Who Is Filling What for Who or What in the End of Ephesians 1:23?

Who is filling what for who or what in the end of Ephesians 1:23?

That may sound like a strange question, but it’s an important one to ask. Commentators hold a range of views as to how to understand this portion of God’s Word: “the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” What follows is my best summary of how to tackle a difficult phrase, taking just a couple of words at a time.

The Fullness

“Fullness” here is a noun, referring back not to Christ in Eph 1:22 but to its nearest referent, “His body” in Eph 1:23a. The fullness of Christ is found in His body, the church, and especially in His power, which is the focus of Eph 1:19–23. Paul prays that the Ephesians would have the spiritual wisdom to understand multiple aspects of their salvation in Eph 1:15–23, especially His power to them as believers in Eph 1:19–23, and the fullness of this power is found in the body of Christ, the church, as we find it stated in Eph 1:23.

Of Him

“Him” here is Christ. The Father gave Christ as head over all things to the church. The church is His body. His body is the fullness of Himself, and He is Christ.

Who Fills All in All

This phrase is where many good men disagree. If “Him” refers to Jesus, then “who” does as well. The question is what is going on with the rest of the phrase, “fills all in all.”

“Fills” is a participle that is technically either in a middle or passive form, and some even take it as middle form to have an active sense. For all of the technicalities that we could explore that means either (1) Christ fills all in all (middle form, active sense), (2) Christ fills for Himself all in all (middle form and sense), or (3) Christ is being filled (passive form and sense).

If option 3 is true, Christ is filled with the fullness of God (Col 1:19; 2:9–10). The resultant meaning of this phrase would then be, as Christ is filled with the fullness of God, and all the divine power therein, so also Christ fills His body, the church, with that fullness and power. “All in all” could mean that He fills it “entirely.” Good men hold this position.

What pushes me to option 2 is that the first “fullness” is something done by Christ—He fills the church with who He is, power and all. If He is already connected to some kind of fullness, and if the verb for “fills” is middle in form and sense, then it seems to naturally be Christ again who is the subject. Christ fills all things and especially the church—with Himself, for Himself.

Multiple commentators point to John Calvin to elaborate this position: “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 it is for us to learn that, not until we are in his presence, does he possess all his parts, or does he wish to be regarded as complete” (Calvin, Ephesians, 218, 2003 Baker Reprint).

William Hendriksen summarizes this view in these words: “The church is Christ’s complement” (Hendriksen, Ephesians, p. 104). He uses other pictures to reinforce this concept that I will put into questions. What is the Bridegroom without His bride? What is the Vine without the branches? What is the Shepherd without His sheep? And here, what is Head without His body?

In some sense, taking nothing away from His glory or His essence as God, Christ sees the church completing Himself. And the encouraging thought with this understanding is this—He Himself fills us with Himself, for Himself. He fills all things and especially the church for Himself. What a glorious Savior and Head we serve.

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David Huffstutler is the senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Troy, MI. He blogs here, where this article also appeared. It is published here by permission.

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