ACC ~ Ephesians 1 v23b

HOW CHRIST FILLS THE CHURCH. MARIUS VICTORINUS: Christ is the fullness of the church. This entire fullness is in process of being filled up.At one stage everything which is being filled is made empty. So Christ was emptied or emptied himself. Having recovered all things again through the mystery of salvation and saved the full number of souls, Christ is filling all in all. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 1.1.20-23.

NOTHING FURTHER IS TO BE ADDED OR RECEIVED. MARIUS VICTORINUS: All these statements about the magnificence and power of Christ have this purpose: To prove that nothing further is to be received, no other thought required to complete the revelation. The Ephesians are therefore in error if they add anything further and introduce anything from the teaching of the Jews or of the world. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 1.1.20-23.

THE CHURCH IS CALLED THE FULLNESS OF CHRIST. CHRYSOSTOM: The fullness of the head is the body and that of the body is the head. Observe how skillfully Paul writes and how he spares no word to express the glory of God. The “fullness” of the head, he says, is fulfilled through the body. The body consists of all its members. He shows Christ using each member individually, not merely all in common. For if we were not many—one a hand, one a foot, one another member—the body would not be full. Through all members, therefore, his body is made full. Then the head is fulfilled, then the body becomes perfect, when we are all combined and gathered into one. HOMILY ON EPHESIANS 3.1.20-23.

WHEN WILL GOD BE ALL IN ALL. THEODORET: By the church he means the whole community of the faithful. This he calls the body of Christ and the fullness of the Father. This body he has filled with all gifts. He “lives in it and goes about in it,” as the voice of prophecy says. But this will be more strictly so in the future life. … In the present life God is in all, since his nature is uncircumscribed; but he is not “all in all,” since some are impious and some lawless. Yet he lives in those who fear him and who put hope in his mercy. In the next life at any rate, when mortality has ceased and immortality is conferred and sin has no place any longer, he will be all in all. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 1.23.