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Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ephesians 1:23

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Which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all.

Which is his body – This comparison of the church with a person or body, of which the Lord Jesus is the head, is not uncommon in the New Testament; compare the notes at 1Co 11:3; 1Co 12:27, note; Eph 4:15-16, notes.

The fulness of him – The word rendered here as fulness – pleroma – means properly, that with which anything is filled; the filling up; the contents; notes, Rom 11:12. The exact idea here, however, is not very clear, and interpreters have been by no means united in their opinions of the meaning. It seems probable that the sense is, that the church is the completion or filling up of his power and glory. It is that without which his dominion would not be complete. He has control over the angels and over distant worlds, but; his dominion would not be complete without the control over his church, and that is so glorious, that it fills up the honor of the universal dominion, and makes his empire complete. According to Rosenmuller, the word fulness here means a great number or multitude; a multitude, says he, which, not confined to its own territory, spreads afar, and fills various regions.

Koppe also regards it as synonymous with multitude or many, and supposes it to mean all the dominion of the Redeemer over the body – the church. He proposes to translate the whole verse, He has made him the Head over his church, that he might rule it as his own body – the whole wide state of his universal kingdom. This, says Calvin (in loc.), is the highest honor of the church, that the Son of God regards himself as in a certain sense imperfect unless he is joined to us. The church constitutes the complete body of the Redeemer. A body is complete when it has all its members and limbs in proper proportions, and those members might be said to be the completion, or the filling-up, or the fulness – pleroma – of the body or the person. This language would not, indeed, be such as would usually be adopted to express the idea now; but this is evidently the sense in which Paul uses it here.

The meaning is, that the church sustains the same relation to Christ, which the body does to the head. It helps to form the entire person. There is a close and necessary union. The one is not complete without the other. And one is dependent on the other. When the body has all its members in due proportion, and is in sound and vigorous health, the whole person then is complete and entire. So it is to be in the kingdom of the Redeemer. He is the head; and that redeemed Church is the body, the fulness, the completion, the filling-up of the entire empire over which he presides, and which he rules. On the meaning of the word fulness – pleroma – the reader may consult Storrs Opuscula, vol. i. pp. 144-187, particularly pp. 160-183. Storr understands the word in the sense of full or abundant mercy, and supposes that it refers to the great benignity which God has shown to his people, and renders it, The great benignity of him who filleth all things with good, as he called Jesus from tile dead to life and placed him in heaven, so even you, sprung from the pagan, who were dead in sin on account of your many offences in which you formerly lived, etc. – hath he called to life by Christ. This verse, therefore, he would connect with the following chapter, and he regards it all as designed to illustrate the great power and goodness of God. Mr. Locke renders it, Which is his body, which is completed by him alone, and supposes it means, that Christ is the head, who perfects the church by supplying all things to all its members which they need.

Chandler gives an interpretation in accordance with that which I have first suggested, as meaning that the church is the full complement of the body of Christ; and refers to Aelian and Dionysius Halicarnassus, who use the word fulness or pleroma as referring to the rowers of a ship. Thus also we say that the ships crew is its complement, or that a ship or an army has its complement of people; that is, the ranks are filled up or complete. In like manner, the church will be the filling-up, or the complement, of the great kingdom of the Redeemer – that which will give completion or perfectness to his universal dominion.

Of him – Of the Redeemer.

That filleth all in all – That fills all things, or who pervades all things; see the notes, 1Co 12:6; 1Co 15:28, note; compare Col 3:11. The idea is, that there is no place where he is not, and which he does not fill; and that he is the source of all the holy and happy influences that are abroad in the works of God. It would not be easy to conceive of an expression more certainly denoting omnipresence and universal agency than this; and if it refers to the Lord Jesus, as seems to be indisputable, the passage teaches not only his supremacy, but demonstrates his universal agency, and his omnipresence – things that pertain only to God. From this passage we may observe:

(1) That just views of the exaltation of the Redeemer are to be obtained only by the influence of the Spirit of God on the heart; Eph 1:17-19. Man, by nature, tins no just conceptions of the Saviour, and has no desire to have. It is only as the knowledge of that great doctrine is imparted to the mind by the Spirit of God, that we have any practical and saving acquaintance with such an exaltation. The Christian sees him, by faith, exalted to the right hand of God, and cheerfully commits himself and his all to him, and feels that all his interests are safe in his hands.

(2) It is very desirable to have such views of an exalted Saviour. So Paul felt When he earnestly prayed that God would give such views to the Ephesians, Eph 1:17-20. It was desirable in order that they might have a right understanding of their privileges; in order that they might know the extent of the power which had been manifested in their redemption; in order that they might commit their souls with confidence to him. In my conscious weakness and helplessness; when I am borne down by the labors and exposed to the temptations of life; when I contemplate approaching sickness and death, I desire to feel that that Saviour to whom I have committed my all is exalted far above principalities and powers, and every name that is named. When the church is persecuted and opposed; when hosts of enemies rise up against it and threaten its peace and safety, I rejoice to feel assured the Redeemer and Head Of the church is over all, and that he has power to subdue all her foes and his.

(3) The church is safe. Her great Head is on the throne of the universe, and no weapon that is formed against her can prosper. He has defended it hitherto in all times of persecution, and the past is a pledge that he will continue to protect it to the end of the world.

(4) Let us commit our souls to this exalted Redeemer. Such a Redeemer we need – one who has all power in heaven and earth. Such a religion we need – that can restore the dead to life. Such hope and confidence we need as he can give – such peace and calmness as shall result from unwavering confidence in him who filleth all in all.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Eph 1:23

Which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.

Believers are the body of Christ

1. As Christ is the Head of believers, so they are His body, and every believing soul a member of this body whereof He is the Head. Believers are so said to be the body as the body stands in opposition to the head, not as it includes the head within its own compass. The multitude of believers are fitly so called; for, as in a body are divers members, having their several faculties for the good use of the whole, so in the Church there are divers kinds of members, some taught, some teaching, some governing, some governed, some distributing,–yea, every member has, as it were, his distinct grace whereby he may serve the well-being of the whole.

2. Christ does not count Himself full and complete, without all His faithful members.

(1) None of those who either live knit to Christ only by external profession, or who receive some of the effects of the Spirit which for a time only abide in them; none of all those who in the end shall hear the sentence, Depart from Me, were ever true parts of Christs body; for Christ is made full and complete by all His true members, and should be maimed if He lacked one of them. These, therefore, belonged to His body as a wooden leg or glass eye does to the body of a man; or, at the most, as an excrescence which is more inwardly continued, and has a kind of life, but is not quickened as a member of the body, which is more complete when it is cut off.

(2) Christ will keep those who are true members of Him, and not suffer anything to separate them from Him. What natural head would part with a member, were it in its power to keep it? But we know Christ has all power; so may assure ourselves that He will preserve us in that union and, communion which as members we have attained with Him.

(3) A ground of patience in face of the contempt which believers meet with from the world. Men often deem them the refuse and offal of all others; but Christ thinks so highly of them, that He counts Himself maimed and imperfect without them.

3. Whatever is in us as Christians, all of it is from Christ. In Him we are complete, filled with all heavenly gifts which serve to remove evil or set us in a state of blessedness.

(1) He fills us with all the fulness of God, which begins in grace, and is perfected in glory when God shall be all in all.

(2) How we come to be filled. All fulness is in Christ, who has received it without measure. As the sun has fulness of light in that perfection which agrees to light, and the moon has light from the sun in that measure wherein it is capable: so Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, has fulness without measure, but the Church with all her members are filled from Him according to their capacities as members under Him. By being partakers of Christ Himself we come to be filled with the fulness of grace and glory in Him, as by eating and taking the substance of earthly nourishment we come to have the virtue in them. These benefits are conveyed to us by the means of grace, viz., the Word and the Sacraments. We also receive Him partly by humility, which empties us of ourselves, and makes room for Him; partly by belief, which feeds on and applies Him; partly by walking in Christ, and exercising ourselves spiritually. Conclusion: Let this teach us to come to Christ. Bountiful lords want none to retain to them, happy is he who may shroud him self under their wings. Shall we not press with reverence to this Lord of lords who fills all with His spiritual blessings? As He complained of the Jews, How oft would I have gathered you but you would not, so may He say to us, how oft would I have had you, blind, naked, miserable by nature, come to Me, that you might be filled with righteousness and life, but ye have refused? Well, did we know what we are called to, and what we might find in Him, then would we come and be suitors to Him. But, alas! this is hid from our eyes. (Paul Bayne.)

Christs body

I. Who the persons here spoken of are: The Church. The Greek word simply means the called out. This is a title often given to the disciples of Christ. They are called to be saints. They are called unto His kingdom and glory. God hath saved them, and called them with a holy calling. The persons, then, who constitute the Church are those who have been called out.

II. We are now in a position to consider with profit what the connection is which subsists between Christ and His Church. The Church is His body; the fulness of Him who filleth all in all. The Church is His body; then He is its Head: the Church is His fulness, and He filleth all in all. Let us consider these weighty words.

1. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Head of His Church. Like the head in our natural body, He is the channel of all their perceptions, the source of all their desires, the guide of all their actions. Through Him they see and hear and think, by Him they live and move and have their being. As our text says, He filleth all in all–every member with all its life.

2. The reality and intimacy of this union will be more fully realized if we observe, not only what the Lord Jesus Christ is to His disciples, but also what they are to Him. Paul tells us not only that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church, but also that the Church is His body–not only that Christ filleth all in all, but also that the Church is His fulness.

III. Let us now consider the inward blessings and the outward duties that are implied in this connection.

1. The inward spiritual blessings which are implied in the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church which is His body. These blessings, as we have seen, flow only to those who really are His disciples. Are we true members of the body of Christ? Then let us realize that we have suffered and died with Him on Calvary. Again, are we true members of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ? Then we are delivered, not only from the punishment due to past, sins, but also from the power of present sinfulness. Again, are we true members of the body of Christ? then let us remember that we are related, not only to Him, but also to one another as members of the same body. Again, are we true members of the body of Christ? then we need not fear anything that man can do unto us. We cannot suffer but Jesus suffers with us. He is afflicted in all our afflictions. He would lose in our loss. He rejoices in our joy. Once more, are we true members of the body of Christ? then our comfort reaches not only to the grave, but beyond it.

2. Of the duties which they owe to Him as the Head of government. Obedience–implicit obedience–is the duty of each member of His body individually–obedience in all things. I pass on to speak of the duty of the members of His body in their collective capacity–when associated together as churches. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Head, not merely of each member of His body separately, but of the, whole body. He has commanded His disciples to recognize each other, and to, associate themselves together for common work and for common worship. He has given rules for the government of His Church. All these and such like commandments are addressed to the Church in its collective capacity. (W. Grant.)

The connection between Christ and the Church

Head and body are correlative, and are organically connected. The body is no dull lump of clay, no loose coherence of hostile particles; but bone, nerve, and vessel give it distinctive form, proportion, and adaptation. The Church is not a fortuitous collection of believing spirits, but a society, shaped, prepared, and life endowed, to correspond to its Head. The Head is one, and though the corporeal members are many, yet all is marked out and curiously wrought with symmetry and grace to serve the one design. There is organization, and not merely juxtaposition.

1. There is, first, a connection of life: if the head be dissevered, the body dies. The life of the Church springs from its union to Christ by the Spirit, and if any member or community be separated from Christ it dies.

2. There is also a connection of mind: the purposes of the Head are wrought out by the corporeal organs–the tongue that speaks, or the foot that moves. The Church should have no purpose but Christs glory, and no work but the performance of His commands.

3. There is, at the same time, a connection of power: the organs have no faculty of self-motion, but move as they are directed by the governing principle within. The corpse lies stiff and motionless. Energy to do good, to move forward in spiritual contest and victory, and to exhibit aggressive influence against evil, is all derived from union with Christ.

