(1) В¶ For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, (2) If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:
It is more than probable, that at the time Paul wrote this. Epistle, he was literally a prisoner at Rome. But the Apostle delighted to consider himself, in one and the same moment, the Lord's prisoner, and the Lord's freeman. The Lord's chains are golden chains. And, it was Paul's most fervent desire, that he might lay hold of Christ, as Christ had laid hold of him. This was his daily striving. Philippians 3:12. Reader! how different the state, between the prisoner of Jesus, and the prisoner to sin and Satan!