ACC ~ Ephesians 4 v6b

GOD TRANSCENDS LOCAL CONFINEMENT. ORIGEN: It is impossible to speak of any parts or division in the incorporeal, but he is “in all and through all” … insofar as he is understood as either Wisdom or Word or life or truth, an interpretation which undoubtedly excludes all local confinement. ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4.4.31.

A PHYSICAL ANALOGY TO A SPIRITUAL TRUTH. ORIGEN: Here is a physical analogy to a spiritual truth: We can agree that the sun is “above all” things on earth. But by its rays it might be said at the same time to be “through all.” And insofar as the power of its light penetrates everywhere, it could also be said to be “in all.” It is in this way, I think, that God’s majesty is denoted by the phrase “above all.” God’s all-sufficiency is denoted in the words “through all.” It also belongs to the power of God to penetrate into all, so that because of his being in all no one is entirely void of him. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS.

SUCCINCT THEOLOGY. GREGORY OF NYSSA: One God contains all and guides all as is fitting and is in all. This one saying of Paul suffices by itself to express everything succinctly, when he says that God is “over all and through all and in all.” REFUTATION OF EUNOMIUS’S CONFESSION OF FAITH 169.

IN THE FAITHFUL BY THE SPIRIT. AMBROSIASTER: God the Father owes his existence to no one. Hence he is declared to be “over all” and “through all.” He is “through all” in the sense that all things come from him. Necessarily he will be “over all” the things that come from him. And God is “in all,” that is, dwelling in all the faithful. For he is in us by our confession, because we confess him, and he has given us his own Spirit, through which without doubt he is dwelling in us. He is not in the same sense dwelling in unbelievers who deny that he is the Father of Christ. EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS 4.5.1-2.

FROM THE FATHER, THROUGH THE SON, IN THE SPIRIT. AUGUSTINE: Those who read very closely recognize the Trinity in this passage. Paul writes of God the Father “who is above all and through all and in all.” All things are “from God,” who owes his existence to no one. All things are “through him,” as though to say through the Mediator. All things are “in him,” as though to say in the One who contains them, that is, reconciles them into one. ON FAITH AND THE CREED 19.