DAILY DEVOTION: EPHESIANS 1:22B-23

By Stan Brown

Ephesians 1:22b-23 and gave Him as head over all things to the church which is His body, the fulness of Him who fills all in all.

Paul now ends this marvelous discussion of the magnificent power of God that is available to us as believers with an interesting contrast.  Everything that is created, that is everything without exception has been placed in subjection to the one who is seated at the right hand of the Father.  In stark contrast to those who are in subjection under His feet he is placed here as the head of the church.  The familiar designation of the church as His body is included here.  Are we still in subjection to the One who is head?  Of course we are.  But it is a willing subjection.  It is a willing subjection by those who have been chosen.  It is a willing subjection by those who have made the choice to believe.  In response, Christ fills the church; that is the body; that is those of us having also believed with manifold blessings.

Now we will unpack this a little.  The concept of head speaks of two things; preeminence and authority.  This relates directly to the church of which we are a part.  We have a personal intimate relationship with the One who is preeminent in all creation.  We have a relationship where we have chosen to be in subjection to the One who is preeminent.  This will have some interesting implications in the second half of the book where we will need to be encouraged to follow through on that chosen course of willing subjection (Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called (Eph. 4:1)).  We willingly believe in the One who has been given to us as head.  We willingly subject ourselves to His headship.

We are His body.  Hoehner sums up this relationship “God subjected all creation under His feet, including friends and enemies alike.  On the other hand, He gave Christ, the head of everything, to the church whose members have an integral relationship with Christ.  The members of the body are bound to each other and are related to Christ as our redeemer, sustainer and head.”  I look at it this way.  All of creation is under His feet in subjection.  We have a relationship as a body to the head which is an entirely different kind of relationship.  It is a personal, intimate and breathtaking relationship.  We also have a relationship to each other as members of the body which is filled to overflowing by our head, Jesus Christ.
 Paul completes this passage with the phrase, the fulness of Him who fills all in all.  We as His body are filled with the fulness of the blessings of God.  Christ as the head of the body is always and completely the ultimate source of this fulness and He never runs out of the infinite supply.  We respond to this by experiencing God in a progre