The Application of the Body of Christ #9
“That He might fill all things” Ephesians 4:9-32
Remember: We have spent a lot of time getting to this passage. We have looked at key passages that throw light on our theme, “the Body of Christ”. The physical Body of Christ, it’s absolute necessity–Hebrews 10/John 6:48-59; The Knowledge of Christ’s Body, it’s perfection on the earth and it’s continual manifestation before the Father in Glory for us–I Peter 1:5-11; Walking worthy of our calling to and in the Body of Chrit–Eph 4:1-6; The Gifts given by Christ to insure the application , the outworking of the Body of Christ in His chosen ones–Eph. 4:7-8 & I Cor. 12.
We have said all of that to bring us to this point: “That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you being rooted and grounded in love....might know the love of Christ which exceeds knowledge; THAT YOU MAY BE FILLED WITH ALL THE FULNESS OF GOD.”
I. Ephesians 4:9-32 is Paul’s explaining to us the means God has given to assure that His people “walk out” the inside/out behavior of the Body of the Christ that “became flesh and dwelled among us! This isn’t given to us so that we can have “proper church order”.
A. Paul is showing us how Christ Jesus “Fills all things”. (Vs 10)
1. Ephesians 1:10 Never forget that the Father is always working our His Will of “gathering together IN ONE ALL THINGS IN CHRIST.”
2. Ephesians 1:22-23 Through the Power of His Resurrection (Vs 19-20), The Father “put all things under His feet and gave Him to HEAD over the church, WHICH IS HIS BODY, THE FULLNESS OF HIM WHO FILLS ALL IN ALL.”
3. Colossians 1:19 & 2:9-10 Recall “That it pleased the Father that IN HIM ALL THE FULLNESS SHOULD DWELL”, and IN HIM DWELLS ALL THE FULLNESS OF THE GODHEAD BODILY.” Verse 10 says that we are complete IN HIM. We tend to interpret and apply this to our selves personally, and that is valid. But the context and full truth of it is speaking of His church, His Body, that is complete in Him.. And that completeness, that fullness of the Body is what our Ephesians passage if “fleshing out”!!
4. Vs 9-10 His ascending and descending is crucial. It is the testimony that God became man, and not some king or potentate, but a servant with no reputation! (Phil. 6-8) That He was born into poverty in a stable wasn’t just so we could have a nice Christmas story!! He became like the lowliest of us to suffer the lowliest death that He might ascend by the Power of the Father to the Highest place of Victory and Power–FOR US!!. (Hebrews 1-2, 10)
B. Vs 11 The Gifts He Gives for the work of “filling of all things”. We have seen that the “spirituals” “given to each one” spoken of in I Corinthians 12 are the manifestation of the Holy Spirit given for the profit of the body of Christ. (I Cor 12:7). The emphasis seems to be on gifts given for maintaining and developing union and fellowship in the body. The Love chapter follows the Gift chapter to show the more excellent way of maintaining that unity.
1. The Gifting in Ephesians 4 seem more “foundational”. While they are mentioned at the end of I Cor. 12, here their role leads the discussion. First of all, it says, “and He Himself Gave”. The One Who descended & also ascended is the Giver of these Gifts. The “to be” is in italics here. “He Gave some apostles, some prophets, etc. The emphasis is on the Giver, not the recipient of the Gift!!
2. Vs 12-13 Their function & purpose is clearly stated!!!
a. Vs 12 These gifts are given “for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry.” And that ministry of the saints is to be the edifying, the building up of the body of Christ! Notice: if the “Gifted ones” are truly exercising their Gifting, the saints are doing the ministry! While we could speak of the “Gifted ones” as ministers, they are no more so than the saints they minister to!! The word translated “ministry” is #1248–diakonia taken from #1249 which means “to run errands, an attendant, a waiter of tables, service.” (Strongs) If I may deflate our 21st century worship of “ministers” a bit, the “equippers” and the ones being equipped, are merely errand boys and girls, of course incredibly blessed errand boys and girls, for the Lord of the Church!!!
b. Vs 13 Notice, “Till we all”–Paul includes himself! Here is the purpose of the Gifting. Both the Gifted and the recipients are to “come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect (mature) man.” And how is that measured? “To the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Is Christ Jesus filling up all things in our lives, our thinking and behavior??? That is the standard of measure!!!
c. Vs 14-16 Here’s what the “measurement” looks like.
1. Vs 14 Stable, maturing believers standing firm in the gale force winds of heresy and deceitful teachers. It is a virtual tsunami in our day! But if the Knowledge of the Son of God is our root, out tree and its fruit will not be harmed in the shaking.
2. Vs 15 “Speaking the Truth in Love”. Actually, the Truth is ultimate love. If it is not spoken in love, it is no longer truth. And the goal of Truth? To cause each and every member to grow up into Christ Jesus, the Head of the Church. Again, this can be measured by the root of our thinking and behavior. Does it flow out of the Head, Christ Jesus, or is it still defined by our fleshly fears or passions?
3. Vs 16 “from Whom the whole body.....” The Body of Christ doesn’t operate so much “top down” as ‘out of’. We in Him and He in us! No one is exempt from being an effective and productive member of the body. Each member “does its share”. The campaign mentality of the current “church” is so destructive to this truth. Preachers and pew sitters, despite our “discipleship efforts and “ministry opportunities”. If Christ is truly preached, “every part does its share, causing the growth of the body for the edifying (building up) of itself in love.”
C. Vs 17-32 The Process of the Filling!
1. Vs 17-24 The glorious transformation of the mind! (Romans 12:2)
a. Vs 17-19 The mind apart from Christ is futile (ends up dead, no eternal benefit), dark, and ignorant because of the hardness of hearts and unnatural feelings and emotions. See Romans 1-3 for Paul’s full treatment of this death!
b. Vs 20-21 Here is the cause of this most wonderful transition: “But you have not so learned Christ!!!” Now notice–“If indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, AS THE TRUTH IS IN JESUS.” Do you see the active Presence of our God/Man, the Head of the Church, in this transition??? He is not just the Subject of the change, He is the Activator of this change!!! He is in the midst of His church bringing about this change!!! (John 14:18, 23)
c. Vs 22-24 The renewal of the mind–the change of masters! Our flesh has had years of training. The change requires our active and knowledgeable participation–we must put off our old man conduct. Our defensiveness, our protectionism, our self seeking and a host of other flesh motivations must be progressively put off.
Thankfully, there is another part of the process, we must put on the new man. Notice that this new man isn’t anemic!!! His very creation is “according to God, in righteousness and true holiness.” This is where Learning Christ is crucial. Truth in, garbage out!! The foundational truth? The Justifying Righteousness of our Christ Jesus as our standing before God meaning there “is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.”(Romans 8:1) And so much more!!
2. Vs 25-32 The Holy Spirit’s Grief!!!
The Holy Spirit is the “Operant Member” of the glorious Trinity. It is He who works out this transformation in us. Here is a list of that which He Seeks to cause us to put off! But the flesh wants to hang on to its old learned behavior. This is Grievous to the Holy Spirit. It is summed up in Vs 31, the negative: Put away these things!! Vs 32 The positive” Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, JUST AS GOD IN CHRIST ALSO FORGAVE YOU.” If bitterness, wrath, anger, loud quarreling, evil speaking are frequently present in us, they are clear evidence that we have not learned Christ! And that grieves the Holy Spirit, and may require His leaving us to ourselves–a fearful and horrible condition. Don’t go there, learn Christ!!! “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, & make not provision for the flesh.” (Rom. 13:14)
“That He might fill all things” Ephesians 4:9-32
Remember: We have spent a lot of time getting to this passage. We have looked at key passages that throw light on our theme, “the Body of Christ”. The physical Body of Christ, it’s absolute necessity–Hebrews 10/John 6:48-59; The Knowledge of Christ’s Body, it’s perfection on the earth and it’s continual manifestation before the Father in Glory for us–I Peter 1:5-11; Walking worthy of our calling to and in the Body of Chrit–Eph 4:1-6; The Gifts given by Christ to insure the application , the outworking of the Body of Christ in His chosen ones–Eph. 4:7-8 & I Cor. 12.
We have said all of that to bring us to this point: “That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you being rooted and grounded in love....might know the love of Christ which exceeds knowledge; THAT YOU MAY BE FILLED WITH ALL THE FULNESS OF GOD.”
I. Ephesians 4:9-32 is Paul’s explaining to us the means God has given to assure that His people “walk out” the inside/out behavior of the Body of the Christ that “became flesh and dwelled among us! This isn’t given to us so that we can have “proper church order”.
A. Paul is showing us how Christ Jesus “Fills all things”. (Vs 10)
1. Ephesians 1:10 Never forget that the Father is always working our His Will of “gathering together IN ONE ALL THINGS IN CHRIST.”
2. Ephesians 1:22-23 Through the Power of His Resurrection (Vs 19-20), The Father “put all things under His feet and gave Him to HEAD over the church, WHICH IS HIS BODY, THE FULLNESS OF HIM WHO FILLS ALL IN ALL.”
3. Colossians 1:19 & 2:9-10 Recall “That it pleased the Father that IN HIM ALL THE FULLNESS SHOULD DWELL”, and IN HIM DWELLS ALL THE FULLNESS OF THE GODHEAD BODILY.” Verse 10 says that we are complete IN HIM. We tend to interpret and apply this to our selves personally, and that is valid. But the context and full truth of it is speaking of His church, His Body, that is complete in Him.. And that completeness, that fullness of the Body is what our Ephesians passage if “fleshing out”!!
4. Vs 9-10 His ascending and descending is crucial. It is the testimony that God became man, and not some king or potentate, but a servant with no reputation! (Phil. 6-8) That He was born into poverty in a stable wasn’t just so we could have a nice Christmas story!! He became like the lowliest of us to suffer the lowliest death that He might ascend by the Power of the Father to the Highest place of Victory and Power–FOR US!!. (Hebrews 1-2, 10)
B. Vs 11 The Gifts He Gives for the work of “filling of all things”. We have seen that the “spirituals” “given to each one” spoken of in I Corinthians 12 are the manifestation of the Holy Spirit given for the profit of the body of Christ. (I Cor 12:7). The emphasis seems to be on gifts given for maintaining and developing union and fellowship in the body. The Love chapter follows the Gift chapter to show the more excellent way of maintaining that unity.
