the context. It is indeed true that Christ does fill all things (Eph. 4:10). That is the relation in which He stands to them. But here the thought is of the converse relation of created things to Christ. For while, on the one side, Christ gives their true being to all things by His presence (Col. 1:17; cf. Acts 17:28) and Christians in a special sense reach their fulness, their complete development, in Him (Eph. 4:15; Col. 2:10); on the other side, all things are contributary to Him, and He himself finds His fulness in the sum of all that He brings into a living union with Himself. Thus the Church is His Body, in which, gathering to itself the first-fruits of creation, He is Himself presented to the eye of faith. The fulness, if we may so speak, is at present representative only. The end is not yet, but it is prepared and prefigured. It will be reached through the summing up of all things in Christ through the Church, that GOD may be all in all (Col. 3:11 pavnta kai; ejn pa'sin Cristov" , 1 Cor. 15:28 tovte kai; aujto;" oJ uiJo;" uJpotaghvsetai tw'/ uJpotavxanti aujtw'/ ta; pavnta, i{na h\/ oJ qeo;" pavnta ejn pa'sin ).
The present plhroumevnou shews that the process is continuous till all things are brought into subjection to Christ.
The construction of ta; pavnta with plhroumevnou is illustrated by the remarkable phrase in Col. 1:9 i{na plhrwqh'te th;n ejpivgnwsin tou' qelhvmato" aujtou' . The knowledge itself constituted the fulness for which the Apostle looked. Comp. Eph. 3:19.
For plhvrwma see Lightfoot, Col. 1:19. Primasius gives the main sense: Qui [Christus] totus in membris omnibus adimpletur non in singulis, ne ulla diversitas meritorum sit; quando omnes crediderint et perfecti fuerint, tunc erit corpus perfectum in omnibus membris.
Eph. 2:1-10. In describing the third element in the Lord's present work, St Paul enlarges the scope of his original statement, and shews how the mercy and love of GOD was extended not only to Gentiles (1, 2) but to all Christians alike, whether Jews or Gentiles (3-6), who are a new creation designed for the fulfilment of His will
(10).
The development of the truth, though the construction is irregular and broken by parentheses, is perfectly natural. After characterising the former life of the Ephesians as answering to the influence of the spirit that now worketh in the sons of disobedience (1, 2), he adds that he and all with him shared their life, and following the impulses of nature were children of wrath as all other men; and then, having thus exhibited the wider need of GOD'S quickening love, he contemplates the whole Christian society, and no longer the Ephesians only or specially, as the objects of salvation in Christ (4-6) and a proof of GOD'S exceeding goodness to all future ages
(7). For a moment he returns again, as in a brief parenthesis before (vs. 5
cavritiv ejste seswsmevnoi
), to the Ephesians (8, 9); and then shews how the testimony of the Church will be delivered by the performance of the works which are prepared for believers (10).
1.
kai; uJma'"
...]
And you
He quickened
when ye were dead through your trespasses and sins.
The clause is strictly parallel to the two which go before:
And he put all things in subjection...And he gave Him to be... And you
he quickened....
nekrou;" toi'" par. kai; aJm
.] For
nekrouv"
see
c.
5:14; Matt. 8:22 || Lk. 9:60; Lk. 15:24, 32; John 5:25 (vs. 21); Rom. 6:13 (11:15); Apoc. 3:1. For
nekr. toi'" parapt
.
dead through offences
.... compare Col. 2:13
nekrou;" o[nta" toi'" paraptwvmasin kai;
th'/ ajkrobustiva/ th'" sarko;" uJmw'n
, cp. 1 Pet. 1:18. Contrast Rom. 8:10
to; me;n sw'ma nekro;n dij aJmartivan
.
Nekrov" describes generally the complete absence of the characteristic power of that to which it is referred. Sin is dead (Rom. 7:8) when it is unable to work its