4. There is, in fine, a connection of sympathy. The pain or disorder of the smallest nerve or fibre vibrates to the head, and there it is felt. Jesus has not only cognizance of us, but He has a fellow feeling with us in all our infirmities and trials. And the members of the body are at the same time reciprocally connected, and placed in living affinity, so that mutual sympathy, unity of action, cooperation and support, are anticipated and provided for. No organ is superfluous, and none can defy or challenge its fellow. (John Eadie, D. D.)

Christs fulness

Observe, there is an all to be filled, and an all and in all wherewith to be filled. Poor trembling believer in Jesus Christ, thou art a portion of the fulness of Him in whom all fulness dwelleth, a member of Him that filleth all in all, and the Lord hath need of thee. There is a special adaptation in His fulness for thy special need, for all His fulness must be displayed and communicated to His members. The head cannot say to the foot, I have no need of you. An infinite variety of needs in the members is essentially necessary in order to manifest the boundless supply in the fulness of the Head, that He may be glorified, even as the branches of the vine are necessary as its only channels for the display of its wealth of fruitfulness: It shall one day be fully manifested to heaven and earth, to angels and to men, that Christs people stand in Him alone, and that they have no resources or supplies whatever but in His fulness. Come then, bring empty vessels not a few, here are gilts laid up for all sorts, and no denial for any kind of sinner, in order that His fulness may be seen, and that each believer may be in his own case a living monument to show forth the perfections and praises of Him in whom all fulness dwelleth. One shall receive and display His fulness of strength who is evermore a strength to the needy in his distress. Another shall be an example of His patience; another, of His care; another, of His long-suffering; another, of His tenderness; another, of His power; another, of His guiding mercy and gentleness; and all, of His changeless love. There are gifts and graces inexhaustible, and boundless operations and treasures of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge for the filling, and all sorts of needy ones to be filled–all of them, all the parts of them, body, soul, and spirit; all the powers, faculties, and immortality of all of them, for He filleth all in all, that He may be glorified. Verily the consolations of God are contained in these facts. Consider a few of the consequences resulting from them:

1. If Christs believing people are His body and His fulness, then none of them shall be wanting when He shall come to be admired in His saints. If otherwise?–no fulness.

2. If Christs believing people are His body and His fulness, then not one of them shall be lacking in any matters essential for their perfection. If otherwise?–no fulness.

3. If Christs believing people are His body and His fulness, then no member shall be out of place, and no desire unsatisfied. If otherwise?–no fulness.

4. If Christs people are His body and His fulness, then no grace, or continuance of grace, laid up for us in Him, shall be unsupplied. If otherwise?–no fulness.

5. If Christs people are His body and His fulness, then shall there be no want of salvation, security, growth, attainment, station, proportion, or symmetry in any of them. If otherwise?–no fulness.

6. If we are His body and His fulness, all of us are absolutely necessary for the completeness of our glorious Christ Himself, and even the very hairs of our head must all be numbered. If otherwise?–no fulness.

7. If we are His body, then must His members be presented faultless, holy, unblameable, and unreprovable, and without spot or wrinkle. If otherwise?–no fulness.

8. Finally, if any member be absent or incomplete, misplaced, undeveloped, or deficient, either overgrown, or undergrown, or wanting in proportion, then would there be no fulness. (M. Rainsford, B. A.)

Christs fulness

The word pleroma, fulness, is used in a definite and almost technical sense in the Epistles of the Captivity, and especially in the Epistle to the Colossians, having clear reference to the speculations as to the Divine Nature and the emanations from it, already anticipating the future Gnosticism. The word itself is derived from a verb signifying, first, to fill; next (more frequently in the New Testament), to fulfil or complete. It is found

(1) in a physical sense of the full contents of the baskets, in Mar 6:43; Mar 8:20; and of the earth, in 1Co 10:26-28; and in Mat 9:16; Mar 2:21, it is applied to the patch of new cloth on an old garment. It is used next

(2) of fulness, in sense of the complete tale or number, of time and seasons, in chap. 1:10; Gal 4:4; of the Jews and Gentiles in Rom 11:12; Rom 11:25. In the third place

(3) it is applied to the full essence, including all the attributes, of a thing or Person; as of the Law (Rom 13:10), and of the blessing of Christ (Rom 15:29). Lastly

(4), in these Epistles it is applied, almost technically, to the fulness of the Divine Nature. Thus in Col 1:19 we have, It pleased the Father that in Christ all the fulness–i.e., all the fulness of the Divine Nature–should dwell; or (to take an admissible but less probable construction), In Him all the fulness is pleased to dwell; and this is explained in chap. 2:9, In Him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. Similarly, though less strikingly, we read in this Epistle, that those who are in Christ are said (in Gal 3:19; Gal 4:13) to be filled up to all the fulness of God, and to come to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. In which of these last senses is the Church here said to be the fulness of Christ? If in any, probably in the last of all. As the individual, so the Church, by the presence of Him who filleth up all things for Himself in all, comes to be His fulness, the complete image of Him in all His glorified humanity. But it may be questioned whether it is not better to take here a different sense, corresponding to the patch in Mat 9:16, and signifying the complement. In the original Greek of Euclid (in book 1, prop. 4), the cognate word, parapleroma, is used of the complements. In this compound word the idea is, no doubt, more unequivocally expressed. But of the simple word here employed it may be reasonably contended that, if one thing or person alone is contemplated, the pleroma must be the fulness of the one nature: if, as here, two are brought in, each will be the complement to the other–as the patch to the garment; and the garment to the patch. So here (says Chrysostom) the complement of the head is the body, and the complement of the body is the head. Thus, by a daring expression, St. Paul describes our Lord as conceiving His glorified humanity incomplete without His Church; and then, lest this should seem to derogate, even for a moment, from His dignity, He adds the strongest declaration of His transcendent power. to fill up for Himself all things in all, in order to show that we are infinitely more incomplete without Him than He without us. (A. Barry, D. D.)

Communion with Christ

What! is Christ thy Brother, and does He live in thine house, and yet thou hast not spoken to Him for a month? I fear there is little love between thee and thy Brother, for thou hast had no conversation with Him for so long. What! is Christ the Husband of His Church, and has she had no fellowship with Him for all this time? (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The Church is Christs body

Christ has but one Church. The second Adam, like the first, is the husband only of one wife. Just as the Church cannot have two heads, so the one Head cannot have two bodies; for as that body were a monster which had two heads, so the head which had two separate bodies. (F. Guthrie, D. D.)

The Head and the body

At a celebrated battle there was one position from which the enemy, after suffering defeat in every other part of the field, kept up an unabated fire. There, a huge twenty-four pounder vomited forth galling and continuous discharges; nor could our artillery, nor musketry, nor riflemen, silence it. That gun, said the commanding officer, addressing the men of two regiments, must be taken by the bayonet. I must have it; adding, as he placed himself at their head, No firing, and recollect that I am with you. There needed no more. They advanced; and in a short time they had taken the gun and the position. Let the Church go forth at the command of her glorious Head, and there is no position and weapon of the enemy but shall yield before their united assaults. (F. Guthrie, D. D.)

The freshness and fulness of Christ

In the square of the Doges palace are two wells, from which the sellers of water obtain their stock-in-trade, but we can hardly compare either of them with the overflowing spring from which the preacher of righteousness draws his supplies. One of the wells is filled artificially and is not much used for drinking, since the coldness and freshness of water springing naturally from earths deep fountains is lacking. It is to be feared that many preachers depend for their matter upon theological systems, books, and mere learning, and hence their teaching is devoid of the living power and refreshing influence which is found in communion with the spring of all our joys. The other well yields most delicious water, but its flow is scanty. In the morning it is full, but a crowd of eager persons drain it to the bottom, and during the day as it rises by driblets, every drop is contended for and borne away, long before there is enough below to fill a bucket. In its excellence, continuance, and naturalness, this well might be a fair picture of the grace of our Lord Jesus, but it fails to set Him forth from its poverty of supply. He has a redundance, an overflow, an infinite fulness, and there is no possibility of His being exhausted by the draughts made upon Him, even though ten thousand times ten thousand should come with a thirst as deep as the abyss. We could not help saying, Spring up, O well, as we looked over the margin covered with copper, into which strings and ropes–continually used by the waiting many–had worn deep channels. Very little of the coveted liquid was brought up each time, but the people were patient, and their tin vessels went up and down as fast as there was a cupful to be had. O that men were half as diligent in securing the precious gifts of the Spirit, which are priceless beyond compare. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The witnessing Church

The Church is called the body of Christ. Through his body a man holds communication with the outer world and works in and on that outer world. So through His Church Jesus the Christ acts upon society, upon men in general. I do not say that this is She only medium through which He works and acts, but it is the principal medium. A Church, then, must be organically fitted to express the mind and will of Christ. In inquiring as to the nature of the Church of Christ, the following ideas demand recognition:

1. Jesus Christ is its Head; its sole Head, its source of doctrine, of law and of order. He only has authority. One is your Master even Christ, and all ye are brethren. Of course in every society there must be a head, even a mob must have a leader. There must in every society be law and order. Otherwise there can be no peace and no progress. The self-will of the individual becomes everything. And in such a state of things there can be no cooperated movement. The sole headship of Christ in the Church is the basis doctrine of all law and order.

2. The membership of the Church is a brotherhood. If we have the ability of the subordination of our own wills to the will of Christ, the practical result will be, that we shall be of the same feeling and disposition as all others dowered with the same ability. The spirit of brotherhood will be in us. For when anything of the love of God enters the heart, the love of man comes with it. And the love of man is not some sentimental feeling which is here today and gone tomorrow. It is the diametric opposite of the spirit of judgment and accusation. It is necessary to add further that the Church of Christ is not democratic, but theocratic. The people are not the fountain of law and order. This also must be added, that the Church is the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit of God, which fact is evidence by these fruits of the Spirit which hang thick and threefold upon it, as upon a tree of life. We must not omit to add, that the Church is Christs great Teacher to the nations. The last great command to the apostles runs thus: Go ye and male disciples of all the nations, baptizing, etc. And lastly, the Church is the beginning of that permanent society which God is organizing to embody and express His will. The Book of the Revelation of St. John gives intimations of a perfected society into which there enters nothing that defileth, neither that which believeth or maketh a lie, a society of the pure and true, or rather of those who are purified and made true, men from all ages and all nations, all kindreds and all tongues, a society of men like in sympathy and disposition though various in many other ways. The Christ of God is the centre of that society; its inspiration; its archetype; a society based on inward character not on anything else, the inward character being attested by outward allegiance to this Christ of God. In that society we shall get the perfection of communion, the ideal fellowship, all lovelessness gone, no envy there, no hatred, nothing that leads to schism, no insincere man there, no unbrotherly man, the society of which the Church on earth has been, in its best estate, only the promise and prefiguration. (Reuen Thomas.)

In what respects the Church is Christs fulness

1. The Church is Christs fulness, because it has grown out of Christ, and He has increased outwards so as to form the Church. He has developed into it. He has expanded into it; as a seed grows into a tree with its branches. First, Christ fills the Church and each true believer with His Spirit, and Christ thus lives, by His Spirit, in each and all. The Spirit and Christ are one. Another view, secondly, is that presented in the words, out of His fulness have we all received, and grace for grace. Faith is the instrument of receiving out of His fulness, or, the medium of communication. The Christian by faith receives a corresponding grace to every grace that was in Christ. And he is at length filled, according to his measure or capacity, out of Christ. But, thirdly, Christ imparts to the Church and to each believer all spiritual blessedness.

