-Paul is Christ’s prisoner, but no onerous obligatory prison sentence, this. God gave Paul a job, a specific calling - He put him in charge of His grace, to help to spread it to the nations, to those nations and peoples who were not Jews.
-He uses the word oikonomia, which is the work done by someone who manages a household, someone who the Owner of the House puts in charge of taking care of the House, of running the affairs of the Home and Family. This is clearly someone the Owner trusts, and with whom He entrusts a precious and in this case sacred possession (since this is God’s household we’re talking about). God put Paul in charge of His House (or parts of it), the Church, which is entirely made up of people on whom God had lavished and poured out His grace by pouring out the blood of His only Son. Grace at Calvary, grace leading up to and at conversion, and grace every day after that as His people walked with Him. And so Paul’s job, this high calling and task which God had entrusted to Him, was to minister this grace to the nations, to help them learn about and begin to experience and multiply to others this amazingly rich undeserved favor.
-And here’s the thing: anyone and everyone who is so blessed as to be a recipient of God’s grace is likewise expected to channel it to others, just like Paul, and while the scope perhaps may not be quite as broad, the calling is similar. I will bless you, and you will be a blessing, God says (Genesis 12.2). I will show you My grace and mercy, and you will spread it to others (Matthew 18.33). This is the way of God’s people - we don’t hide it under a bushel (NO!), we don’t bury it in the ground. We are the city on a hill, multiplying God’s grace to all around. We get really good at loving and blessing and giving grace to one another and then our neighbors and the nations. A most precious possession, but one which is meant be shared. Failing here, God’s people fail entirely.
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