CHAPTER THREE:
THE BODY OF CHRIST

The truth relating to the Church as the Body, of which Christ is the Head, was especially committed to the Apostle Paul, and it was evidently with the design of unfolding it that he set out to write the Epistle to the Ephesians. The teaching that occupies the first twenty-one verses of the first chapter forms the basis of the statement that God gave Christ to be “Head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.”

An essential truth laid down in this first chapter, amplified in the course of the Epistle, and conveyed in the symbolism of the head and the body, is that the Church, instead of being an earthly organization built up and established in the world, is heavenly in its design, establishment and destiny. Its individual members necessarily become incorporated into it in this life, according as each one receives eternal life through faith in Christ and is born of God. Each one then becomes part of the Body and is inseparably united to the Head. At no period can all the believers living in the world at any given time have constituted the Church. They could not in that respect be spoken of as the Body of Christ and yet that is an alternative designation of the Church. [5]

[5] A local church, meeting in any particular place, is spoken of as a body in 1 Cor. 12:27, but in a different aspect: “To the church in Corinth,” the Apostle says, “Ye are (the) body of Christ” (the definite article is absent in the original), but some of the members, in that application of the word, are themselves part of the head, being spoken of as an “eye,” an “ear” (see verse 16). Accordingly the symbol is not applied in that passage in the same way as in Ephesians, where Christ is the Head of the whole Church, the Body.

THE SCRIPTURE VIEW OF THE CHURCH

Even at the time of Pentecost those who believed comprised only a small fraction of the whole Church, and if they, or all the truly regenerate in the world at the present time, or at any other time, were the Church, then that of which He is the Head (and there is no other) would be a body maimed and marred and lacking most of its parts. In the early part of the present era most of the Church had not come into being; in the closing part of the era most of the Church has, or will have, departed this life, such, while still part of the Body, being present with the Lord. The whole will not be completed till the gospel has fulfilled its object. After its number is complete, the Lord will “descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air” (I Thess. 4:16, 17, R.V.). The Church will then have its full membership as the Body of Christ, and only of that company can the term “the Church” be rightly used, apart from its application to a local company.

Many apply the term “the Church” to all those in the world who profess the faith. But such a view of the Church is not borne out by the teaching of Christ and His Apostles.’ Believers [6] are formed into local churches here, each being a separate spiritual temple of God, according to the Divine plan; as the Apostle says to the church at Corinth, “Ye are a temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you” (I Cor. 3:16, R.V.). But the churches were not externally organized into an ecclesiastical entity, in any district or country, or generally as a universal system. Neither is there any hint in apostolic teaching that such was Divinely intended to be the case. To such a system or combination the word “Church” is nowhere applied in Scripture, and any such organization is a contravention of apostolic testimony and therefore of the will and design of Christ.

[6] The view referred to has been explained by means of the illustration of a regiment in the British Army, which fought, for instance, at the battle of Waterloo, and still bears the same designation, though not a soldier who took part in that battle is alive today. But Scripture knows no such third definition of the Church as would provide ground for the illustration. Again, an attempt has been made to find some support for the view in the suggestion that the letters to the seven churches in the second and third Chapters of the Apocalypse speak of conditions which anticipatively represent successive periods in the history of the Christian churches, or of Christendom, throughout the present era. It is argued from this that since the condition prevailing in any one of the periods represents what is conveyed to a particular church in the actual letter, the term “church” may be said to stand for all the Christians in the world during the period intimated. This argument is precarious indeed. To begin with, it is based upon a mere inference, and then, whatever justification there may be for the successive period view, that view involves the teaching that the conditions which are represented by the last of the four letters are not distinctly successive since each of these four last continues from its beginning to the end of the age; so that there are four simultaneous conditions at the time represented by the letter to Laodicea, three represented by the letter to Philadelphia, two by the letter to Sardis, while that which is represented by the one to Thyatira continues through all four. In other words, if we hold the anticipative and prophetic view of these letters to the churches they cannot all be held to represent distinctly separate, successive periods. This itself runs counter to the idea that the Church consists of all believers in the world at any given time, and in any case it is unsafe to apply the word “Church,” in a way in which it is not used in Scripture, to something which is simply based upon inference, and especially an inference which does not fit the view taken.