1. The Gifting in Ephesians 4 seem more “foundational”. While they are mentioned at the end of I Cor. 12, here their role leads the discussion. First of all, it says, “and He Himself Gave”. The One Who descended & also ascended is the Giver of these Gifts. The “to be” is in italics here. “He Gave some apostles, some prophets, etc. The emphasis is on the Giver, not the recipient of the Gift!!
2. Vs 12-13 Their function & purpose is clearly stated!!!
a. Vs 12 These gifts are given “for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry.” And that ministry of the saints is to be the edifying, the building up of the body of Christ! Notice: if the “Gifted ones” are truly exercising their Gifting, the saints are doing the ministry! While we could speak of the “Gifted ones” as ministers, they are no more so than the saints they minister to!! The word translated “ministry” is #1248–diakonia taken from #1249 which means “to run errands, an attendant, a waiter of tables, service.” (Strongs) If I may deflate our 21st century worship of “ministers” a bit, the “equippers” and the ones being equipped, are merely errand boys and girls, of course incredibly blessed errand boys and girls, for the Lord of the Church!!!
b. Vs 13 Notice, “Till we all”–Paul includes himself! Here is the purpose of the Gifting. Both the Gifted and the recipients are to “come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect (mature) man.” And how is that measured? “To the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” Is Christ Jesus filling up all things in our lives, our thinking and behavior??? That is the standard of measure!!!
c. Vs 14-16 Here’s what the “measurement” looks like.
1. Vs 14 Stable, maturing believers standing firm in the gale force winds of heresy and deceitful teachers. It is a virtual tsunami in our day! But if the Knowledge of the Son of God is our root, out tree and its fruit will not be harmed in the shaking.
2. Vs 15 “Speaking the Truth in Love”. Actually, the Truth is ultimate love. If it is not spoken in love, it is no longer truth. And the goal of Truth? To cause each and every member to grow up into Christ Jesus, the Head of the Church. Again, this can be measured by the root of our thinking and behavior. Does it flow out of the Head, Christ Jesus, or is it still defined by our fleshly fears or passions?
3. Vs 16 “from Whom the whole body.....” The Body of Christ doesn’t operate so much “top down” as ‘out of’. We in Him and He in us! No one is exempt from being an effective and productive member of the body. Each member “does its share”. The campaign mentality of the current “church” is so destructive to this truth. Preachers and pew sitters, despite our “discipleship efforts and “ministry opportunities”. If Christ is truly preached, “every part does its share, causing the growth of the body for the edifying (building up) of itself in love.”
C. Vs 17-32 The Process of the Filling!
1. Vs 17-24 The glorious transformation of the mind! (Romans 12:2)
a. Vs 17-19 The mind apart from Christ is futile (ends up dead, no eternal benefit), dark, and ignorant because of the hardness of hearts and unnatural feelings and emotions. See Romans 1-3 for Paul’s full treatment of this death!
b. Vs 20-21 Here is the cause of this most wonderful transition: “But you have not so learned Christ!!!” Now notice–“If indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, AS THE TRUTH IS IN JESUS.” Do you see the active Presence of our God/Man, the Head of the Church, in this transition??? He is not just the Subject of the change, He is the Activator of this change!!! He is in the midst of His church bringing about this change!!! (John 14:18, 23)
c. Vs 22-24 The renewal of the mind–the change of masters! Our flesh has had years of training. The change requires our active and knowledgeable participation–we must put off our old man conduct. Our defensiveness, our protectionism, our self seeking and a host of other flesh motivations must be progressively put off.
Thankfully, there is another part of the process, we must put on the new man. Notice that this new man isn’t anemic!!! His very creation is “according to God, in righteousness and true holiness.” This is where Learning Christ is crucial. Truth in, garbage out!! The foundational truth? The Justifying Righteousness of our Christ Jesus as our standing before God meaning there “is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.”(Romans 8:1) And so much more!!
2. Vs 25-32 The Holy Spirit’s Grief!!!
The Holy Spirit is the “Operant Member” of the glorious Trinity. It is He who works out this transformation in us. Here is a list of that which He Seeks to cause us to put off! But the flesh wants to hang on to its old learned behavior. This is Grievous to the Holy Spirit. It is summed up in Vs 31, the negative: Put away these things!! Vs 32 The positive” Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, JUST AS GOD IN CHRIST ALSO FORGAVE YOU.” If bitterness, wrath, anger, loud quarreling, evil speaking are frequently present in us, they are clear evidence that we have not learned Christ! And that grieves the Holy Spirit, and may require His leaving us to ourselves–a fearful and horrible condition. Don’t go there, learn Christ!!! “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, & make not provision for the flesh.” (Rom. 13:14)