2. Let us now consider the idea of the Apostle in its other aspect. We have seen how the Church is the fulness of Christ, in the sense of its being the development, as it were, of the root, by which it grows up into a full body, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. The other side of the idea is embodied in the thought that the Church fills up, completes, and perfects Christ. We must still contemplate Christ and His Church as one. He, in condescension, has taken it to be part of Himself, and, in this view, without it, He would be incomplete. So Paul in one place calls the Church Christ (1Co 12:12). The body is Christ according to this passage. It forms part of Him, and completes Him. We are thus led to consider all true Christians as necessary parts of what Christ Himself has chosen for His own body; and the whole Church of the redeemed, when gathered together, will, together with the Head, make one Christ. (W. Alves, M. A.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 23. Which is his body] As he is head over all things, he is head to the Church; and this Church is considered as the body of which he is especially the head; and from him, as the head, the Church receives light, life, and intelligence.

And is the fulness of him] That in which he especially manifests his power, goodness, and truth; for though he fills all the world with his presence, yet he fills all the members of his mystical body with wisdom, goodness, truth, and holiness, in an especial manner. Some understand the fulness or , here, as signifying the thing to be filled; so the Christian Church is to be filled by him, whose fulness fills all his members, with all spiritual gifts and graces. And this corresponds with what St. John says, Joh 1:16: And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. And with what is said, 2Co 2:9; 1Co 2:10: Ye are complete in him; And ye are in him filled full; i.e. with gifts and grace.

How, in any other sense, the Church can be said to be the fulness of him who fills all in all, is difficult to say. However, as Jesus Christ is represented to be the head, and the Church, the body under that head, the individuals being so many members in that body; and as it requires a body and members to make a head complete; so it requires a Church, or general assembly of believers, to make up the body of Christ. When, therefore, the Jews and Gentiles are brought into this Church, the body may be said to be complete; and thus Christ has his visible fulness upon earth, and the Church may be said to be the fulness of him, &c. See Eph 1:10.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Which is his body; i.e. a mystical one, whereof every member is influenced by the Spirit of Christ the Head, as in the natural body the members are influenced by spirits derived from the natural head.

The fulness of him: the church is called the fulness of Christ, not personally, but relatively considered, and as Head of the church. The head is incomplete without the body; Christ in his relative capacity as a Head, would not be complete without his mystical body the church.

That filleth all in all: lest Christ should be thought to have any need of the church, because of her being said to be his fulness, it is added, that she herself is filled by Christ. Christ fills all his body, and all the members of it, with the gifts and graces of his Spirit, Eph 4:10.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

23. his bodyHis mystical andspiritual, not literal, body. Not, however, merely figurative, ormetaphorical. He is really, though spiritually, the Church’s Head.His life is her life. She shares His crucifixion and His consequentglory. He possesses everything, His fellowship with the Father, Hisfulness of the Spirit, and His glorified manhood, not merely forHimself, but for her, who has a membership of His body, of Hisflesh, and of His bones (Eph 5:30).

fulness“thefilled-up receptacle” [EADIE].The Church is dwelt in and filled by Christ. She is thereceptacle, not of His inherent, but of His communicated,plenitude of gifts and graces. As His is the “fulness”(Joh 1:16; Col 1:19;Col 2:9) inherently, so she isHis “fulness” by His impartation of it to her, in virtue ofher union to Him (Eph 5:18;Col 2:10). “The fullmanifestation of His being, because penetrated by His life”[CONYBEARE and HOWSON].She is the continued revelation of His divine life in human form; thefullest representative of His plenitude. Not the angelichierarchy, as false teachers taught (Col 2:9;Col 2:10; Col 2:18),but Christ Himself is the “fulness of the Godhead,” and sherepresents Him. KOPPEtranslates less probably, “the whole universal multitude.”

filleth all in allChristas the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of the world, constituted byGod (Col 1:16-19),fills all the universe of things with all things.“Fills all creation with whatever it possesses” [ALFORD].The Greek is, “filleth for Himself.“

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Which is his body,…. That is, which church is the body of Christ; as an human body is but one, consisting of various members, united to each other, and set in an exact proportion and symmetry, and in a proper subservience to one another, and which must be neither more nor fewer than they are; so the church of Christ is but one general assembly, which consists of many persons, of different gifts and usefulness, and are all united together under one head, Christ, whose name they bear, and are made to drink of the same Spirit; and these are placed in such order, as throw a glory and comeliness on each other, and to be useful to one another, so that it cannot be said of the meanest member, that there is no need of it; and the number of them can neither be increased nor diminished; and this is Christ’s body, his mystical body, which becomes his by the Father’s gift to him, and by his own purchase; to which he is united, and of which he is the only head; and which he loves as his own body, and supplies, directs, and defends:

the fulness of him that filleth all in all; besides the personal fulness which Christ has as God, and his fulness of ability and fitness for his work as Mediator, and his dispensatory fulness, which dwells in him for the use of his people, the church is his relative fulness, which fills him, and makes up Christ mystical; and which is filled by him, and is complete in him: and then will the church appear to be Christ’s fulness, when all the elect, both Jews and Gentiles, shall be gathered in; and when these are all filled with the grace designed for them; and when they are all grown up to their full proportion, or are arrived to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ; which will be a glorious sight to see, and very desirable: and this shows the certainty of the saints’ perseverance and salvation: for if anyone member, even the meanest, could be lost, the church would not be the fulness of Christ: and this may be further concluded, from its being his fulness, who

filleth all in all; which may be understood either more extensively; for he fills both worlds with inhabitants; he fills all places with his omnipresence, and all creatures with proper food and sustenance: or with a limitation to the church and people of God; he fills all his churches and ordinances with his gracious presence; and he fills the various societies of his saints with members and with officers; and these with the gifts and graces of his Spirit, suitable to their place and station; he fills all and every of the saints, all the vessels of mercy, whether greater or lesser, all sorts of them, of larger or meaner capacities; he fills all the powers and faculties of their souls, their hearts with joy, their minds with knowledge, their consciences with peace, their wills with spiritual desires, submission and resignation, and their affections with love to himself and people: in short, he fills them with all grace and goodness, and the fruits of righteousness; and so makes them meet for usefulness here, and for happiness hereafter; the fulness of the earth in Ps 24:1 is by the Jews interpreted of the souls of the righteous, and of the congregation of Israel h.

h Zohar in Gen. fol. 50. 2. & in Exod. fol. 21. 2.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Which (). “Which in fact is,” explanatory use of rather than .

The fulness of him that filleth all in all ( ). This is probably the correct translation of a much disputed phrase. This view takes in the passive sense (that which is filled, as is usual, Col 1:19) and as present middle participle, not passive. All things are summed up in Christ (1:10), who is the of God (Col 1:19), and in particular does Christ fill the church universal as his body. Hence we see in Ephesians the Dignity of the Body of Christ which is ultimately to be filled with the fulness () of God (3:19) when it grows up into the fulness () of Christ (Eph 4:13; Eph 4:16).

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Which is His body [] . The double relative is explanatory, seeing it is : by which I mean. Body, a living organism of which He is the head. See on Col 1:18.

The fullness. See on Joh 1:16; Rom 11:12; Col 1:19. That which is filled. The Church, viewed as a receptacle. Compare ch. 3 10. That filleth all in all (ta panta ejn pasin plhroumenou). Better, that filleth all things with all things. The expression is somewhat obscure. All things are composed of elements. Whatever things exist, God from His fullness fills with all those elements which belong to their being or welfare. The whole universe is thus filled by Him.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “Which is his body” (hetis estin to onoma autou) “Which is (exists) as the body, assembly , congregation, institution of Him.” The term “the church” is used in the scriptures in the same sense that the term “the school,” “the court,” and “the legislature” are used, meaning any school, any court, and any legislature –and does not imply that there exists or may exist a universal, invisible school, court, or legislature. In the same sense the term “His body” refers to any and each church body after the New Testament order. It is His and belongs to Jesus Christ

2) “The fulness of him” (to pleroma tou) “the fulness of the One (Him). “The church as an organization bears the full and only commission on earth to make disciples, baptize them, and teach them to observe all things whatsoever He has commanded. It was the “church ye,” I church body” to whom this authority of full work was given, not governments or not individuals, and not earthly institutions. “Whosoever will” may say come, Rev 22:17, but only a true New Testament church has authority or such jointly to do the full commissioned, three-fold labors of Mat 28:18-20.

3) “That filleth all in all” (ta panta en pasin pleroumenou) “That one filling all in all.” The New Testament church as an institution has the authority, commission, responsibility, and accountability to God and Jesus Christ to bear His message to all the nations, to every creature until He returns; at all times, in all places, under all circumstances the church is to be doing all His work 1) making disciples and believers, 2) baptizing them, and 3) teaching them, maturing them in separated, dedicated living from sin and selfishness to holiness and untiring labors for others, Rom 12:1-2; 1Co 6:19-20; 1Co 9:22-23; Eph 2:10; Php_2:5-16; 2Pe 1:4-11.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

23. The fullness of him that filleth all in all. This is the highest honor of the Church, that, until He is united to us, the Son of God reckons himself in some measure imperfect. What consolation is it for us to learn, that, not until we are along with him, does he possess all his parts, or wish to be regarded as complete! Hence, in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, [1Co 12:12 ] when the apostle discusses largely the metaphor of a human body, he includes under the single name of Christ the whole Church.

That filleth all in all. This is added to guard against the supposition that any real defect would exist in Christ, if he were separated from us. His wish to be filled, and, in some respects, made perfect in us, arises from no want or necessity; for all that is good in ourselves, or in any of the creatures, is the gift of his hand; and his goodness appears the more remarkably in raising us out of nothing, that he, in like manner, may dwell and live in us. There is no impropriety in limiting the word all to its application to this passage; for, though all things are regulated by the will and power of Christ, yet the subject of which Paul particularly speaks is the spiritual government of the Church. There is nothing, indeed, to hinder us from viewing it as referring to the universal government of the world; but to limit it to the case in hand is the more probable interpretation.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(23) The fulness of him that filleth all in all.The word pleroma, fulness, is used in a definite and almost technical sense in the Epistles of the Captivity, and especially in the Epistle to the Colossians, having clear reference to the speculations as to the Divine Nature and the emanations from it, already anticipating the future Gnosticism. The word itself is derived from a verb signifying, first, to fill; next (more frequently in the New Testament), to fulfil or complete. It is found (1) in a physical sense of the full contents of the baskets, in Mar. 6:43; Mar. 8:20; and of the earth, in 1Co. 10:26-28; and in Mat. 9:16, Mar. 2:21, it is applied to the patch of new cloth on an old garment. It is used next (2) of fulness, in sense of the complete tale or number, of time and seasons, in Eph. 1:10, Gal. 4:4; of the Jews and Gentiles in Rom. 11:12; Rom. 11:25. In the third place (3) it is applied to the full essence, including all the attributes, of a thing or person; as of the Law (Rom. 13:10), and of the blessing of Christ (Rom. 15:29). Lastly (4), in these Epistles it is applied, almost technically, to the fulness of the Divine Nature. Thus, in Col. 1:19 we have, It pleased the Father that in Christ all the fulnessi.e., all the fulness of the Divine Natureshould dwell; or (to take an admissible but less probable construction) In Him all the fulness is pleased to dwell; and this is explained in Eph. 2:9, In Him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. Similarly, though less strikingly, we read in this Epistle, that those who are in Christ are said (in Eph. 3:19; Eph. 4:13) to be filled up to all the fulness of God, and to come to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. In which of these last senses is the Church here said to be the fulness of Christ? If in any, probably in the last of all. As the individual, so the Church, by the presence of Him who filleth up all things for Himself in all, comes to be His fulness, the complete image of Him in all His glorified humanity. But it may be questioned whether it is not better to take here a different sense, corresponding to the patch in Mat. 9:16, and signifying the complement. In the original Greek of Euclid (in Book 1., Prop. 4), the cognate word, parapleroma, is used of the complements. In this compound word the idea is, no doubt, more unequivocally expressed. But of the simple word here employed it may be reasonably contended that, if one thing or person alone is contemplated, the pleroma must be the fulness of the one nature; if, as here, two are brought in, each will be the complement to the otheras the patch to the garment, and the garment to the patch. So here (says Chrysostom) the complement of the Head is the Body, and the complement of the Body is the Head. Thus by a daring expression, St. Paul describes our Lord as conceiving His glorified humanity incomplete without His Church; and then, lest this should seem to derogate even for a moment from His dignity, he adds the strongest declaration of His transcendent power, to fill up for Himself all things in all, in order to show that we are infinitely more incomplete without Him than He without us. This sense, bold as it is, certainly suits exactly the great idea of this Epistle, which differs from the parallel Colossian Epistle in thisthat while both dwell emphatically on Christ the Head, and the Church as His Body, there the chief stress is laid on the true Deity of the Head, here on the glory and privileges of the Body.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

