Ephesians 6:20

20. For which Namely, the mystery of the gospel, the revealed offer of peace to men.

In bonds Literally, in a chain. Alluding, perhaps, to the single chain by which he was connected to a Roman soldier. An ambassador, not in robes, but in bonds. His insignia a chain, his retinue a Roman sentinel, his residence a prison; yet a palace, made a palace by the visitations of his Master, the King of kings and the Lord of lords. The apostle means the noble antithesis. He is asserting his own official dignity, not courting sympathy. Hence Wetstein’s note, quoted so often with admiration by commentators, (as Meyer, Eadie, Braune,) “usually ambassadors are by the law of nations sacred and inviolable, and cannot be held in chains,” is below the apostle’s strain. He is by his chain honoured and exalted above all earthly ambassadors. It was language like this that inspired the heroic and martyr spirit in the Church; and caused it, not only to glow so brightly, but to rise to such a height that Christian prudence was obliged to check its sometimes too earthly enthusiasm. It was in the rare character of Paul, “the apostle in a basket,” (Acts 9:25,) the ambassador in a chain, to raise humiliations into sublimities. He is indeed an ambassador, but from what court? From the throne of Christ. To what court? Not to the court of Rome, as one commentator suggests; but to the human race, whose head is Adam. What is his mission? To unfold the mystery of the gospel, in which are terms of reconciliation to the sons of Adam now engaged in the rebellion of Satan.

Ought A term of self-assertion; yet not as a self, but as an apostle and ambassador.