CHRIST'S DESIGN ABANDONED

In times considerably subsequent to those of the Apostles, churches were externally combined, organized and centralized, as the result of ecclesiastical aims and efforts, and by such means something took shape quite different in character from the arrangements which were designed by Christ and carried out by the Apostles. It is true that then the term “Church” was applied to that organization, but in no way could its use in that respect be justified from the Divine point of view. The claim is made that such an organization was inevitable, and was developed and directed by the Spirit of God, but the claim is invalid. The ecclesiastical history of the third, fourth and fifth centuries is a witness against it. In those times the churches became partially paganized, and their organization was arranged under the influence and guidance of the Emperor Constantine, and modeled largely on the plan of State arrangements. The whole system thus became a travesty of the Divine institution and the term “the Church” was, and has been since, a, misnomer, when applied to it.

That local churches are themselves visible communities professing the same faith, partaking of the same holy privileges and spiritual blessings, governed by the same Lord, and indwelt by the same Holy Spirit, has never afforded any ground for their external amalgamation, with the establishment of a central ecclesiastical authority on earth, either for any particular district, or for the churches at large; neither has the fact that the Lord provides spiritual gifts in the several churches for the guidance and care therein of believers. We have already remarked that the record of what is regarded as a Council of the Church in Acts 15 affords no evidence of this. The incident there mentioned is, on the contrary, a testimony against such an institution rather than an evidence in favour of it.

THE ONE AND ONLY HEAD

That God the Father gave Christ to be Head over all things to the Church as His Body, is the crown of all the Divine counsels relating to the Church. There is no more glorious theme in all the plan of Redemption. That, no doubt, is the significance of the double title of God, “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ” and “the Father of glory,” with which this passage begins (Eph. 1:17), while it also resumed the threefold mention of the praise of His glory, in verses 6, 12 and 14. The Son wrought for the glory of the Father in His life on earth and His atoning death, and the Father, in response thereto, glorified His Son in raising Him from the dead and seating Him at His right hand in the place of universal authority and in Headship over the Church.

The phrase “Head over all things to the Church” is very comprehensive when viewed in the light of both the preceding and succeeding contexts. The latter speaks of the Church as the fulness of Him “that filleth all in all” [7] that is to say, in regard to the Church as His Body, He fills all things’ in all the members, all their activities being under His direction and fulfilled by His power. But this does not exhaust the meaning of the phrase. The preceding context directs our thoughts to the position which Christ occupies in His universal power and authority both in this age and that which is to come, a position in which all things are put in subjection under His feet. This is stated here anticipatively, as an accomplished fact; for, though as the Epistle to the Hebrews says, “we see not yet all things subjected to Him,” yet its fulfillment is as certain as if it had already taken place.

[7] Here the presence of the definite article in the original refers apparently to what has preceded.

This opens out a wonderful vista. The One to whom all things are to be subjected has been given to the Church as its Head. The Church in this relation to Christ occupies the highest position in the Divine counsels for the future. All things in Heaven and on the earth are united to own His authority, and the position of the Church as being “in Christ” determines its association with Him in the exercise of this universal control. We are to be “joint-heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:17). The Father has in view for His Son “a dispensation (or administration, lit., economy) of the fulness of the times,” wherein He will sum up all things in Christ, “the things in the heavens and the things on the earth” (Eph. 1:10); and inasmuch as the Church, chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, is united to Him in the closest possible manner, it will, while being under His Headship as His Body, at the same time be associated with Him in His power and rule, and thus He is, in the fullest scope, “Head over all things to the Church.”

PREPARATORY ANTAGONISM

Against such a transcendent truth, affecting as it does the glory of God and the Person of Christ, it is not a matter of surprise that the arch-adversary should set himself with his utmost might and his most persistent and ingenious devices, both by opposition and imitation. Nor need we be surprised that, throughout an era when God is calling out from among the nations a company for His Name, to constitute the Church the Body of Christ, formed by the Holy Spirit, and Heavenly in establishment and destiny, the adversary should seek to obscure and travesty the truths relating thereto. Satanic preparation had been made, in the long centuries before Christ came, for the paganizing of the apostate Christendom of the fourth century A.D., by the worldwide spread of Babylonish tents, customs and practices.

ECCLESIASTICAL PRESUMPTION

The doctrine relating to the Church as the Body of Christ has a most practical effect on the life of believers, and is strikingly counteractive of a tendency to regard Church truth as merely doctrinal and removed from the sphere of Christian activities. The dominating principle for all believers, in this figure under which the Church is set forth, is their entire subjection to Christ. The Body is for the Head. Human will of itself is ruled out. The glory of man as such has no place. For the believer the Cross of Christ is the death of human self-satisfaction, ambition and pride. The Cross has revealed in full measure man’s alienation from God, his love of this world and his disinclination towards grace. But the Cross is at the same time the very basis upon which the relationship of the Church to Christ is established. Man’s tendency is to exalt himself. He loves reputation. He likes to be somebody, to do something which will attract the esteem of people to himself, to be of importance in his own eyes as well as in the eyes of others. In the very discharge of spiritual functions in the Church, man is apt to forget that all that he is and does is to be surely and solely for the glory of Christ, that Christ is the one Head, controlling everything, and imparting everything of life and energy to the Body in all its members.

Nowhere is this innate tendency more dangerous than in spiritual things, and particularly in the exercise of the care and guidance of the people of God. Here one exposes himself especially to the wiles of the adversary, and a man may be deceived into thinking that he is serving God while really he is establishing the glory and power of his ecclesiastical position. The true glory of Christ is obscured when man’s greatness is prominent. Ecclesiastical rivalry, and the resulting domination of the strongest men in the churches, served to produce such a condition, that control eventually was exercised from one religious centre, and man usurped the position of the authority of Christ.

That the Church is the Body of Christ strikes a blow at the idea of its establishment on earth as a universal ecclesiastical organization. Christ the Head is in Heaven, and His Body the Church is identified with Him in the Heavenly places. There the Church is “seated” with Him, and its establishment and destiny are there. Its very existence and condition depended, and ever will depend, upon His ascension and exaltation there as a result of His Incarnation, Death and Resurrection. There could be no Church without Christ as its Head, and it is because He is set at God’s right hand that He holds that position. That the Church is His Body assumes, then, both His exaltation and the identification of the Church with Him in the heavenlies.

GROWTH OF CLERICAL DOMINATION

This is not according to the ideas and inclination of the natural mind; it clashes with man’s carnal propensities. It is significant that, while this great truth relating to the Church as the Body of which Christ is the Head, was taught and maintained by apostolic testimony, there is the clearest evidence that in post-apostolic times it fell into neglect. The low spiritual condition into which the churches lapsed made this inevitable. The state of things against which Christ Himself remonstrates through the Apostle John in Revelation 2 and 3 was such as to induce a disregard of the doctrine concerning the true position and relation of the Church. Not only so, but, on the other hand, there were forces at work detrimental to it. The rapid and general advance of clerisy was against it. The un-apostolic assumption of human power and domination on the part of Church leaders practically obliterated it. How could it be apprehended when men “loved to have the pre-eminence,” and when people gloried in man? The general development of the clerical system was antagonistic to that truth.

Those who have carefully studied the history of the first few centuries of this era, will perhaps have observed that the writings even of the early “Fathers” contain no testimony to this doctrine of the Headship of Christ over the Church as His Body. Whatever else was taught, that was allowed to lapse. Earthly aspirations, motives guided by natural ambition, aims that were concentrated on worldly ideas, superseded the truth of the Church as the Body of Christ. The confusion of the true character of the Church with that of earthly organization was a triumph for the adversary and shows how possible it was for the churches to be “corrupted from the simplicity and the purity that is toward Christ.”

CHAPTER FOUR:
A FOURFOLD DESCRIPTION OF THE CHURCH

The first chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians sets forth the Character of the Church as heavenly in its position, its relationship to Christ and its destiny. As His Body, it is united to Him as its Head “in the heavenly places.” The second chapter likewise speaks of the Constitution of the Church. It consists of those who “in the flesh” were Jews and Gentiles, all alike being “sons of disobedience,” living “in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind,” “by nature children of wrath,” and spiritually “dead through our trespasses” (2:3-5). Of such materials Divine grace has designed that Christ should “create in Himself... one new man,” reconciling believers both Jew and Gentile, “in one body unto God, through the Cross” (verses 15, 16). The “one new man” is the Body with the Head, viewed anticipatively, instinct with spiritual life derived from the Head, though the Body is actually in process of formation until the whole attains “unto a full grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (4:13).

Toward the close of the second chapter the metaphor is changed (to be resumed in the fourth chapter), and a threefold description is given. There is firstly the figure of a city, secondly that of a household, and thirdly that of a temple. Gentile believers are not raised to the level of Jewish believers; both are brought out of their former condition into the high privileges of fellowship and association with Christ.

A CITY AND A HOUSEHOLD

“So then” (i.e., because of this union in Christ and the common access by one Spirit unto the Father) “ye are no more strangers and sojourners, but ye are fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.” The words rendered “strangers” (xenos) and “sojourners” (paroikos, lit., a by-dweller) and not infrequently found together in the Septuagint.

