Ephesians Series: Ephesians 1:23a-The Church is Unique Because It Constitutes the Body of Christ
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Ephesians 1:15 For this reason, after I myself heard about the faith among each and every one of you in the one and only Lord Jesus as well as you are practicing divine-love, which is on behalf of each and every one of the saints, 16 I never permit myself to cease regularly expressing thanks to the one and only God because of each and every one of you. I do this while disciplining myself to make it my practice of remembering each and every one of you during my prayers. 17 I make it a habit of occupying myself with praying that the God, that is, the glorious Father of the one and only Lord ruling over each and every one of us as a corporate unit, who is Jesus Christ, would cause each and every one of you to receive divine wisdom, specifically, divine revelatory wisdom provided by the one and only Spirit with respect to an experiential knowledge of Himself. 18 Namely, that the eyes of your heart are enlightened in order that each and every one of you would possess the conviction of what constitutes being the confident expectation of blessing produced by His effectual call, what constitutes His inheritance, which is characterized by glorious wealth, residing in the person of the saints. 19 Also, what constitutes being His incomparable, great power on behalf of each one of us who believe which is equivalent to the exertion of His sovereign, omnipotent power to overcome. 20 This He caused to enter into the state of being exerted on behalf of the incomparable Christ. Specifically, by causing Him to be raised out from the dead ones. Then, by causing Him to be seated at His right hand in the heavenlies 21 above each and every sovereign ruler, authority, power exercised, dominion as well as each and every designated rank, by no means only during this age but in fact also during the one certain to come. 22 In other words, He caused each and every animate and inanimate object to be placed in subjection under His feet. Correspondingly, He gave Him as a gift as head over each and every animate and inanimate object for the benefit of the church, 23 which uniquely is His body, specifically, which is being brought to completion by the one who is bringing each and every animate and inanimate object to completion for the benefit of each and every member. (Lecturer’s translation)
Ephesians 1:23 brings to an Paul’s first of two intercessory prayers he offered to the Father on behalf of the recipients of this epistle.
It is composed of a qualitative relative pronoun clause hētis estin to sōma autou (ἥτις ἐστὶν τὸ σῶμα αὐτοῦ), “which uniquely is His body.”
It is modified by an appositional clause to plērōma tou ta panta en pasin plēroumenou (τὸ πλήρωμα τοῦ τὰ πάντα ἐν πᾶσιν πληρουμένου, “specifically, which is being brought to completion by the one who is bringing each and every animate and inanimate object to completion for the benefit of each and every member.”
The qualitative relative pronoun clause describes the unique character of the church, which is mentioned as we noted at the end of Ephesians 1:22.
It emphasizes the unique character of the church and asserts that the church as an eternal spiritual truth exists in the state of belonging to Christ’s body.
In other words, the members of the Christian community are unique in that they are members of Christ’s body.
Paul then goes on to describe the members of the body of Christ as being brought to completion by Jesus Christ who Paul describes as bringing each and every animate and inanimate object in creation to completion for the benefit of the church!
The antecedent and referent of the nominative feminine singular form of the qualitative relative pronoun hostis(ὅστις) is the articular dative feminine singular form of the noun ekklēsia(ἐκκλησία), “for the benefit of the church,” which appears in Ephesians 1:23.
This is indicated by the fact that the two words agree with each other in gender (feminine) and number (singular).
Thus, the qualitative relative pronoun hostis refers to the totality of Christian congregations or Christian assemblies throughout the Roman Empire and in heaven when Paul wrote this epistle in the first century A.D.
Ultimately, the word refers to the totality of Christians who lived during the church age.
Also, this qualitative relative pronoun hostis emphasizes the characteristic quality of these Christian congregations or Christian assemblies throughout the Roman Empire and in heaven when Paul wrote this epistle in the first century A.D.
Ultimately, the word emphasizes the characteristic quality of the totality of Christians who lived during the church age.
It emphasizes that the members of the Christian community possess a unique character in that they are members of the body of Jesus Christ.
The third person singular present active indicative conjugation of the verb eimi (εἰμί) pertains to belonging to a particular group of individuals which constitute a corporate unit.
The noun sōma(σῶμα), “body” is used in a figurative sense to describe the church as being like the human body in that it has diversity among its members but yet they possess a unity.
The word refers to church age believers who are joined together as a corporate unit with the implication of each member having a distinctive function within this unit.
Furthermore, the articular construction of this noun sōma is employed with the genitive masculine singular form of the intensive personal pronoun autos (αὐτός), “His” in order to denote possession.
The referent of the latter is Jesus Christ, which is indicated by the contents of Ephesians 1:20-22.