23. His body So that he and the Church are one conceptual person. He unifies, vivifies, inspires that body with which, as its head, he is identical and one. All in all, is expressly limited in the parallel passage. 1Co 15:28. (see note,) to God the Father, or the whole Trinity. That the passages are parallel is clear from the same quotation from the Psalm being used in both. Him, therefore, refers not, we think, to Christ, but to God. Paul’s words regarding Christ in Eph 4:10, “fill all things,” are by no means equivalent, as Alford quotes them, to this repeated all in all of God. Besides, through this whole chapter and the next, the eternal origination of the Church is ascribed to God. Filleth, in the Greek, is passive in form, and most properly signifies is filled; or, (as the same word is rendered in Col 4:12; Joh 3:29, and elsewhere,) filled in the sense of complete, perfected, filled-out. Hence we understand that while the Church is Christ’s body, it is also the fulness of God, who is the full-orbed all in all. It is a question whether Paul intends fulness as imparted to Christ, or fulness as ever dwelling in God. By a comparison of the word as occurring in Eph 3:19, and Col 1:19, it seems to include both God’s fulness as indwelling, and as overflowing, by impartation, unto Christ. It is by that fulness, from God imparted, that the Church becomes Christ’s body. And so throughout both these chapters Christ is presented in his glorious subordination to God.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Eph 1:23. Fulness Fulness is here taken in a passive sense, for “a thing to be filled or completed;” as appears by the following words,of him that filleth all in all. That is, “It is Christ the head, who perfecteth the church, by supplying and furnishing all things to all the faithful members, to make them what they are and ought to be in that body.” See ch. Eph 5:18. Col 2:10; Col 3:10-11. Bishop Sherlocke observes, upon this passage from Eph 1:17. “What can be added to this description of power and authority?” And yet the Apostle, you observe, founds all this upon Christ’s resurrection, and his exaltation consequent to it. Then were all things put under his feet; then was he given to be head over the church, and set above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named. The scripture abounds in evidence of this kind; and I think there is nothingplainer in the gospel than that Christ Jesus is our Lord, because he hath redeemed us; that he is our King, being raised, by the Father, to all power and authority; and that he is our Mediator and

Intercessor, being set down on the right-hand of God in the heavenly places. But all this has reference only to his mediatorial reign, and not to his eternal Godhead, wherebyhe is “over all, GOD, blessed for ever. Amen.” The Gnostics generally, if not universally, used the word , fulness, in their writings, to signify all the holy and happy spirits in the universe, as constituting, in this passive sense, the fulness of the Deity. And as these heretics abounded in Asia Minor, and their writings were voluminous and much read, they were enabled to fix that passive meaning to the word , when used in a religious sense. St. Paul therefore uses the word here according to the common acceptation in which it was taken among the people to whom he was writing; at the same time securing the fundamental doctrine of the supreme Godhead of Christ, by declaring that he filleth all in all.

Inferences.Are we not, by divine grace and mercy, partakers of those privileges which St. Paul here celebrates with so much delight, and in the review of which, familiar as they were to his thoughts and discourses, he breaks forth, as it were, into a rapturous anthem, in the very beginning of this Epistle, as he likewise does in so many others? Ought not our hearts to be as warm in such devout acknowledgments? Are spiritual blessings in heavenly things, or places, in Christ Jesus, less valuable, now than they were seventeen or eighteen hundred years ago? Are not the necessities of our souls the same? Let us then join with the most grateful sentiments in the acclamation, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, &c. Let his faithful saints give him all the glory, that they are predestinated, with proper regard to the nature of his intelligent and free creatures, and made accepted in the Beloved, that they may be to the praise of the glory of his grace.

Let these united displays of his wisdom and love affect our hearts; for he has, indeed, abounded towards us in all wisdom and prudence. And let that holiness, which mingles its glories in the whole scheme, be also remembered. Let it never be forgotten, that we are predestinated to be holy and without blame before him in love, that we might attain to that blameless temper which love alone can inspire and support: and that without this holiness, whatever be the gracious intentions, or predestinations of God concerning us, we shall never see the Lord, if the holy God be true, or consistent with himself.

For this purposethat we may be holythe mystery of his will is made known to us, and that grand, impartial, and illustrious plan is displayed, which is so well worthy of all the perfections of God, even his design to gather together in one all things in Christ, to unite all good and happy spirits under him as the common Head, and to make him the bond of their eternal union to God and to each other. What are we sinful creatures, that we, if faithful to the grace of God, may be received into such an association? Let us never forget this truth upon earth, but always feel its vital influence, and we shall for ever commemorate it in heaventhat it is through his blood we have redemption. Then, his Spirit will be given us as the seal of the promises, and the earnest of our inheritance; and, by more abundant communications of his sanctifying influences, our souls will be raised to a blessed anticipation of those enjoyments which will endure for ever, and will be for ever new and delightful!

Let me also observe, that faith in Christ, and love to all the saints, is in this chapter put by the Apostle for the whole of a Christian temper. May they be more apparent and operative in all who call themselves by the Christian nameeven a firm and active faith, a warm and unbounded love, which will forget every thing that would alienate our hearts from our brethren; and only remember, that they are saints, consecrated to God, and sanctified by him; that they are believers in Christ Jesus, and therefore one with him, who is our Head, and our All; whose love has given to us, and to them, whatever is lovely in either; who will glorify all his faithful saints, and make them so happy together, that the very thought of that happiness should cause our hearts to overflow with every benevolent affection, as well as with perpetual gratitude to our Divine Deliverer, who is the source of it.

Let us also learn, by the excellent and pathetic prayer of the Apostle, what are the most important petitions that we can offer for ourselves and our Christian friends. Surely this must be numbered among them, that the eyes of our understandings may be enlightened more and more, that so we may more clearly and affectionately know what is the great and glorious hope which our Christian calling sets before us. Alas! as yet we know but little of itbut little of that great and glorious inheritance, which God will divide among his faithful saints, and in the enjoyment of which he will for ever unite them all. But adored be his grace if we so know it as deliberately to make choice of it, as to give up every interest and hope inconsistent with it, and determinately to say, This is our rest, we have desired it. (Psa 132:14.)

He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing, is God. (2Co 5:5.) It is, indeed, an exertion of a divine power; the same that quickened the dead body of our Redeemer, and exalted him to his mediatorial throne. Let our souls, like that of the Apostle, presently take the hint, and soar upwards, as with an eagle’s, or rather an angel’s wingsoar to those glorious abodes, where he sits at the right-hand of God, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named. There he reigns, not only as the sovereign Guardian of the universe, but in the more endearing character of the Head of the Church, bearing the same tender affection to it, exerting the same care over it, as the head over the members; calling the church, narrow as its boundaries seem, his fulness, though he filleth all in all.

“Blessed Lord! Fill our souls more and more with all the graces of thy Spirit, and extend the boundaries of the church all abroad! Unite us in these dearest bonds; and give us always to act worthy of that honour which thou conferrest upon us, when thou callest us thy body, thy flesh, and thy bones.” Eph 5:30.

REFLECTIONS.1st. This Epistle opens with the Apostle’s usual address: Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, appointed to this high office and honour by the will of God immediately revealed from heaven, to the saints which are at Ephesus, by profession and practice separated from this present evil world, and sanctified by the Holy Ghost; And to the faithful in Christ Jesus, who by faith are united to him, and approve their fidelity before him: Grace be to you, and peace, in all their comprehensive import, from God our Father, the fountain of blessedness; and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the purchaser and bestower of every good and perfect gift. Note; (1.) All true Christians are saints upon earth. (2.) They who have obtained grace to be faithful, have need still to look to the same fountain whence they derive continual supplies, that their stability may be secured, and their peace be enlarged.

2nd, Deeply impressed with a sense of the inestimable blessings, of which, in Christ Jesus, they had been made partakers, the grateful Apostle breaks forth in praises and thanksgivings to the God of all grace.
1. In general: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the adored Redeemer, in whom he is now become our reconciled and covenant God, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things, or places, in Christ, blessings descending from above, and leading up our souls to high and heavenly things, till, if faithful to the grace of God, we reach the mansions of eternal blessedness. And for all these rich gifts which we now enjoy, and all the greater glory which we hope for, be everlasting praise, honour, and thanksgiving, ascribed to the everblessed Fountain of mercies. Note; (1.) We cannot bless God as he blesseth us: his blessings are real gifts conferred; ours are only the grateful acknowledgments that we owe for them. (2.) All the spiritual blessings which we enjoy are freely given to us in Christ Jesus.

2. In particular:
(1.) He blesses God for the reconciliation and acceptance obtained through Christ Jesus: Wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved, in his boundless grace he has taken us for his own, and, regarding us as we stand united with his dear Son, embraces us with the arms of his love, accepting both our persons and services for his sake.

(2.) He praises God for the great and inestimable blessings of redemption and remission of sins, through the adored Saviour: in whom we have redemption, a deliverance from evil, and a restoration to the capability of enjoying all blessedness, in virtue of the inestimable price which he has paid, through his most precious blood, shed on purpose to satisfy divine justice, and obtain our deliverance from the curse of a broken law; in virtue whereof we have the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace; though it was due to our substitute, the pardon is absolutely free to us: and that such a Redeemer should be ever provided, was itself a matter of the most transcendant grace and favour; wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, manifesting the most astonishing depths of wisdom in the contrivance, and prudence in the execution of this wondrous scheme of salvation.

(3.) He blesses God for the knowledge which he had communicated to them of his will. Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, which was hid from former ages, or but darkly made known, but now is revealed to us, both by an external revelation of it clearly in his word, and by the internal illumination of his Spirit, according to his good pleasure, which he hath purposed in himselfa purpose of infinite love and advantage to all who will submit to be saved by gracethat in the dispensation of the fulness of times under the gospel, the last dispensation of grace which will be vouchsafed to the sinful sons of men, he might gather together in one all things in Christ, reducing things again to order from the confusion which sin had introduced, recovering all his faithful saints, whether Jews or Gentiles, from the miseries of their fallen state, and, under Christ as their living head, uniting them in one body; both which are in heaven and which are on earth, angels as well as saints being formed into one glorious company, even in him, who is their centre of union, and whom they acknowledge as their common Lord.

(4.) He blesses God for the glorious inheritance obtained in Christ for the faithful. In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, holding a title to eternal life by faith in him; being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will, that we, to whom the word was first preached, should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ, and embraced his gospel. (See the Annotations and also the Introduction to this chapter.) In whom ye Gentiles also trusted, and obtained, through faith in him, a title to a like inheritance with us, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and became thereby obedient to the faith, and partakers in common of all our blessings.

(5.) He blessed God for the seal and assurance which they had received of their interest in the promises. In whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, which, shining on his own work, conveyed the fullest evidence to your consciences of your particular interest in the salvation of the gospel, which is the earnest of our inheritance, a pledge and foretaste of the glory which shall be revealed in all the faithful saints of Goduntil the redemption of the purchased possession, when the righteous shall be brought to the perfection of happiness above, and the work be completed in the resurrection of a glorified body at the last day, unto the praise of his glory, when to eternity his great name shall be exalted by all his saints, who shall surround his throne with never-ending praises.

