Prayer that God enlighten the Ephesians to see his gracious power
And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
To take Christ’s exalted state one step further, Paul states that he is not only above all authority figures, but he is in charge of everything that happens. The apostle states, “God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” Where is the assurance that God can and will keep his promise? Paul’s answer is, The power that God has vested in his Son makes that absolutely certain, particularly when we see the favored relationship we have to this all-powerful Lord. God placed him over all persons of authority and put him in charge of absolutely everything “for the church, which is his body.”
Christ’s rule is absolute, and all his power is now used for one grand purpose, the good of his church, which consists of the sum total of all believers. The relationship between Christ and the rulers and authority figures is simply that of a lord and master dealing with subordinates. Christ’s relationship with his church, however, is entirely different. It is an organic relationship, a connection as close as the one the head shares with the members of the body.
Paul is going to use this picture of head and body in yet another setting. Later in this letter he urges husbands to “love their wives as their own bodies. . . . After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church” (5:28,29). In the present chapter Paul’s point is that with the all-powerful Christ feeding and caring for us, we, the members of his church, can rest in complete security.
But Paul says yet another thing regarding Christ’s relationship to the church. He calls the church “the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” That statement is actually something of a paradox, an apparent contradiction in terms. Christ fills everything in every way. He is completely self-sufficient. Yet he chooses to be empty and unfulfilled without his church. How can that be? Simply because God is true to his eternal plan. From eternity he elected and predestined the members of his church—and he will not rest until he has accomplished their salvation. Only then will he be truly fulfilled. Paul prays that the Ephesians and we may see this truth with enlightened eyes.