This is quite a remarkable statement that Paul makes about the purpose of the church. Essentially, God created and outfitted it for one primary purpose—to glorify Him on the earth. God’s glory has always been of first importance to Him. He created angels to glorify Him for eternity (Psalm 148:2; Hebrews 1:6), the universe to testify of His glory (Psalm 19:1). Even the judgment of fallen angels and the recognition by all unbelievers, who must bow the knee to Christ and confess Him as Lord at the end of time, will bring God glory (Phil 2:12). God’s people are part of these means. Israel was to reveal God’s glory to the world. This is why, for example, God did not wipe out Egypt and deliver Israel in one day, but brought both through months of terrible plagues. If God’s primary purpose was Israel’s deliverance, then He would have done it in a day. But as we read in Exodus 7:1-5, God hardens Pharaoh’s heart and keeps Israel in bondage, so that the Egyptians would come to know His power and that He is God (cf. Romans 9:17). Israel, then, became the means through which God revealed His sovereignty to unbelievers.
According to our verse, God uses His people, the church, to show off His manifold wisdom to more than just the world. Heavenly entities, which we know as angels, are the audience in this context. Paul uses the titles, “rulers and authorities”, here, as he does elsewhere in his writings, to refer to them. While sometimes he means holy angels (e.g., Ephesians 1:21; Colossians 1:16) and sometimes fallen ones (Ephesians 6:12), the context of Ephesians 3:10 suggests that both are in view and that part of the purpose of the church is to be a vehicle through which God reveals His glory to them.
The church lives before more than just the world as we know it and she is to call more than just humans to praise the Good Sovereign. There are angelic spectators that we have always known to be participants in the overall plan of God. Holy angels have a keen interest in the salvation of individuals and praise the Lord when a sinner repents and is saved (1 Peter 1:12; Luke 15:10). They gaze upon the face of God, waiting to see how He will respond in a saving way to the penitent (Matthew 18:10, 14). In Paul’s discussion of headship and submission in 1 Corinthians 11:2-16, he says that it is “because of angels” that woman should demonstrate submission to male leadership in the church. These holy agents witnessed the order of creation—something that Paul uses as the basis for his argument of biblical headship and submission—and would be offended by any deviation from this order. Paul charges Timothy to carry out divine principles of leadership “in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of His chosen angles (1 Timothy 5:21). John MacArthur has a cleaver way of explaining our verse: “In the classroom of God’s universe, He is the Teacher, the angels are the students, the church is the illustration, and the subject is the manifold wisdom of God” (Ephesians in the MacArthur New Testament Commentary, Chicago: Moody Press, 1986, p. 97). A word of clarification at this point is, perhaps, necessary. While God uses the church to glorify Himself, He doesn’t do it at the expense of His people’s wellbeing. God is so sovereign and so good that He is able to achieve His own glory and, at the same time, achieve good for His people. While it may not seem that way from our vantage point, in the midst of trial, we can be sure that the hardship we might endured, so that God’s glory can be revealed, God works for our good (Romans 8:28).
We do well to remember, then, God’s primary purpose and make it ours. In that way, we would see all other activities (evangelism, deliverance, service, parenting, loving our spouses) as both secondary to this overarching purpose of glorifying God and means to achieving it. With this perspective, we prevent any selfish way from creeping into our service for God. We seek the kingdom at the expense of our own needs, trusting them to God (Matthew 6:28-34). We make an effort to walk wisely and deny our own pleasures, in order to “understand what the will of the Lord is” and do it (Ephesians 5:17), trusting the consequences of our obedience to Him.
Live to make God known to the world and to the rules and authorities in the heavens by the way you live. You have Jesus’ promise that losing your life to this grand purpose is the only way to save it.