3rdly, The Apostle accompanies his grateful thanksgivings with his affectionate prayers. Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, shewn by the most genuine proofs, cease not to give thanks for you at every approach to the throne of grace, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our covenant God in him, the Father of glory, may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him, making a more clear and experimental discovery to you of the glorious truths of his word, and manifesting with greater energy his love to your souls; that you may know, choose, and delight in him as your God; the eyes of your understanding, which by nature were darkened, being now enlightened, that ye may know, (1.) What is the hope of his calling, beholding with the spiritual eye of faith, and, in a blessed measure, now enjoying the unutterably glorious privileges which it comprehends: And, (2.) What the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, at present in all the inestimably precious gifts and graces which he bestows, and hereafter in the complete and everlasting blessedness which he hath provided for all persevering believers: (3.) And what is the exceeding greatness of his mighty power to us-ward who believe, how surpassing marvellous, that we, who were dead in sins, should ever be quickened to the life of faith and grace, preserved amidst all the enemies, spiritual and temporal, without and within, which fight against us, and, if faithful unto death, our bodies at last raised from the dust in glory, according to the working of his mighty power, an act of omnipotence no less than that which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, leading captivity captive, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, triumphant over all his foes, and exalted to the throne of Majesty on high, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come; whether angels of light, or demons of darkness, or earthly potentates and princes, by whatever name or title distinguished, all are made subject unto him; and hath put all things under his feet, as the exalted Mediator, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church; to govern, protect, and preserve his faithful people from all foes; while he, as their living head of vital influence, actuates, quickens, and strengthens every member of his church, which is his body mystical, and in that sense they are the fulness of him; though in himself Christ is infinitely perfect, and needeth us not; while we receive our all out of him that filleth all in all, supplying every want of his faithful saints, and bestowing on them the abundance of his grace, that they may grow up unto him in all things, and be conformed to him their head. Note; (1.) Prayer is the constant duty which we owe to each other. (2.) The prospect of the glorious inheritance before us should quicken our desires after it. (3.) Christ hath all power committed to him for the good of his saints; and they may be confident of his care and support in every time of need.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Eph 1:23 gives information ( , ut quae , denotes the attribute as belonging to the nature of the ; see Khner, II. p. 497) as to the relation in which the church stands to this Head given to it. It is the body of the Head.

] namely, in the mystical sense, according to the essential fellowship of spirit and of life, which unites the collective mass of believers with Christ, their Ruler, into an integrant and organic unity, wherein each single individual is a member of Christ in Christ’s body. Comp. Eph 2:16 , Eph 4:4 ; Eph 4:12 ; Eph 4:16 , Eph 5:23 ; Eph 5:30 ; Col 1:18 ; Col 1:24 ; Col 2:19 ; Col 3:15 ; Rom 12:5 ; 1Co 6:15 ; 1Co 10:17 ; 1Co 12:13 ; 1Co 12:27 .

.] a significant explanatory parallel to , which more precisely characterizes the relation of the church to Christ, in so far as the latter, as Head over all, is also its Head; and that in non-figurative language. The church, namely, is the Christ-filled , i.e. that which is filled by Him, [118] in so far, namely, as Christ, by the Holy Spirit, dwells and rules in the Christians, penetrates the whole Christian mass with His gifts and life-powers, and produces all Christian life (Rom 8:9-10 ; 2Co 3:17 ; Joh 15:5 ; Eph 3:17 ; Col 1:27 ). His presence and activity, through the medium of the Spirit, fills the collective Christian body. And Christ, by whom the Christian church is filled, is the same who filleth the all ( i.e. the rerum universitas , whose Head He is, Eph 1:22 ) with all (omnibus rebus); for by Him was the world created, and by Him, as the immanent ground of life (Heb 1:3 ), is it maintained and governed (1Co 8:6 ; Col 1:16 ff.; Usteri, Lehrbegr . p. 315 ff.); hence this interpretation of yields no intolerable sense (Schenkel), but is entirely Pauline. Accordingly, by the fact that the church is named the of Christ, the idea that Christ is the Head of the church , of His body, receives elucidation; and by the characteristic designation ., is elucidated the conception, that He as Head over all is Head of the church, Eph 1:22 .

is here (comp. generally on Eph 1:10 ) equivalent to . Thus, as is well known, not only are ships’ cargoes or crews (Dem. 565, 1), but also the ships themselves so far as they are freighted or manned called (Lucian, V. H . ii. 37, 38); thus it is said in Philo, de praem. et poen. p. 920, of the soul: ; thus among the Gnostics the supersensible world is called , the filled , in opposition to , the empty , the world of the senses (Baur, Gnosis , pp. 157, 462 ff.). See also Fritzsche, ad Rom. II. p. 470. is not: everywhere (Baumgarten-Crusius), in all modes of manifestation (de Wette, Bleek), in all points (Harless), or the like; but instrumental , [119] as at Eph 5:18 : with all ; and is middle , as in Xen. Hell . v. 4. 56, vi. 2. 14; Dem. p. 1208, 14; 1221, 12, in connection with which the medial sense is not to be overlooked: qui sibi implet ; for Christ is Lord and final aim (Eph 1:22 ; Col 1:16 ; Heb 2:10 ) of all. Comp. Barnabas, Ep . 12: , . The ubiquity of the body of Christ , which our text was formerly employed to defend (see especially Calovius), and even now is once more adduced to prove (Philippi, Dogm. IV. 1, p. 434), is the less to be found here, seeing that the , to be taken instrumentally, makes us think only of the all-penetrating continuous activity of Christ. The continuity of this activity is implied in the present ., in which Hofmann, II. 1, p. 539, finds a gradual development, and that of the restoration of the world; of which last there is here no mention at all, but, on the contrary, of the upholding and governing of the world, as Col 1:17 ; Heb 1:3 . Comp. Hermas, Past . sim. iii. 9. 14. As regards the explanations that differ from ours, we may remark (1) Many, who have rightly apprehended and , wrongly restrict to the spiritual operations in the Christians , either, as Grotius: “Christus in omnibus, credentibus sc. , implet omnia, mentem luce, voluntatem piis affectibus, corpus ipsum obsequendi facultate, ad quae dona perpetua accedebant primis temporibus etiam illa , etc.,” or, as Flatt (comp. Zachariae and Morus): “who fills all without distinction of nations, Jews and Gentiles, everywhere, or always [ ?], with good.” In this view the fact is overlooked that , after the preceding , admits of no sort of limitation, and that, if were designed only to say how far the church is the of Christ, this whole addition would be quite as superfluous for the Christian consciousness as it would be indistinctly expressed. We have, on the contrary, in . . . a climax of the representation, which advances from that which the church is in relation to Christ ( ) to His relation towards the universe (hence, too, is prefixed). [120] (2) Since and . . . are significantly parallel, and no change of subject is indicated; and since, on the other hand, the thought, that the church is the of God , would be inappropriate here, where the idea: Christ is its head, is dwelt on, all explanations fall to the ground which refer . to God , such as that of Theodoret: , . . ., and of Koppe, by whom the sense is alleged to be: “the whole wide realm of the All-Ruler!” Comp. Rosenmller. Homberg, Parerg . p. 289, Wetstein (“Christus est plenitudo, gloria patris omnia in omnibus implentis”), and Meier refer the genitive to God , but regard as apposition to ; Meier: “Him, the fulness of Him who filleth all in all; for in Christ there dwells the fulness of God (Col 2:9 ), and it is God who fills the universe” (Jer 23:24 , al. ). This explanation is manifestly involved, makes an insertion which, if nothing further were to be added to it, would be after quite aimless and idle, and leaves without more precise analysis. The same reasons hold also in opposition to Bengel, who regards as accusative absolute (comp. on Rom 12:1 ), as epiphonema of what was said from Eph 1:20 onwards: “Hoc, quod modo explanavi, inquit apostolus, repraesentat nobis plenitudinem Patris omnia implentis in omnibus, ut mathematici dicunt: id quod erat demonstrandum.” (3) Since it is self-evident that Christ, as Head of the church, is not without this His body, and since it could not therefore enter the apostle’s mind, at the solemn close, too, of the section, to bring forward the fact that the body belongs to the completeness of the head, all those explanations fell to the ground as quite inappropriate, which take as supplementum (Mat 9:16 ; Mar 2:21 ), [121] in which case some were consistent enough to take likewise in the sense of completing, as Chrysostom, Oecumenius, Theophylact, Menochius, Boyd, Estius, [122] and others; and some inconsistent enough to explain it, incompatibly with the paronomasia, by implere , and thus differently from , as Beza, [123] Calovius, comp. Calvin, Balduin, Baumgarten; also Hahn, Theol. d. N.T. p. 219 f.: “His destination, to fill all in all, is completely attained only in the church.” (4) The necessity for taking in one and the same sense is fatal to the explanation of as equivalent to , copia, coetus numerosus (Storr, Morus, Stolz, Koppe, Rosenmller [124] ), or even: full measure (Cameron, Bos). Further, (5) the passive construction of (Vulg.) leaves absolutely no tolerable explanation of ; for which reason not only the exposition of Chrysostom, Theophylact, Estius, and others (see above, under No. 3), but also the similar one of Jerome [125] and that of Holzhausen, are to be rejected. The last-mentioned discovers the meaning: “Christ carries in Himself the fulness of eternal blessings” ( , signifying the eternal!). Yet, again, (6) seeing that neither in itself nor in accordance with the context, denotes the Divine , of which the was the real presence (Buxtorf, Lex. Talm. p. 2394 ff.), there falls to the ground not only the explanation of those who treat as equivalent in meaning to temple , like Michaelis and Bretschneider, but also that of Harless: “the apostle designates the church with the same word, by which he elsewhere [?] designates the abundance of the glory dwelling in Christ and God, and issuing from Him. It, however, is the fulness of Christ, not as though it were the glory which dwelt in Him, but because He causes His glory to dwell, as in all the universe, so also in it. It is the glory, not of one who without it would starve, but of Him who fills the universe in all respects; [126] (Isa 6:3 ); but it is the glory of Christ, because He is united with it alone, as the head with its body.” Lastly, (7) Rckert also proved unsuccessful in his attempt to explain it: the church, in his view, is designated as the means ( , that whereby the comes about) by which Christ carries out in all ( , masculine ) that which is committed to Him for completion ( ), as “the means of His accomplishing the great destination which devolves upon Him, namely, the universal restoration and bringing back to God.” Against this may be urged both the language itself, since never signifies the means of accomplishment, and the context, which neither speaks of a restoration and bringing back to God nor furnishes any limitation of to that which is implied in the divine plan.

We may add that there cannot be shown here as regards the use of , any more than previously as regards the classes of angels, any direct or indirect polemic preference to Gnosticism. To the later speculations of Gnosticism, however, the forms of the transcendent doctrines of the apostle could not but be welcome; not as if Gnosticism had thought out its material in accordance with such Scriptural forms (Tertull. de praescr. 38), but it poured it into their mould, and, moreover, further developed and amplified the forms which it found ready to hand.

[118] Not, as Elsner ( Obss. p. 204) would take it: that, by which Christ is filled , against which there would be doubtless no linguistic objection (see Fritzsche, ad Rom. II. p. 469 f.), but it may be urged that the church is not to be thought of as dwelling in Christ, but Christ as dwelling in the church ( 1Co 3:16 ; 2Co 6:12 ; Eph 2:22 ), and that the following paraphrastic designation of Christ would not be in keeping with that conception.

[119] Comp. Plut. de plac. phil. i. 7. 9: . Paul himself has employed with such varied construction (with the dative, Rom 1:29 ; with the genitive, Rom 15:14 ; with the accusative, Col 1:9 ), that even the combination with cannot surprise us, a combination which he has also in Phi 4:19 .

