Matthew Poole and continuators on Ephesians 3:1

1 FOR this cause I Paul the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles ;

i. e. That ye may be farther Confirmed in the Faith of Christ, and more and more built up in him as an Habitation of God, ch. 2. v. 22.

For Christ's sake, for asserting his Cause and Honour: see 2 Tim. 1.8. Philem. 1.9.

For your Cause and Salvation; having preached and declared the Grace of God to be Free, and to belong to you Gentiles aswell as to the Iews (the middle wall of partition being taken away) and so equalled you with them. There is no small difference among Expositours about the connexion of these words; the fairest and easiest seems to be: Either 1. that the Substantive Verb am be here supplied, and the words read, I Paul am the Prisoner of Jesus Christ, q. d. I have for some time been and still am the Prisoner of Jesus Christ. Or 2. that this Verse be joined to the 14. (all the rest from v. 2. to the 13. being included in a Parenthesis) where he begins with the same word as here, and so we may reade it thus, v. 1. For this cause I Paul the prisoner, &c. and then v. 14. I say, For this cause I bow my knees, &c. viz. praying that ye may be strengthned with might by his Spirit. &c. i. e. That they might be more and more built up on Christ on whom they were founded, and had begun to be built.

Marginal references: Chap. 4 1▪ Phil. 1.7, 13, 14, 16. Col. 4.3.; Col. 1.[illegible: 1 letter] ▪ 2 Tim. 2.[illegible: 1 letter] ▪