A Prisoner of Jesus Christ

Ephesians 3:1,2  "For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:" 

Paul states that it is for this cause, the cause of building believers faith, that he writes. This cause that Paul had was not his own but given to him. 1Timothy 1:16  "Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting."  Paul's was not seeking his own cause but was fervently serving for the cause of Christ. Paul was diligent and determined to make sure the cause of Christ kept going forward and so he enlisted Timothy to continue in this great cause of making the ways of Christ clear to His church.  1Corinthians 4:17  "For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach every where in every church."  Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles and spent much time in jail for preaching the Gospel.   As the "prisoner of Jesus Christ," Paul was saying, that it was his identification with Jesus Christ that landed him in prison. He is saying, I am in prison for standing with Christ. Philemon1:1,9  "Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy our brother, unto Philemon our dearly beloved, and fellowlabourer." "Yet for love's sake I rather beseech thee, being such an one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ." As believers we ought to be willing to go to jail for Christ. However, I wonder if we as Christians have ever made ourselves prisoners for Christ. What do I mean? Have we so locked ourselves into Jesus Christ that it is as if we are in stocks and bonds. Are we so committed to Christ that we have lost our own freedom to do what we want to do? Are you being detained in Christ? Let's live our lives so dedicate to His cause that we are as prisoners to Him. The  "dispensation of the grace of God" was given to Paul to preach. Colossians 1:25  "Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;"  The word dispensation means to administer. Paul was to administer the economy of grace as God's chosen Apostle to the Gentiles. A dispensation is a frame of time in which God works in specific ways. This does not mean God saves people in various dispensations different ways. God may work in different ways but there has always only been one way of salvation. Faith in God's promised seed.