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described—by St Paul—in his earlier Epistles—under the same image: 1 Cor. 12:12- 27: ‘For, as the body is one and hath many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ. For in one Spirit were we all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all made to drink of one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many......... Now ye
are the body of Christ, and severally members thereof (
uJmei'" ejste; sw'ma Cristou' kai; mevlh ejk mevrou" ).’

1 Cor. 6:15. ‘Know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ.’ Cf. 10:17. Rom. 12:4 sq. ‘For even as we have many members in one body, and all the members have not the same office; so we, who are many, are one body in Christ and severally members one of another’ ( e}n sw'mav ejsmen ejn Cristw'/ ).

But the Apostle there takes as his starting-point the various functions of the members, and not, as in these later Epistles, ‘the originating and controlling power of the Head.’ ( Col. p. 157.)

Here (in Ephesians 1:22) ‘the thought of sovereignty , already given, is now connected with that of vital union with a glorious organism which draws its life from Him,—that one Divine society,—the Body of Christ,—to which the life of every individual believer is a contributory element and in which every individual life finds its consummation.’ ( Revelation of the Risen Lord , Pref. p. xxvi.)

And while, on the one side, Christ by His Presence gives to all things their true being and Christians in a special sense reach their ‘fulness,’ their full development, in Him, on the other side—He Himself finds His fulness in the sum of all things that He thus brings into living union with Himself.

(2) Eph. 3:10. i{na gnwrisqh'/ nu'n tai'" ajrcai'" kai; tai'" ejxousivai" ejn toi'" ejpouranivoi" dia; th'" ejkklhsiva" hJ polupoivkilo" sofiva tou' qeou' .

In the Church humanity advances towards its true unity. And ‘the display of God's wisdom before the intelligences of the heavenly order......was......the work of the Church.’

‘The effect of the Gospel reaches through all being,—and we are allowed to see......how other rational creatures follow the course of its fulfilment.’

The manifold wisdom of God is seen in the adaptation of the manifold capacities of man and the complicated vicissitudes of human life to minister to the one end to which “all creation moves.”

(3) 3:21. aujtw'/ hJ dovxa ejn th'/ ejkklhsiva/ kai; ejn Cristw'/ jIhsou' eij" pavsa" ta;" genea;" tou' aijw'no" tw'n aijwvnwn: ajmhvn .

The contemplation of the glorious fulness of Divine blessing in the Gospel—closes with a Doxology—in which God's work in man is regarded as issuing in His glory ‘in the Church and in Christ Jesus’ to the last development of life in time.

The glory of God is shewn, as the Universe moves forward to its end, by the fulfilment of God's Will in man and by the offering of man's service to God.

(4)5:23 f. ajnhvr ejstin kefalh; th'" gunaiko;" wJ" kai; oJ cristo;" kefalh; th'" ejkklhsiva", aujto;", swth;r tou' swvmato" .
ajlla; wJ" hJ ejkklhsiva uJpotavssetai tw'/ cristw'/, ou{tw" kai; k.t.l.
oiJ a[ndre", ajgapa'te ta;" gunai'ka", kaqw;" kai; oJ cristo;" hjgavphsen th;n ejkklhsivan kai; eJauto;n parevdwken uJpe;r aujth'", i{na aujth;n aJgiavsh/ kaqarivsa" tw'/ loutrw'/ tou' u{dato" ejn rJhvmati, i{na parasthvsh/ aujto;" eJautw'/ e[ndoxon th;n ejkklhsivan, mh; e[cousan spivlon h] rJutivda h[ ti tw'n toiouvtwn, ajllj i{na h\/ aJgiva kai; a[mwmo"
.


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