Colossians 1: 25 – The administration of God granted to me

Of which (= the ecclesia) I became a dispenser, in accord with the administration of God, which is granted to me for you, to complete the word of God – the secret which has been concealed from the eons…

The emphasis in this verse is (grammatically) on I, that is Paul. He has become a servant of “the body of Christ, the ecclesia” (1:24). The designation of the ecclesia as the body of Christ is typical and even exclusive for Paul. None of the other writers of the NT refer to the ecclesia in this way. The fact that Paul in particular became her servant is directly related to the extremely important fact that he was given “the administration” of “the secret which has been concealed from the eons”.

Not only in this passage but also at the end of Romans 16 and in Ephesians 3, the apostle emphasizes that “the secret” (or “the mystery”) has been made known to him and the administration thereof has also been entrusted. The word ‘administration’ (Gr. oikonomia) is rendered quite differently in translations such as household, stewardship or dispensation. The original idea behind the word ‘oikonomia’ is that the owner of a house (Gr. oikos) entrusts his property to someone who is expected to manage it. Well, Paul is the ‘dispenser’ of the secret that has been made known to him by God.

Delen: