The Lantern

Commentary on Ephesians · Chapter 14

CCEL

Whatever it may be, he says, in heaven, it is below This One who was assumed and ascended, and He is above all. From this we learn that there are certain powers which we cannot even name now, but which will then be revealed.

Eph. 1:22. and put all things under His feet,

Lest from the words "having seated above" you conclude that He received only the first honor, he indicates that He also made Him lord over all. And He did not simply subject, but gave in complete subjection: "under His feet."

Eph. 1:22. and set Him above all things, as head of the Church,

O wonder! He seated the Church on that very same throne as well; because where the head is (i.e. Christ), there is the body also (i.e. the Church itself). The words "above all" indicate that He gave a head that is mighty, which is above all, above angels, above archangels.

Eph. 1:23. Which is His Body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

Lest you, having heard this, should think that by the name "head" some rule and authority is meant (for the word "head" has this meaning as well), he says that Christ is the head of the Church as a body, and is likewise akin to it and closely united with it. And the Church is His fullness. For just as the body is the fullness of the head, completing it with its members, so also the Church is the fullness of Christ, "who fills all in all." For Christ is completed and, as it were, perfected by all the members in the person of all believers: He is completed, as it were, by a hand in the person of a merciful man who helps the weak in various ways; He is completed, as it were, by a foot in the person of a man who undertakes a journey for the sake of preaching and who cares for his brethren, and He is completed by another member in another believer. And thus He is completed by all the members in the person of all believers, that is, through the agency of all believers, when one renders one service and another renders another. For then our head, Christ, becomes perfect, that is, receives a perfect body, when we are all together united and closely bound.