Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Ephesians 3:1

"For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus in behalf of you Gentiles,--" — Ephesians 3:1 (ASV)

“For this reason” (repeated in v.14) connects immediately with 2:22, but Paul recalls 2:11–22 and perhaps what lies even further back than that. “I, Paul” is left suspended without a verb until v.14, where it is at last supplied—“I kneel.” Having identified himself by name, Paul is reminded of his captivity in Rome. He refuses to regard himself as a victim either of the Jews or of the Roman emperor; rather, he is “the prisoner of Christ Jesus.” He insists that his imprisonment is a mark of his apostleship. Furthermore, it was his championship of the Gentile cause that had brought about his arrest in Jerusalem (Acts 21:21, 28). It was on account of an Ephesian convert, Trophimus, that he had eventually run afoul of the Jewish mob. “You Gentiles” follows on from Eph 2:11.