Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Ephesians 3:6

"[to wit], that the Gentiles are fellow-heirs, and fellow-members of the body, and fellow-partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel," — Ephesians 3:6 (ASV)

The content of the mystery is now stated, summarizing 2:11–22. It is that through the proclamation of the gospel, the Gentiles are received into the fellowship of Christ on an equal footing with Hebrew Christians. Paul describes this fellowship with three terms, each having the word “together.” (1) The Gentiles now “are heirs together [GK 5169] with Israel.” In Ro 8:17 Paul speaks of believers being “co-heirs with Christ.” Here, as in Gal 3:29 and 4:7, he stresses that in Christ Gentiles are co-inheritors of the kingdom along with the Jews. This is how far the new witness of Jew and Gentile stretches. (2) They are “members together of one body” (GK 5362) and hence enjoy a corporate relationship. Paul seems to have coined this term to meet the unique situation created by the gospel, for it is found only here in the NT and is afterward exclusive to Christian writers. No other society is comparable with the church, since Christ is its Head (Ephesians 4:15; Ephesians 5:23; Colossians 1:18). (3) Because of Christ, they are “sharers together” (GK 5212) in the covenant promises originally made with Jews (cf. the contrast with 2:12). This union of Jews and Gentiles in one body is a logical consequence of the central doctrine of the gospel that God accepts all who believe.