The stranger was an alien, tolerated, indeed, yet liable to be frowned on and debarred from rights and privileges which belonged to the nation into whose midst he had come to reside for the time being.

As a sojourner, if the Apostle was merely referring to conditions in Greek States, a sojourner was one who came from one city and settled in another but did not enjoy the rights of citizenship. If, however, he had in mind the Septuagint use of the word in the rendering of Leviticus 22:10; 25:23, etc., the reference would be to one who, while resident with a family or community, was excluded from its domestic rights and privileges, as, for instance, in the case of one who sojourned with a priest as his guest but was prohibited from eating the holy things. That this is the meaning is suggested by the contrasting context, which speaks of believers as “of the household of God.” [8]

[8] In Leviticus 22:10, the Septuagint has a different word for “stranger” (allogenos, one of another race). In Genesis 23:4, “sojourner” (Paroikos) is the first word. See also Leviticus 25:23, 35, 47. In the New Testament the terms are found only elsewhere in Acts 7:6, 29; cp. 1 Pet. 2:11.

How striking the change wrought by Divine grace! Instead of “strangers,” “fellow-citizens with the saints!” Literally the phrase is “fellow-citizens of the saints,” that is to say, the saints constitute a community of which all are fellow-citizens not that Gentile believers are now privileged with Jewish saints, as a distinct class, but that all saints (whether Jew or Gentile formerly) are together privileged as being possessed of heavenly citizenship. All enjoy the same government and protection, the same organization and fellowship, the same rights and liberties. Instead of “sojourners,” they are members “of the household of God!” Not mere guests, here to day and gone tomorrow, but members of God’s spiritual House, enjoying all the benefits of domestic life, in the most intimate relationship, as “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.”
 

A TEMPLE

As a Temple the saints are “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the chief corner stone; in whom each several building (more literally, ‘every building’) fitly framed together groweth into a holy temple in the Lord.”

As to the foundation, the word rendered “being built” (lit., “being built upon”), containing in itself the mention of a dwelling place, forms a transition from the figure of the household to the material of a building, that of a temple being in view. The foundation was laid by the Apostles and prophets (i.e., those whose testimony was contemporaneous with that of the Apostles); it consisted of the doctrines relating to Christ. [9] Their testimony was foundation work, Christ Jesus Himself, i.e., His own Person, being “the chief corner stone,” the foundation stone placed at the corner. Cp. Psalm 118:22, Isaiah 28:16. Christ, the glories of His Person and work, form the foundation. The Apostles and prophets are again viewed in 4:12 as engaged in the work of “building up.”

The phrase rendered “every building” (R.V. margin); “all the building,” (A.V.); each is possible as a rendering signifies the structure in every part of it. The edifice in course of construction, in process of being “fitly framed together (or, more literally, ‘jointed together’),” grows “into a holy Temple in the Lord.” This presents the process in its ultimate issue. All is viewed in its future state as complete and perfect, every stone fitting its appointed place, the whole being God’s dwelling place, a place of absolute holiness, a structure of glory and beauty, a place of worship. There is no noise in the process, no outward display. The building is not set up on the earth it is a spiritual structure and this is consistent with and confirms all the teaching of the New Testament concerning the Church. Nothing can prevent its completion. The gates of Hades cannot prevail against it.

CHAPTER FIVE:
THE FATHER'S FAMILY

The first chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians speaks particularly of the counsels of God in regard to the glory of Christ and the relationship of the Church to Him. The second chapter brings especially before us the operations of God in the formation of the Church, the present process and the ultimate design.

The third chapter, which, since the Apostle treats therein of his own ministry, is parenthetic, yet introduces, as we shall see, a figure additional to those of the second chapter. At the same time even here he recalls the subject of the Body; in speaking of the special stewardship committed to him in connection with “the mystery” of Christ and the Church, he defines the mystery in this way, “that the Gentiles are fellow-heirs and fellow-members of the same Body, and fellow-partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus, through the gospel” (3:6, R.V.) Co-heirs, co-incorporated and co-sharers. Here the one Body is again the dominating thought. For the thought of the incorporation into the same Body conveys a closer union than that of joint inheritance, and the third expression, “fellow-partakers” is simply added to show that the first two involve this, that there is no blessing or privilege, either in kind or in degree, which is not shared alike by believers, both Jew and Gentile.