The body of Christ metaphor for the church is not only employed by apostle Paul in Ephesians 1:23 but is also used by him in Colossians 1:18 and 24.
Colossians 1:18 Furthermore, He Himself, as an eternal spiritual truth exists in the state of being the head over His body, namely His church who, as an eternal spiritual truth exists in the state of being the founder that is the firstborn from the dead ones. The divine purpose was accomplished so that He alone became the Preeminent One among each and every person with no exceptions. (Lecturer’s translation)
Now, beginning in Colossians 1:18, Paul discusses Jesus Christ’s relationship with the church.
Paul makes two assertions about Jesus Christ in relation to the church.
The first is that He is the head over the church or the sovereign authority over the church.
The second is that He is preeminent in relation to the church because He is the beginning of the new creation or new humanity as demonstrated by the fact that He is the first person raised from the dead to receive a resurrection body.
So when we compare Paul’s statements in Colossians 1:15-17 with his statements here in Colossians 1:18, we can see that in addition to being the cosmological ruler, Jesus Christ is also the soteriological ruler.
Colossians 1:24 I am presently rejoicing because of my sufferings on behalf of each and every one of you. In fact, I am supplementing that which remains of the one and only Christ’s intense sufferings by means of my physical body on behalf of His body which is, as an eternal spiritual truth, the church. (Lecturer’s translation)
In Colossians 1:24, after informing the Colossians that his undeserved suffering in Rome on behalf of each and every one of them caused him to rejoice, he then advances upon this statement and intensifies it.
He does this by stating that his suffering was supplementing that which remains of Christ’s intense sufferings.
So the advancement and intensification is that Paul is informing the Colossians the purpose of his present circumstances in which he was suffering undeservedly as a prisoner of the Roman Empire.
He goes from expressing his state of mind regarding his imprisonment to stating the relationship between his suffering and Christ’s suffering.
He goes from expressing his joy while suffering imprisonment to telling the reader that this suffering is because of his identification with Jesus Christ.
His suffering is Christ’s suffering as a result.
J. Hampton Keathley III writes “The simplest and most logical explanation stems from the mystical union that exists between Christ and that of His people in the body of Christ, the church. When believers suffer, Christ suffers with them. Christ’s substitutionary sufferings are finished, complete, but His sufferings in and through His people continue. This concept is expressed in several other passages of the New Testament (cf. Matt. 25:34-40; 2 Cor. 1:5; Phil. 3:10; Acts 9:4-5).”[1]
The head metaphor to signify the rulership of Jesus Christ over the church is employed by Paul in several places in his writings (Eph. 4:15; 5:23; Col. 2:19).
The body metaphor is employed often by Paul in his writings to describe the church’s intimate and eternal union with Jesus Christ (Rom. 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 6:15; 10:17; 12:12-13, 27; Eph. 1:23; 2:16; 4:4, 12, 16; 5:23, 30; Col. 1:18a; 1:24; 2:19; 3:15).
J. Hampton Keathley III writes “That He is the head of the body stresses several things as to Christ’s Headship: The first is Christ’s supremacy, authority, and right to direct His body, the church. The second, and closely related, is that the church is a spiritual organism connected to Christ and through which He acts and manifests Himself. As the body is powerless and dead without the head, so the church is powerless and dead without Christ. The body receives its direction and impulses from the head. Thus, every word and action of the church is to be governed and directed by the Lord Jesus as its head. Jesus must, therefore, be the one who directs and empowers the church.”[2]
The head and body metaphor is one of eight metaphors used in the New Testament to describe the relationship between the church and the Lord Jesus Christ: (1) The last Adam and the New Creation (1 Cor. 15:45; 2 Cor. 5:17a). (2) The Great Shepherd and the Sheep (Heb. 13:20). (3) The True Vine and the Branches (John 15:5a). (4) The Chief Cornerstone and the Stones in the building (Eph. 2:20; 1 Pet. 2:5-6). (5) The Great High Priest and members of the Royal Priesthood (Heb. 4:14a; 1 Pet. 2:9a). (6) The Groom and the Bride. (Our wedding occurs at the Second Advent) (Rev. 19:7). (7) The King of Kings and the Royal Family of God (Rev. 19:14-16).
[1] Keathley, J. Hampton III, Paul’s Letter to the Colossians: An Exegetical and Devotional Commentary; page 97; Biblical Studies Press 2002.
[2] Keathley, J. Hampton III, Paul’s Letter to the Colossians: An Exegetical and Devotional Commentary; page 74; Biblical Studies Press 2002.