches of Christ.—The word “unsearchable” properly carries with it the metaphor (latent in our word “investigate”) of tracking footsteps, but not tracking them completely to their source or destination. This means gaining evidence of a living power but, as Scripture says, not knowing whence it cometh or whither it goeth.

In this proper sense, it is used in Romans 11:33: How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! (as also in Job 5:9; Job 9:10).

Here, however, it is used in a slightly different sense. It is applied to that “wealth” or fullness of Christ on which this Epistle lays such special stress—a wealth of truth that we can see in part but cannot wholly measure, and a wealth of grace that we can enjoy but cannot exhaust.