Ephesians 1:23 - Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Bible Comments

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

Which is, х heetis (G3748)] - inasmuch as she is.

His body - His mystical body. Not merely figurative. He is really, though spiritually, the Church's Head. His life is her life. She shares His crucifixion and His consequent glory. He possesses everything, His fellowship with the Father, His fullness of the Spirit, and His glorified manhood, not merely for Himself, but for her, who has a membership of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones (Ephesians 5:30).

Fulness. The Church is dwelt in and filled by Christ. She is the receptacle, not of His inherent, but of His communicated plenitude of gifts and graces. As His is the "fulness" (John 1:16; Colossians 1:19; Colossians 2:9) inherently, so she is His "fulness" by His impartation of it to her, in virtue of her union to Him (Ephesians 5:18). 'The full manifestation of His being, because penetrated by His life' (Conybeare): the continued revelation of His divine life in human form; the fullest representative of His plenitude. Not the angelic hierarchy, as false teachers taught (Colossians 2:9-10; Colossians 2:18), but Christ Himself, is the "fulness of the Godhead;" and she represents Him.

Filleth all in all. Christ as Creator, Preserver, and Governor constituted by God (Colossians 1:16, etc.), fills all х ta (G3588) panta (G3956), 'Aleph (') A B Delta G] the universe of things with all things, whatever it possesses: х pleeroumenou (G4137)] 'filleth for Himself.'

Ephesians 1:23

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