The additional figure which this chapter presents is that of a family. Having pointed out the present purpose of God concerning the Church, in regard to the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places, the Apostle speaks of the access which we enjoy through faith, and bows his knees “unto the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.” “Every family” may be taken as the correct rendering. [10]

THE PATRIA

As to the meaning of the word patria, “family,” it is found only twice elsewhere in the New Testament, in Luke 2:4, “lineage of David” (R.V., “family”), that is, those who reckon their descent from David, and Acts 3:25, “the kindreds (R.V., families) of the earth.” The word, then, signifies those who have a common paternal origin.

Now as to the context, the Apostle has mentioned in the 18th verse of the preceding chapter that through Christ “we have our access in one Spirit unto the Father.” This he has just repeated in the 12th verse of the third chapter and in this connection he speaks of “the Father” as the One to whom he bows his knees. In both passages the Fatherhood of God is stressed, and the point here is that from the Father every family in heaven and on earth is named. Some have regarded this as signifying a series of families consisting of the Church, angels, Jews and Gentiles. This, however, does not seem to be the apostle’s meaning.

"EVERY FAMILY"

The phrase is exactly parallel in the original to that in 2:21, where, speaking of the Church as a temple, he says “in whom every building, fitly framed together, groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord.” Just as there the phrase “every building” signifies “the building in all its parts,” so here “every family” would point to the same kind of meaning, namely, “the whole family in all its parts,” that is to say, all those who, whether in Heaven or on earth, enjoy relationship to God as their Father. Thus the Church is in view, in all its constituent parts those who are already with the Lord and the various communities or assemblies on earth who likewise enjoy this Divine relationship. This is in keeping with the tenor of the whole Epistle.

That the whole in its several parts is named from the Father indicates that from Him as Father it derives that which gives it its true character, and it is the practical realization of this in the lives of believers that the Apostle desires, as expressed in his immediately following prayer. For the Fatherhood of God, and all that this means in spiritual relationship and experience, can be carried into practical effect only if we are strengthened by the power of the Spirit of God in the inward man and Christ dwells in our hearts through faith. only so can we be rooted and grounded in love and be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge.” Thus and thus only can we be “filled unto (Or ‘into) all the fulness of God.” All this is consequent upon having God as our Father.

THE FATHER

The matters contained in. this comprehensive prayer, then, are those which appertain especially to the family of God. In the Apostle’s prayer in the first chapter he speaks of God as “the Father of glory,” as well as “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ” (verse 17); for the subject of that prayer is more especially the power of God in raising Him from the dead, and in consequence the greatness of His power to usward. Here in the third chapter his prayer is occupied more particularly with the subject of love. We are to know the love of Christ and are to be rooted and grounded in love. The theme of love is especially appropriate to the subject of the family. As the Father of g1ory (chapter 1) He raised up Christ from the dead, and made Him to sit at His right hand in heavenly places, giving Him to be Head over all things to the Church, which is His Body. As the Father of the spiritual family (chapter 3) His design is that the members of the family should know His love as embodied in and expressed through Christ. In the first prayer the Church is the fulness of Him that filleth all in all.” That is a matter of glory expressed in power. Here in the second prayer the subject of fulness is not the power by which Christ fills all things in all the members, as in 1:23, but the design of the Father that the members of His family should so know the love of Christ that they may be filled into all the fulness of God. Divine power fills all the members of the Body; by Divine love the members of God’s family are filled into His fulness.

THE DOXOLOGY

The theme of the Apostle’s prayer is so transcendent, and the effects designed to be produced so soul-stirring and heart-affecting, that he follows his prayer with this doxology: “Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be the glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations for ever and ever” (3: 20, 21). Let us note particularly the combination “in the Church and in Christ Jesus”; that is undoubtedly the right rendering. The Church is the sphere in which the glory here spoken of is to ascend to God. But not simply the Church; never the Church without Christ who is its Head, who fills the members, and whose love draws forth their praise. The combination is a beautiful continuation of the great theme of the Epistle, the union of Christ and His Church. The Son, who glorified the Father on the earth, having finished the work which He gave Him to do, glorifies Him now, and will ever do so, in and through His Church, which He has redeemed by His precious blood and united to Himself. It is this oneness, this fellowship, with Christ which causes the glory to ascend to Him who is the Father of glory. The glory, which is the exhibition of His own character, power and attributes, flows down from Him, and returns to Him, in responding recognition and expression, in the Church and in Christ Jesus, and it will do so through all successive generations and throughout eternity.