[120] It is the more mistaken a course, in spite of this advance, yet again to refer to the Christians . This error has misled Schenkel to put into our passage the thought: “ in all members of the Christian community [ ] the Divine aim of the Creator, underlying the structure of the universe, receives its accomplishment through the life of the exalted Redeemer flowing into them .” But little skill is attributed to the apostle, when it is supposed that he designed to express this thought by means of the words he has written.

[121] So also Schwegler in Zeller’s Jahrb. 1844, p. 387, where, moreover, the comparison of the union of Christ and the church to marriage (Eph 5:25 ff.) is brought in quite unwarrantably. As man and wife supplement each other to form the totality of the species (as head and body), so, too, the church (as the body of Christ) is held to be the complementum of Christ (as the head of the church). Baur, too ( Paulus , p. 426), takes the union of Christ with the church here as marriage (as a syzygy), and explains entirely from the Gnostic point of view. By . ., in his view, nothing else is affirmed than that “Christ is the ( the totality of the aeons ) in the highest absolute sense, in so far as it is all in an absolute manner ( ), which He fills with Himself as the absolute contents thereof.” Accordingly, is to be taken neither simply in an active nor simply in a passive sense, but in such wise that the two notions pass over the one into the other; because, in fact, that which makes full is in turn that which is made full, that which is filled with its definite contents. “As , Christ is the , filling the with its definite contents; and this itself is the absolute totality filled with its absolute contents.” Comp. Baur, d. Christenth. d. drei ersten Jahrh . p. 296, and Neutest. Theol . p. 258. Operations of this sort, which do not exegetically educe their results, but import them, are too much dominated by the presupposition of post-apostolic relations not to be safely left to their own fate, to which they have already been consigned.

[122] “Qui secundum omnia, s. quoad omnia in omnibus sui corporis membris adimpletur. Nisi enim essent hic quidem pes ejus, ille vero manus, alius autem aliud membrum non perficeretur Christus secundum rationem capitis,” Estius. He is followed by Bisping, who here finds the basis and germ of the doctrine of the treasure of the merits of the saints!

[123] “Omnino autem hoc addidit apostolus, ut sciamus Christum per se non indigere hoc supplemento, ut qui efficiat omnia in omnibus re vera,” Beza. Calovius: “Tanto in pretio Christus suam habet ecclesiam, tam tenere amat, ut se quodammodo imperfectum et mancum reputet, nisi nobis conjungatur, et nos ipsi tanquam corpus capiti uniamur ceu ejus .” Comp. Luther’s gloss; also Apol. Conf. A , p. 145. Calvin, moreover, prefers to limit to the spiritualis gubernatio ecclesiae .

[124] Morus: “Quae proinde est societas subditorum ejus et hominum magna copia, quae colit hunc (quae subest huic, quae sub hoc rege vivit), qui omnes omnino in hoc coetu omnibus generibus bonorum accumulare de die in diem solet.” Rosenmller: “Coetus numerosus illius, qui omnes (homines) omnibus bonis replet,” by which God is held to be meant.

[125] “Sicut adimpletur imperator, si quotidie ejus augetur exercitus, ita et Dominus noster Jesus Christus in eo, quod sibi credunt omnia et per dies singulos ad fidem ejus veniunt, ipse adimpletur in omnibus, sic tamen, ut omnia adimpleantur in omnibus, i.e. ut qui in eum credunt, cunctis virtutibus pleni sint.”

[126] According to Harless, means in every way , and implies that not in one way (only) is the sphere of earth full of the glory of Christ; the glory of the Creator is one, that of the Enlightener before the incarnation (Joh 1:3 ) another, that of the Redeemer another. But how is the limitation of to the earth to be justified? And are, then, these three modes of glory adduced, which after all the reader must have guessed at without any hint, sufficient to exhaust the quite unlimited ? and is the thought of the glory of the Creator and the Enlightener before the incarnation in keeping with the present participle? The whole explanation pours into the simple words a series of thoughts and reservations, in presence of which the words remain a very riddle of the Sphinx.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

REFLECTIONS

My soul! look up for grace, as Paul did, to bless God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for the wonders of divine love, as set forth in this precious Chapter from whence flow all the mercies to the Church, in time; and to all eternity. Behold ! my soul, what method the Lord was pleased to make use of, among all the stores of his Omnipotency, to make known his love to the Church! In the Person of his clear Son, he caused the whole to center. And the Lord was pleased, to render the whole ten thousand times more blessed, in making all to flow in, and from, and through, a nature like our own, in the Person of the God-Man Christ Jesus. Pause, my soul! admire, and adore each glorious Person, in their Office-character, in this vast concern. Bless God the Father, for his love, in choosing, predestinating, adopting, and accepting, the whole body the Church, in Christ, before the foundation of the world ! Bless God the Son, for that love of his, in marrying the Church from everlasting; and for redeeming her from the ruins of the fall, during her time-state upon earth. And bless God the Holy Ghost, for having abounded toward the Church in all wisdom and prudence, in making known the mystery of his will, and in all his regenerating grace and mercy. Yea, blessed forever be Jehovah, in his threefold character of Person, for Christ, and all blessings in Christ, temporal, spiritual, end eternal blessings, forever!

Lord! enable thy Church, to be looking forward to that glorious day of God, when the fullness of times being come, all things shall be gathered in Christ. What a gathering of thy people will this be, in glories unspeakable ? What a dispensation of terror to thy foes ? Precious, precious Jesus! how sweet is it to my soul, the assurance, of being now gathered unto thee in grace, as the earnest, and pledge of being then gathered unto thee in glory. Lord! fill my poor soul with thy fullness; and manifest daily to my joy, and thy praise, that thou art indeed my Head, and the fullness, which filleth all in all!

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,

23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

Ver. 23. The fulness of him ] That is, of Christ, who having voluntarily subjected himself to be our Head, accounts not himself complete without his members. In which respect we have the honour of making Christ perfect as the members do the body.

That filleth all in all ] Not only all the saints, but all of the saints; all their capacities, all their powers, parts, desires, endeavours. Thus he filleth , , all, and in all ordinances, occurrences, providences, relations, comforts, &c.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Eph 1:23 . : which is His body . The (not ) introduces a profound statement, the interpretation of which is much contested. It is supplementary to the preceding, and further defines the relation between Christ and the Church in respect of His Headship. The , therefore, has something of its qualitative force, pointing to what belongs to the nature of the Church (Meyer), and in that way giving the ground of God’s gift of Christ to the . Or (with Ell., etc.) it may be taken in the subdued, explanatory sense “which indeed”. The word , which passes readily from its literal meaning into the figurative sense of a society , a number of men constituting a social or ethical union ( cf. Eph 4:4 ), is frequently applied in the NT Epistles to the Church, with or without , as the mystical body of Christ, the fellowship of believers regarded as an organic, spiritual unity in a living relation to Christ, subject to Him, animated by Him, and having His power operating in it. The relation between Christ and the Church, therefore, is not an external relation, or one simply of Superior and inferior, Sovereign and subject, but one of life and incorporation. The Church is not merely an institution ruled by Him as President, a Kingdom in which He is the Supreme Authority, or a vast company of men in moral sympathy with Him, but a Society which is in vital connection with Him, having the source of its life in Him, sustained and directed by His power, the instrument also by which He works. : the fulness of Him that filleth all in all . The preceding sentence carries the idea of the Church far beyond the limited conception of a concrete institution or outward, visible organisation, and lifts us to the grander conception of a great spiritual fellowship, which is one under all varieties of external form and constitution in virtue of the presence of Christ’s Spirit in it, and catholic as embracing all believers and existing wherever any such are found. It is the conception of the Church which pervades this Epistle ( cf. Eph 3:10 ; Eph 3:21 ; Eph 5:23-25 ; Eph 5:27 ; Eph 5:29 ; Eph 5:32 ). It appears again in similar terms in the sister Epistle (Col 1:18 ; Col 1:24 ), and elsewhere in the varied phraseology of the “royal priesthood” (1Pe 2:9 ) and the “Church of the Firstborn” (Heb 12:23 ). It is this supreme idea of the Church as a spiritual order the essence of which is a living relation to Christ, that receives further expression in the profound sentence with which the paragraph closes. The great difficulty here is with the term itself. The other terms are easier. For the of the TR, which has the most meagre attestation, (supported by the great uncials, etc.) must be substituted (with Beng., Griesb., LTTr WRV). The “all” therefore must be taken here in the sense which it has in Eph 1:10 “ the all,” the whole system of things, made by Christ and having in Him the ground of its being, its continuance, its order (Heb 1:3 ; Col 1:16-17 ; 1Co 8:6 ). The will have a corresponding extension of meaning, “with all things ” not merely with all blessings, gifts or spiritual requirements . The universe itself and all the things that make its fulness ( cf. “the earth and the fulness thereof,” Psa 24:1 ) are alike made and maintained by Christ. The prep, is taken by some in its primary force of in . But it is difficult then to find a natural sense for the clause; the interpretations proposed, e.g. , “in all points” (Harless), “in all modes of manifestation” (Bleek), etc., going beyond the actual terms. It is best to understand it as the instrumental , of which we have an instance in ch. Eph 5:18 (Mey., Ell., Alf., and most) “with all things”. Some strangely take as masc. here, supposing the point to be that Christ supplies in all His believing members all the things with which they need to be provided (Haupt, Moule). The may be a pure passive, and so it is taken by some (Vulg., Chrys., etc.). In that case Christ would be described as Himself “filled as to all things”. It occurs, however, also as a middle with an active sense (Xen., Hell. , v., 4, 56; vi., 2, 14, etc.). So it is rendered here by some of the Versions (Syr., Copt., Goth., Arm.), and the sense of “filling” best suits the context. The middle, however, probably retains something of its proper reciprocal or reflexive force, conveying the idea of filling the totality of things for Himself .

What is to be said now of the term itself? There are some interpretations which may at once be set aside, e.g., the means of fulfilling (Rck.), the Church being described as the medium or instrument by which Christ accomplishes His destined work of bringing all things back to God; coetus numerosus , with reference to the multitude of those who are subject to Christ (Storr, Rosenm., etc.); perfection , in the objective sense of the term, the Church being Christ’s perfect work (Oltr.) a meaning which goes beyond the term itself; the totality of the aeons , in the Gnostic sense, Christ and the Church being viewed here in union and the two ideas, “that which makes full” and “that which is made full,” being supposed to pass over the one into the other (Baur). The choice is between the active sense of “that which fills or completes” and the passive sense of “that which is filled”. The former is favoured by Chrys., cum., Aquin., Schwegler, Abb., etc., and it must be admitted to be linguistically possible. Verbals in – , it is true, have usually the pass, sense, and this one formed from (which means both to fill and to fulfil ) would most naturally be taken as = “that which is filled,” or “that which is fulfilled or completed”. It is argued indeed by Light, in a weighty dissertation on “The meaning of ” ( Saint Paul’s Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon , pp. 257 273) that nouns of this formation are always passive, expressing either the product of the action denoted by the active verb, or that action itself regarded as a completed thing; and further that in the case of , if we follow out the idea of fulfilling rather than that of filling , we shall not require to give it now an active sense and again a passive, but shall be able to take it in all its occurrences as a real passive , denoting result in one aspect or another. But, while it is possible enough to understand it in this way in all the passages in the Epistles, it is difficult to carry the passive sense through the various occurrences in the Gospels ( e.g. , Mat 9:16 ; Mar 2:27 ; Mar 8:20 ). Nor does it seem easy to adjust the properly passive sense to all the passages either in the LXX ( cf. Eze 5:2 ; Dan 10:3 ), or in profane Greek ( e.g. , Soph., Trach. , 1203; Eurip., Troad. , 824; Philo, de Abr. , ii., p. 39), without putting somewhat strained interpretations on some of the cases. The idea, however, that results from allowing to have the active sense here is not germane to the general scope of the paragraph. That idea is that the Church is that which makes Christ Himself complete. A head, however perfect in itself, if it is without members, is something incomplete. So Christ, who is the Head of the Church, requires the Church to make His completeness, just as the Church which is His body requires Him as the Head to make it a complete and living thing. But the main thought of the whole paragraph is what Christ is and does in relation to the universe and the Church, not what the Church is to Him or does for Him, and the cannot have the sense of “Him who is being filled” without putting a forced meaning on the . Hence is to be taken in the passive sense here, as is done by most commentators, and the idea is that the Church is not only Christ’s body but that which is filled by Him . In Col 1:19 ; Col 2:9 the whole , or every plenitude of the Godhead, the very fulness of the Godhead, the totality of the Divine powers and qualities, is said to be in Christ, so that He alone is to be recognised as Framer and Governor of the world, and there is neither need nor place for any intermediate beings as agents in those works of creating, upholding and administering. Here the conception is that this plenitude of the Divine powers and qualities which is in Christ is imparted by Him to His Church, so that the latter is pervaded by His presence, animated by His life, filled with His gifts and energies and graces. He is the sole Head of the universe, which is supplied by Him with all that is needed for its being and order. He is also the sole Head of the Church, which receives from Him what He Himself possesses and is endowed by Him with all that it requires for the realisation of its vocation.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

