Ephesians 3:8

Less than the least. Compare 1 Cor. 15:9, 10; 2 Cor. 11:30; 1 Tim. 1:12-16. The recognition of God’s grace and favor always brought thoughts of humility to Paul’s mind. He was ever sensitive to the fact that he had been a persecutor of the saints. Therefore his appreciation of the greatness of his calling and of his personal inadequacy was ever fresh before him. Paul always seemed to be amazed that God could take one so faulty, one who had been a rebel, and make him a minister of His grace. He felt himself not only less than prophets and apostles but less than any of the saints. Those who have the greatest access to divine grace will be the most humble. Only thus are they properly equipped to serve.

Nevertheless, the sentiments aroused in Paul by his reflections on his past life must be understood in relation to his assertion that he had lived “in all good conscience before God” (Acts 23:1), and his exhortation to his converts to be “followers” (literally, “mimics”) of him (1 Cor. 4:16; 11:1; Phil. 3:17). Humility is no negative quality; it is consonant with the knowledge of personal victory over sin and growth in grace.

Among the Gentiles. Textual evidence favors (cf. p. 10) the reading “to the Gentiles.”

Unsearchable riches. Compare Job 5:9; 9:10; 11:7; Rom. 11:33. The spiritual bounties of God we can see only in part, for we “see through a glass, darkly” (1 Cor. 13:12). There is a sufficiency in Christ that cannot be exhausted, for He not only possesses unsearchable riches — He Himself is the riches. And these riches are not unsearchable because they are hidden or remote, but because they are so abundant. He is rich in His grace to the Gentiles, His love to sinners, and His redeeming activity. This means that in Christ is to be found the answer to any and every human problem that can arise. His resources are inexhaustible. No wonder that Paul, with this concept and conviction, declared: “I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).