NOTES for Eph 1:15-23

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¹⁵Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints,

¹⁶Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;

¹⁷That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:

¹⁸The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

¹⁹And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,

²⁰Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,

²¹Far 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:

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

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

If we read the apostle Paul’s words attentively, we discover something strange. Paul says that the Church is not merely the Body of Christ, an image familiar to us, but His fullness! He who fills all in all, that is, the source of every fullness, willed that the Church should become necessary to Him, that it should become His fullness. In other words, the Lord loved the Church so much that without her He Himself seems to lose His fullness: out of love, He made Himself dependent on people. What does this dependence consist in? After the Ascension, the bodily presence of Jesus on earth, that is, His fullness, since He is truly Man and would be incomplete without a body, is realized only through the Church. This refers first of all to the sacrament of the Eucharist, in which He is bodily present. But the Church is also His body, and this means that every member of the Church embodies His presence in the world.

Other notes

For Eph 1:15-23

¹⁵Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints,

¹⁶Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;

¹⁷That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:

¹⁸The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

¹⁹And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,

²⁰Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,

²¹Far 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:

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

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

Paul calls the Church the body of Christ, defining it as "the fullness of the one who fills all in all." Here, as can be seen, he follows traditional Jewish ideas about the people of God as one spiritual whole... Read more

Paul calls the Church the body of Christ, defining it as "the fullness of the one who fills all in all." Here, as can be seen, he follows traditional Jewish ideas about the people of God as one spiritual whole, as though one body, which was sanctified as one whole through the worship services that regularly took place in the Jerusalem Temple until its destruction in AD 70.

It was precisely because of this sanctification of the people as one whole that even those believing Jews who could not get to Jerusalem for a feast, for example for Pesach or Shavuot, did not feel cut off from God or from their community. They gathered where they lived, in the synagogues of the diaspora, and celebrated together with those who were then in Jerusalem. Paul applies this view to the Church, with the difference that it is sanctified by the presence of the Messiah himself, risen from the dead and abiding at the throne of God.

Of course, the Church is the space of the Kingdom abiding in our world as it is being transformed, though it has not yet been transformed completely. But it is also the space of Christ himself, the space of his personal presence. Certainly, God's presence had been known to the Jewish people before. God revealed himself to them already when the Torah was given at Sinai, revealing himself so that he would no longer be hidden, and his presence accompanied the people throughout their history.

But now the space of those relationships that bind Christ with his heavenly Father has been added to the spiritual space of this presence. The Kingdom unfolds within these relationships; it is revealed in them and through them. Their fullness is what fills "all in all." And Christianity means being included in this fullness of relationship between the Father and the Son. This kind of inclusion can be called true incorporation into the Church in the proper sense of the word, while everything else in church life is only a means for solving this main task. That is, if we are speaking precisely about the Church with a capital C.

For Eph 1:16-17

¹⁶Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;

¹⁷That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:

What the apostle Paul prays about? In fact that we may know God, grow in His knowledge. But for this knowledge, we have to change beforehand spiritually... Read more

What the apostle Paul prays about? In fact that we may know God, grow in His knowledge. But for this knowledge, we have to change beforehand spiritually, accept «the spirit of wisdom and revelation", that is agree with the fact that knowing God is not of our strength, but can be the consequence of His auto-unveiling to us. Therefore, it is a prayer for our openness and humility.

It is interesting thereupon that Paul calls God the God of our Lord Jesus-Christ, recognizing that our God isn’t Someone known by our efforts, but the One, Who Christ declared (Jn. 1:18).

For Eph 1:22-2:3

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

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

¹And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

²Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

³Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

In today's reading, the Apostle Paul says of Christ that He has been appointed head of the Church. The apostle then turns his thought toward... Read more

In today's reading, the Apostle Paul says of Christ that He has been appointed head of the Church. The apostle then turns his thought toward clarifying what this means, saying that the Church is His Body and the fullness of Him who fills all in all. These two related aspects define the true, invisible essence of the Church. It is neither an organization nor merely a community of people, although it is both populous and ordered. It is the fullness of God's presence in all things. Moreover, the Church is not only the presence of Christ; in it He fills all things with Himself. What is astonishing and beautiful is that entering into this presence and fullness is not only possible, but even quite easy. To the Church, whose doors are open to everyone who comes, you bring very little: your willingness to receive baptism and to live. And you receive, as at the multiplication of the loaves, the infinite gift of God's fullness.

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