<p>1:23 <i>Which is his body, the fullness of him that fills all in all</i>- See on :22. The 'filling' of the Lord's body is by His Spirit; the gift of His Spirit &quot;in the inner man&quot; is what enables Him to fill His body with all God's fullness (Eph. 3:16,19). We note the connection between the Spirit gift and being filled in Eph. 4:10; 5:18.</p><p>There is a clear connection between this idea of the fullness of God, and Ex. 34:6, where God proclaims His Name to be &quot;Yahweh, a God <i>full</i> of compassion&quot;, grace and His other characteristics (see R.V.). So by bearing God's Name, we have His fullness counted to us; and the filling of the Spirit makes us in practice what we are by status. As Christ had the fullness of God dwelling in Him in a bodily form (Col. 2:9), so the church, as the body of Christ, &quot;<i>is</i> (Christ's) body, the fullness of him (God) that fills all in all&quot; (Eph. 1:22,23). So you see the intensity of our unity; we <i>are</i> the very body of Christ, He exists in and through us (although of course He still has a separate personality). Likewise, the <i>fullness</i> of God is in Christ and thereby in us. We are not just one part of God's interest, our salvation is not just one of His many hobbies, as it were. He only has one beloved Son; He was human and born on this earth for <i>our</i> salvation. The fullness of God, even though we scarcely begin to comprehend it, dwelt fully in Christ, and is counted to us. We really should have a sense of wonder, real wonder, at the greatness of our calling. See on Eph. 3:19.</p><p>The church is &quot;His body, the fullness of Him (God) that fills all in all&quot;. Thus we are &quot;<i>the</i>&quot; fullness of God and Christ. &quot;We beheld His glory... full of grace and truth (alluding to Ex. 34)... and of His fullness have all we received&quot; (Jn. 1:14,16). The word &quot;fills&quot; in Eph. 1:23 is the same as 'complete' in Col. 2:9,10: &quot;In Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And you are <i>complete</i> &quot;filled&quot; in Him&quot;. Christ is filled with God's fullness of the righteous attributes of glory, and in Christ we are also filled by the Spirit of Christ. Seeing that we are the body of Christ it follows that the ecclesia <i>in toto </i>manifests the fulness of Christ's and therefore God's glory, through each of us manifesting a slightly different aspect of God's glorious character to perfection. Thus Peter reasons that the quicker the ecclesia spiritually develops, manifesting those attributes, the earlier Christ can return (2 Pet. 3:11-15). See on Phil. 1:11.</p><p>The body of Christ is His &quot;fullness&quot; through which He fills us all. I take this to mean that each member of the body of Christ manifests something unique about Jesus, so that between us, we show all of Christ to the world- e.g. one may reveal His patience, another His zeal, etc. By limiting our definition of the body of Christ, we limit our perception and experience of Him; and thus we limit the extent we are filled with His fullness, if we refuse to accept that which every member of the body supplies to us, in order that we might grow up in Him (Eph. 4:16). God will be &quot;all in all&quot; through the full expression of His Name. But Eph. 1:23 says that right now, all the fullness of God fills &quot;all in all&quot; in the church; in other words we should now be experiencing something of that total unity which will then be physically manifest throughout all creation.</p>