The Fullness of Christ

Ep 1:23

Which (The Church) is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

This definition is given to the Church which should express Jesus Christ completely. There are two things here, that is

i.                     Christ should fill us completely (all in all).

ii.                   The complete Christ should fill us.

God has this expectation of filling up completely. There are many examples

1.       Hab 2:14 – The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the glory of the LORD.

2.       Is 6:3 – The earth is full of his Glory.

3.       Ps 16:11 – Fullness of Joy to me personally.

4.       Ps 24:1 – The fullness of the earth is God’s.

This quality of God where he never does anything partially is an important aspect of Christendom. There are no partial healings anywhere. There is no partial salvation. When God does or expects something, it has to happen fully.

Now, John 1:16 says that because of the fullness of Christ, we are receiving Grace upon Grace. If Christ has revealed the God partially or anything less than who The Father is, there is no chance of us receiving grace.

Col 1:19, 2:9 Jesus was the full of the Father and we are expected to be full of Jesus. These verses are also an important proof is that Jesus is God.

Ep 4:11-13

¹¹ And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, ¹² for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, ¹³ till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;

This verse points to the fact that our pursuit, and God’s plan for us to grow is that we should reach to the measure of stature of the fullness of Christ.

This is the highest point we should and could attain in this world. For this purpose only, God works in us by giving us pastors, evangelists and every other kind of ministers.  

Interestingly, we can see that “He Himself gave” instead of “He gave” in the verse. We should be cautious in understanding ministers who He gave and who He did not. This quality to be a minister does not come by inheritance or talents or any other thing we understand of. He should give us.

This support from elders is required till the date when we become “stature of fullness of Christ”.

Now, the important teaching of this meditation is that:

God understands our weakness in displaying ourselves as the fullness of Christ. But, God does not accept anything less either. That’s why God gives this definition to the Church.

The Church is the fullness of Christ.

We are together, remember, not individually but together expected to be the complete Jesus Christ’s body. Only this fellowship makes us a worthy candidate in God’s eyes until we are perfect.

This is the importance of the Church in our lives.

·         We need to be very closely bound enough so that we together fulfill God’s desire.

·         It is our highest responsibility that we ensure every ministry should happen at a church or fellowship and the church should together uphold every ministry in it.  

·         The church should together display the holiness, love and authority of Christ to this world.

In early days (Acts 2:44-46) when the church gathered they sold everything and shared. This is reason behind the Jewellery removal sign Pentecostals show.

The lesson from this event is that every person in the church lost his individual identity by selling everything he owned and came together. That is a very important quality of every person who belongs to the church. We all should toil together so that the Church (as one body) is perfect in God’s eyes. Seeking individual honor is very selfish and never serves the purpose of God.

·         1 John 1:7, if we do not have fellowship, we are walking in darkness.

·         Heb 10:24-25 – the importance of encouragement, stimulating others towards love and good deeds, etc.

·         Rom 1:12 where one person’s faith builds another’s.

·         Rom 15:2 – Personal edification comes from fellowship.

So, let us humbly accept the important of the Church (Acts 20:28) in our personal lives. We are expected to love one another unconditionally and to support / encourage others throughout our lives. This church should be bound with the Holy Spirit’s wisdom and fellowship. We need to have Christ fill every corner and person of the church and the complete characteristics and full love of Jesus should be displayed by the church together.