From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted. — The word rendered “fitly joined together” is the same used in Ephesians 2:21, with more technical accuracy, of a building — “clamped” or “bonded together.” Here the two words are applied to the union of the limbs of the body, as being “jointed,” and so “brought into close contact.” The latter word is used in Colossians 2:19.
By that which every joint supplieth. — A paraphrastic and inaccurate rendering. It should be, by every contact with the supply (of nutriment) from the head. The word employed has commonly the meaning of “joint” (as in the parallel passage, Colossians 2:19), and is so used by Greek physiologists; but its original sense is abstract — the “joining” or “touching” — and this appears the simplest here. The supply (comp. Philippians 1:19, “the supply of the Spirit”) is again almost a technical word for the abundant outflow of strength and nervous energy from the head. (The corresponding verb is used in 2 Corinthians 9:10; Galatians 3:5; Colossians 2:19; 2 Peter 1:5; 2 Peter 1:11.) Hence the phrase seems to stand in closer connection with the “maketh increase “below than the “compacted together” above. The body grows, in every part of its complex unity, through contact with the divine supply of grace through the head.
According to the effectual working in the measure of every part. — In these words is described the method, as in the preceding word the source, of the growth. The “effectiveness” of every part “in measure” (according, that is, to its right capacity and function) is the condition of corporate growth. Such effectiveness comes from direct contact with the central energy.
Maketh increase of the body unto the edifying (the building up) of itself in love. — Here, lastly, we have the function of the body itself. It is knit together by its divine organisation; it is sustained by the supply from the head; its several parts are kept in life by that supply; but it grows as a whole and builds itself up by the uniting and vivifying power of love, which is the “bond of perfectness.” (Just so St. Paul says of the individual, in 1 Corinthians 8:1, “Charity edifieth.”) Truth is, no doubt, the basis of unity; but love is its vital power, at once keeping together all who are united, and drawing in those who are as yet separated.