Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
his body—His mystical and spiritual, not literal, body. Not, however, merely figurative, or metaphorical. 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 fulness 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 filled-up receptacle" [EADIE]. 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; Colossians 2:10). "The full manifestation of His being, because penetrated by His life" [CONYBEARE and HOWSON]. She is 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. KOPPE translates less probably, "the whole universal multitude."
filleth all in all—Christ as the Creator, Preserver, and Governor of the world, constituted by God (Colossians 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."
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing Ephesians 1:23:
Ephesians 2:1
Ephesians 4:13
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