His body Compare Eph 3:5, Eph 3:6.

fulness. See Eph 1:10. His members “fill up” the body of Christ, and the body of Christ fills up and completes “the dispensation of the fulness of the times”. The apostle adopts the term used by the Gnostics, pleroma (Col 2:9, Col 2:10). See note on Eph 2:2 (prince).

filleth all in all. He fills up all the members with all spiritual gifts and graces.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Eph 1:23. , the fulness of Him, that filleth all in all) This is neither predicated of the Church, as most think, nor is it construed with gave, according to the opinion of others; but is put absolutely in the accusative, as , the testimony, is construed in 1Ti 2:6. For it is an Epiphonema,[18] put after those things which are spoken of at Eph 1:20, and by it the apostle implies, that there is in Christ the fulness of the Father, who fills all in all. See on the fulness of God, of Christ, and of the Spirit, ch. Eph 3:19, Eph 4:13, Eph 5:18; likewise ch. Eph 4:10; Joh 1:14; on the fulness of the times, ch. Eph 1:10. The glory of Divine love fills all things, and in Christ extends itself over all. The passage has an analogy to 1Co 15:28. What I have just now explained, the apostle means to say, vividly exhibits to us the fulness, etc., which, as mathematicians say, was the thing to be demonstrated [quod erat demonstrandum]. The whole of this (the whole of the preceding statements) may be reduced to [be brought under] this title or brief description, , in all) The neuter including the power of the masculine.-, i.e. . But the force of the Middle voice is stronger [than that of the active] in denoting the mutual relation of Him who fills, and of those who are filled.

[18] See App. An exclamation subjoined to the relation or proof of some important topic.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

his: Eph 2:16, Eph 4:4, Eph 4:12, Eph 5:23-32, Rom 13:5, 1Co 12:12-27, Col 1:18, Col 1:24, Col 3:15

fulness: Eph 3:19, Eph 4:10, Joh 1:16, 1Co 12:6, 1Co 15:28, Col 1:19, Col 2:9, Col 2:10, Col 3:11

Reciprocal: Exo 26:6 – one tabernacle Exo 36:10 – General Jer 23:24 – Do Joh 3:13 – even Joh 17:26 – that Rom 12:5 – General 1Co 6:15 – your 1Co 10:17 – we being 1Co 11:3 – the head of every 1Co 12:27 – General Eph 4:13 – fulness Eph 5:30 – General

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

(Eph 1:23.) -which indeed is His body. -welche ja, as it is rendered by de Wette. Khner, 781, 4, 5. Of this meaning of there are many examples in the New Testament, though it has also other significations. Head over all things to the church, which in truth is His body. The mode of expression is not uncommon. Chap. Eph 2:16, Eph 4:4; Eph 4:12; Eph 4:16, Eph 5:23; Eph 5:30; 1Co 12:15; Col 1:18; Col 1:24; Col 2:19; Col 3:15, etc. Head and body are correlative, and are organically connected. The body is no dull lump of clay, no loose coherence of hostile particles; but bone, nerve, and vessel give it distinctive form, proportion, and adaptation. The church is not a fortuitous collection of believers, but a society, shaped, prepared, and life-endowed, to correspond to its Head. The Head is one, and though the corporeal members are many, yet all is marked out and curiously wrought with symmetry and grace to serve the one design; there being organization, and not merely juxtaposition. There is first a connection of life: if the head be dissevered, the body dies. The life of the church springs from its union to Christ by the Spirit, and if any member or community be separated from Christ, it dies. There is also a connection of mind: the purposes of the head are wrought out by the corporeal organs-the tongue that speaks, or the foot that moves. The church should have no purpose but Christ’s glory, and no work but the performance of His commands. There is at the same time a connection of power: the organs have no faculty of self-motion, but move as they are directed by the governing principle within. The corpse lies stiff and motionless. Energy to do good, to move forward in spiritual contest and victory, and to exhibit aggressive influence against evil, is all derived from union with Christ. There is, in fine, a connection of sympathy. T he pain or disorder of the smallest nerve or fibre vibrates to the Head, and there it is felt. Jesus has not only cognizance of us, but He has a fellow-feeling with us in all our infirmities and trials. And the members of the body are at the same time reciprocally connected, and placed in living affinity, so that mutual sympathy, unity of action, co-operation, and support are anticipated and provided for. No organ is superfluous, and none can defy or challenge its fellow. Similar fulness and adjustment reign in the church. See under Eph 4:15-16. Not only is the church His body, but also-

-the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.

1. The term is in apposition to , and is not governed by , as is the strange view of Homberg, Castalio, and Erasmus, who says- videtur accusandi casu legendum, ut referatur ad Christum. Meier holds a similar view, making the words a parenthesis, and supposing that stands in apposition to . This arrangement not only does violence to the natural and obvious syntax, but, as Olshausen well observes, God cannot make Christ to be the , for Christ possesses the fulness of the Godhead, not through an act of the Father’s will, but by the necessity of His nature. Bengel regards as neither referring to the church, nor as governed by . It stands, in his opinion, as a species of accusative absolute, like in 1Ti 2:6, and forms an epiphonema-a quod erat demonstrandum. The violence resorted to in such an exegesis is not less objectionable than that seen in the opposite opinion of Storr, who imagines that it signifies that which is in God abundantly, and that it is employed as a species of nominative in apposition to , Eph 2:4.

2. Many understand the noun in the general sense of multitude-copia, coetus numerosus, making equivalent to . Such is the view which Storr calls probable, and it is that of Wetstein, Koppe, Kttner, Wahl, and even Fritzsche. Hesychius and Phavorinus define by , and Schoettgen renders, Multitudo cui Christus praeest. This notion is plainly unwarranted by the philology of the term. has always a reference to abundance, but such an idea is only secondary in -fulness being merely a relative term, in application either to a basket (Mar 8:20), or to the globe (Psa 24:1), and its quantity is determined by the subject. What meaning in such a case would be borne by the homogeneous ? Besides, the idea of unity in would ill correspond with that of multiplicity given to . Cameron and Bos render the full body, plenitudo illa quae est in corpore-a meaning which the simple word cannot bear, and which is borrowed from Eph 4:16, where other terms are joined with the substantives.

3. Some refer the use of the term to the familiar employment of the -the divine glory, or visible manifestation of God, which some, such as Harless, identify with . But the church cannot stand in such a relation to God-the Shechinah is the highest personal manifestation of His own infinite fulness, the glory of which is reflected by the church, as shone the face of Moses when even a few straggling rays of the divine radiance fell upon it.

4. Allied to this last view is the more general one of those who regard the in the light of a temple in which the glory of God resides, and who refer it in this sense to the church. Michaelis and Bretschneider espouse this notion, the latter of whom paraphrases -quasi templum, in quo habitat, quod occupat et regit, ut anima corpus. The idea of Harless, found originally in Hackspann, is very similar. As, says he, the apostle employs the same term to denote the church, which he uses to represent the richness of that glory which dwells in God and Christ, and emanates from them, so the church may be called the fulness of Christ, not because it is the glory which dwells in Him, but because it is the glory which He makes to dwell in her as in everything else. It is the glory not of One, who without it suffers want, but of One who fills all-das All-in all places-The whole earth is full of His glory. In fact, the church is the glory of Christ, because He is united to it alone as the head with its body. This is also the view of von Gerlach: the church is His fulness-seine Herrlichkeit, that is, His glory. All His Divine perfections are manifest in it. It is His visible appearance upon the earth. This exegesis, however, gives the word a peculiar conventional meaning, not warranted by its derivation, but drawn from expressions in Colossians which have no affinity with the place under review; and such a sense, moreover, is so recondite and technical, that we can scarce suppose the apostle to give it to the word without previous warning or peculiar hint and allusion. No traces of hostility to Gnosticism and its technical and are found in the context, and there is no ground for such a conjecture on the part of Trollope, Burton, and Conybeare. The fulness of the Godhead dwells in Christ-, says the apostle in a letter which formally opposes a false philosophy. Col 2:9. Here he says, on the other hand, the church is Christ’s body, His fulness. Passing by those forms of interpretation which are not supported either by analogy or by the nature of the context, we proceed to such as have higher ground of probability.

The grammatical theory in the case of verbal nouns is, that those ending in embody the intransitive notion of the verb, while those in have an active, and those in have a passive sense, or express the result of the transitive idea contained in the verb. Khner, 370. The theory, however, is often modified by usage. According to it-and in this case it is verified by many examples- will be equivalent to -the thing filled, just as is -the thing done; or the word may be taken in an abstract sense, as -not the thing broken, but the fragment itself. Thus the meaning may pass to that by which the effect is produced, and this is virtually the so-called active sense of such nouns; not, as Alford observes, an active sense properly at all, but a logical transference from the effect to that which exemplifies the effect. In fact, those aspects of active and passive meanings depend on the view assumed-whether one thinks first of the container, and then of the contained, or the reverse. Thus, Psa 24:1; 1Co 10:26, -the earth and its fulness. So the noun is used of the inhabitants of a city, as its complement of population; of the manning of a ship; the armed crew in the Trojan horse; and the animals in Noah’s ark. In such examples the idea is scarcely that of complement, but rather the city, ark, and ship are represented as in a state of fulness. What they contain is not regarded as filling them up-, but they are looked upon simply as being already filled up.

The great question has been, whether has an active or a passive sense. Critics are divided. Harless affirms, with Bhr, that the word is used only in an active sense, while Baumgarten-Crusius as stoutly maintains on the other side, that the noun occurs with only a passive signification. The truth seems to lie between the two extremes. The word sometimes occurs in the so-called active sense, denoting that which fills up (Mat 9:16), where is equivalent to -the piece of new cloth designed to fill up the rent. Mar 2:21. But it is often used in a passive sense to denote fulness-the state of fulness: Mar 8:20, -the fulnesses of how many baskets-how many filled baskets of fragments? So Rom 13:10, -fulfilment or full obedience of the law. The idea of amplitude is sometimes involved, as Rom 15:29, -in the fulness of the blessing; and in Rom 11:25, -the fulness of the Gentiles, where it is opposed to , and in the 12th verse is contrasted with . As applied to time (Gal 4:4; Eph 1:10), it signifies that the time prior to the appointed epoch is regarded as filled up, and therefore full. See under Eph 1:10.

