Paul was given a special grace, or an assignment, to preach to the Gentiles and to offer to them the way of salvation. He was a Pharisee of Pharisees, which meant that he saw Gentiles as the enemies of God. But now, he has been called to preach to the Gentiles. He is preaching a mystery that was in God’s heart from eternity past, but is now being disclosed in the preaching of Christ. The essence of this mystery is that God is moving towards reconciling all things in His Son.

Verse 10 is one that you could make your life verse. What does this mean? I have some thoughts. I believe that the root issue behind the fall of Satan was that he thought that he could sway the hearts of humans to worship him. He took advantage of the freewill of man and has been in a competition with God for the worship of man. He believes that man will always choose themselves and always choose temporal things. God is looking for love that gives of itself and chooses those who will wait for rewards.

The genius of God’s plan is that He will cause men to voluntarily worship a God whom they cannot see or touch, and who asks that they forsake their ways for His. He asks that we forsake our desires for the desires of our brother. He asks that we choose meekness now, so we will be blessed in eternity. God will have a company of people for eternity who have willingly said ‘no’ to their own desires and have blessed others and loved a God who they cannot see. Those who worship Him will do it out of love, and not because they have been forced to. The defeat and humiliation of Satan will be extraordinary and our weak faith will bring down an entire kingdom of darkness. This is why Paul’s tribulation (v. 13) is light.