1. An active signification, however, is preferred by Chrysostom, OEcumenius, Ambrosiaster, Theophylact, Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, Calvin, Beza, Rollock, Zanchius, Hammond, Crocius, Zegerus, Calovius, Estius, Bodius, Passavant, Richter, von Gerlach, Bisping, and Hofmann. The words of Chrysostom are-The head is in a manner filled up by the body, because the body is composed of all its parts, and needs every one of them. It is by all indeed that His body is filled up. Then the head is filled up, then is the body made perfect, where we all together are knit to one another and united. The notion involved in this exegesis, which is also beautifully illustrated by Du Bosc in his French sermons on this epistle, is the following: The church is His body; without that body the head feels itself incomplete-the body is its complement. The idea is a striking, but a fallacious one. It is not in accordance with the prevailing usage of in the New Testament, and it stretches th e figure to an undue extent. Besides, where has such an active sense, it is followed by the genitive of what it fills up, as . How, then, would it read here-the filling up of Him who fills all in all? But if He fill all in all already, what addition can be made to this infinitude? Or, if the participle be passive-the filling up of Him who is filled as to all in all; then, if He be already filled, no other supplement is required. We are not warranted to use language as to the person of Christ, as if either absolute or relative imperfection marked it. According to this hypothesis also, that mystical body will be gradually growing, and will not be complete until the second coming. Moreover, in other parts of the New Testament, the word, when used in a religious sense, expresses not any fulness which passes from us to Christ, but, as we shall see in the next paragraph, that fulness which passes from Christ to us. We need scarcely allude to the view of Rckert, that is the means by which the is to be realized, or by which Christ fulfils all things-the means of His fulfilling the great destiny which has devolved upon Him of restoring the world to God. But cannot be restricted to the Divine plan of that redemption, which the church is Christ’s means of working out, neither can signify means of fulfilment, nor does the verse contain any hint of universal restoration. Bitterly does Stier say, We venture to wish in truth and in love, that such an interpreter might learn to read the writing ere he interpret it.

2. The word, we apprehend, is rightly taken in a passive sense-that which is filled up. This is the view of Theodoret, Cocceius, Grotius, Rell, Wolf, Flatt, Cramer, Olshausen, Baumgarten-Crusius, Matthies, de Wette, Meyer, Holzhausen, Stier, Alford, and Ellicott. This exegesis is certainly more in unison with the formation, and general use of the term in the New Testament, and with the present context. So is employed, Lucian, Rerum Hist. 2.37, -they fought from two filled vessels; and so, 38- -the ship being named from its full equipment. So the church is named , or fulness, because it holds or contains the fulness of Christ. It is the filled-up receptacle of spiritual blessing, from Him, and thus it is His , for He ascended- . Again, Col 2:10 – -in Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and in Him ye are filled,-ye have become His or fulness. Joh 1:16-Of His fulness have all we received, and so we become His fulness. Believers are filled with all the fulness of God-that fulness which dwells in Him, Eph 3:19.

The which follows I refer to Jesus; not to God, as do Theodoret, Koppe, Winer, Wetstein, Meier, Alford, Turner, and Stier. It is Jesus, the Head, who is spoken of; the church is His body, and the next clause stands in apposition-which is also His fulness-

. is not found in the Textus Receptus, but on the testimony of A, B, D, E, F, G, J, K-the majority of minuscules, etc., and the Greek fathers, it is rightly received into the text. Many take as a passive, such as Chrysostom, Jerome, Anselm, Wetstein, Winer, and Holzhausen. So the Vulgate reads adimpletur. Estius has a similar explanation, and also Bisping, who finds it a proof-text for the dogma of the merit of the saints. The exegesis of these critics almost necessitated such a view of the participle. The idea of Beza, adopted by Dickson, is better, viz., that the phrase is added to show that Jesus does not stand in need of this supplement-ut qui efficiat omnia in omnibus rever. If the participle be taken as a passive form, the words present a solecistic difficulty, and we are therefore inclined, with the majority of interpreters, to regard the participle as of the middle voice. Winer, 38, 6. Similar usage occurs in Xenophon, Plato, and Pollux. The force of the middle voice is-who fills for himself, all in all. The Gothic version has usfulljandins-filling; and the Syriac also has the active. Holzhausen capriciously makes the phrase equivalent to das Ewige-the Eternal, that is, Christ carries in Himself the fulness of eternal blessings. Both nouns- and -seem to be neuter, and are therefore to be taken in their broadest significance-who fills the universe with all blessings. In Col 1:16, is used as the appellation of the universe which the Son of God has created. 1Co 8:6; Eph 3:9. It narrows the sense of the idiom to give a masculine signification, and confine it, with Grotius, Matthies, and Stier, to members of the church-His body; or, with Michaelis, to give it the sense of-in all places; or, with Harless and de Wette, to translate it-in different ways and forms; or, with Cramer, to interpret it as meaning, that religious blessings are no longer nationally restricted, but may be enjoyed by all! The preposition is instrumental,Eph 5:18. Winer, 48, a, 3, d. The true meaning is-in all things, as Fritzsche rightly maintains. Comment. in Rom 11:12. The idiom occurs, 1Co 15:28; 2Co 11:6; 1Ti 3:11; Tit 2:9. Macknight, preceded by Whitby, takes as a masculine-who fills all his members with all blessings. But why should the adjective dwindle in meaning? Why should be less comprehensive here than the repeated indefinite of the preceding verse? On the one hand the verse speaks nothing for the ubiquity of Christ’s body, nor does it bear such a reference to Gnostic philosophy and nomenclature as betokens a post-apostolical origin, as Baur conjectures. Ebrard, Christ. Dogmatik, ii. p. 139; Martensen, ibid. 176, etc. But see also Thomasius, Christi Person und Werk, vol. ii. 45; Schmid, Die Dogmatik der Evang. Luth. Kirche, 31, 32, 33.

The church, then, is the -the glorious receptacle of such spiritual blessings. And as these are bestowed in no scanty or shrivelled dimensions-for the church is filled, so loaded and enriched, that it becomes fulness itself-and as that fulness is so vitally connected with its origin, it is lovingly and truly named the fulness of Christ. The storehouse, filled with the finest of the wheat, is the farmer’s fulness. The blessings which constitute this fulness, and warrant such a name to the church-for they fill it to overflowing, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over-are those detailed in the previous verses of the chapter. All spiritual blessings, the Divine purpose realizing itself in perfect holiness; filial character and prerogative; redemption rooting itself in the pardon of sin; grace exhibited richly and without reserve; the sealing and earnest of the Spirit till the inheritance be fully enjoyed-the results of the apostle’s prayer-Divine illumination; the knowledge and hope of future blessedness, and of the depth and vastness of that Divine power by which the new life is given and sustained, union to Jesus as the Body with the Head, the source of vitality and protection-all these benefactions, conferred upon the church and enjoyed by it, constitute it a filled church, and being so filled by Christ, it is aptly and emphatically called-HIS FULNESS.

And the exalted goodness of the Mediator is not confined to filling the church. His benign influence extends through the universe- , as gathered together in Him. As all ranks of unfallen beings are beneath Him, they receive their means of happiness from Him; and as all things are beneath His feet, they share in the results of His Mediatorial reign. The Head of the church is at the same time Lord of the universe. While He fills the church fully with those blessings which have been won for it and are adapted to it, He also fills the universe with all such gifts as are appropriate to its welfare-gifts which it is now His exalted prerogative to bestow.

Fuente: Commentary on the Greek Text of Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians and Phillipians

Eph 1:23. Which is his body. This is a fundamental statement, showing that the church of Christ and the body of Christ are one and the same. Fulness of him means that all the spiritual blessings of God are offered to man through the body of his Son.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Eph 1:23. Which. Which indeed, or, by which I mean; explaining the word church.

Is his body. The thought occurs repeatedly in Pauls writings; see references. The relation of Christians to Christ is that of vital union, akin to, yet in reality and intimacy exceeding, that existing between the parts of any living organism, such as a vine and its branches, the head and its members. This union, called mystical, is above and beyond any representative union, or intellectual and ethical union. This is the reality, of which all other vital organic relations are but designed parables and illustrations. (The true fellowship of Christians with each other rests on this fundamental fact.)

The fulness of him, etc. This clause, which defines further the word church, has occasioned voluminous discussion. The word fulness was a favorite one among the ancient Guostics, but in itself need not occasion great difficulty. Of the three meanings, given under Eph 1:10, we accept the simple passive sense, marked (2), that which is filled (so Fritzsche, Delvette, Olshausen, Stier, Meyer, Alford, Eadie, Ellicott, Braune). The purely active sense, the filling up is altogether inappropriate, and the other sense, that by which anything is filled, the complement, though quite usual in the New Testament, is here open to two objections: (1.) The thought is strange; how can Christ be filled, or complemented, by the church, when He fills all in all. (2.) This interpretation compels us to take who filleth in the passive sense, who is filled, and this is quite objectionable. We therefore explain: The Church is that which is filled by Him, etc.

Who filleth. This is certainly not passive. It is taken by some as active, but is more properly reflexive (so in form). The sense may be: of Him who fills from Himself, or, through Himself, or most probably, for Himself. The present tense serves to mark this as a process now going on. The phrase is rightly applied to Christ by most modern commentators. To refer it to God seems to disturb the parallelism and to mar the logical accord of the conclusion.

All in all. Explanations: (1.) All things with all things, the preposition in being taken as instrumental, denoting the thing with, or by, or in which as an element the filling takes place (Alford). This is not open to any serious objection and gives a very appropriate sense. The Church is the veritable mystical Body of Christ, yea the recipient of the plenitudes of Him who filleth all things, whether in heaven or in earth, with all the things, elements and entities, of which they are composed (Ellicott). (2.) The second all is taken as masculine (the Greek form does not decide the question): All things in all persons. This preserves the strict sense of in, but all things occurs so frequently in the context that the masculine seems improbable here. This view presents His filling efficiency in persons, in heavenly spirits and human souls, of which also His relation as Head of the Church obliges us to think (Braune). (3.) Others limit all to the members of the Body of Christ, and then explain in all as referring to all parts, places, faculties, etc. This is entirely too limited. A mass of incorrect interpretations of the clause might be collected, but the views of recent commentators seem to be converging toward substantial agreement. The wider reference well expands Eph 1:22 : The Head of the Church is at the same time Lord of the universe. While He fills the Church fully with those blessings which have been won for it and are adapted to it, He also fills the universe with all such gifts as are appropriate to its welfaregifts which it is now His exalted prerogative to bestow (Eadie). It is knowledge of what God did to this Head of the Church and what that pledges to us, that the Apostle asks for his readers. Not to know such truth is to be spiritually blind; to ignore it is to be unspeakably narrow.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

1:23 Which is his body, the {c} fulness of him that filleth all in all.

(c) For the love of Christ is so great towards the Church, that even though he fully satisfies all with all things, yet he considers himself but a maimed and unperfect head, unless he has the Church joined to him as his body.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

The church is both the body of Christ and the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way, namely, Jesus Christ. The church is the fullness of Christ probably in the sense that He fills for Himself (middle voice in Greek) the church with blessings (cf. Eph 4:10-11). Other views are that the church completes Christ, and that Christ fills the church with Himself. [Note: See Stott, pp. 61-64, or Hoehner, Ephesians, pp. 294-301, for discussions of the views.] Jesus Christ who fills all things with all things (i.e., with blessings) is filling the church with blessings. The church could not come into existence until Jesus Christ had ascended into heaven to become its head. [Note: See Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, "Israel and the Church," in Issues in Dispensationalism, p. 117.]

After showing that believers have received all spiritual blessings (Eph 1:3-14), Paul prayed that believers might come to know God intimately (Eph 1:17). This is necessary so we might better appreciate our past calling to salvation that gives us hope (Eph 1:18), the future inheritance that we constitute for God (Eph 1:18), and the present power of God available to us (Eph 1:19). God manifested this power in the past in Christ’s resurrection and ascension (Eph 1:20-21). He will manifest it in the future by making Jesus Christ the head over all creation (Eph 1:22). He is now manifesting this power in Jesus Christ’s headship over the church (Eph 1:22-23).

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

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