Filled with God’s Fulness.

Text Ephesians 3:18-19 …that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Read Col 1:9-19 – 2:1-10

In this study, we will explore what Paul means when he writes …that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God, To properly understand what Paul means, we will need especially to look at two or three very common, but very important words, especially the words THAT and WITH!

1. THAT – The Climax of Paul’s Prayer.

We have reached the end of Paul’s great prayer for the Ephesian Church and he concludes, …that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.  Everything in this prayer has been leading up to this point, THAT ye might be filled! The use of the word THAT links this filling with the fulness of God as a consequence of what has already gone before in the prayer. Everything that Paul has prayed for the Ephesian Christians culminates in them being filled with all the fulness of God.  This passage has been about our Christian experience, about our progress along the Christian path. The Christian life is not static. We are to grow in grace, to know more and more of the Holy Spirit’s power, of Christ’s love and of God’s fulness, every day of life. It is about Christian growth. 2 Peter 3:18  

Now, here’s the practical point. Look back to your conversion. To the first time when you realised that you were a believer in Christ. How far have you come? Are you growing in grace and truth, or stuck? In a moment or two we shall discover a benchmark for our self examination and assessment.

Now, let’s examine the phrase in more detail:-

2. WITH – The Nature of God’s Fulness.

What is the ‘fulness of God’, and how are we to obtain it? After all at first glance, to the casual reader, this phrase ‘the fulness of God’ might be easily misunderstood. It might be mistaken for some form of mysticism, or the ‘prosperity gospel’ ‘I’m a little god’ heresy, or even the Mormons!  

Our AV and NKJV versions read, ‘that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.’  When we go the Greek RT, we see that the words translated ‘WITH’ are εις πας. Most reliable reformed commentators agree that the AV ‘WITH ALL’ is not the best translation of εις πας. (EIS PAS) A better translation would be into, or UNTO the fulness of God. Actually, the best rendition of this is probably in the NIV! It translates εις πας as that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.  

Now, if we accept that εις πας is better translated as UNTO rather than WITH, then the meaning of the text becomes very clear. Paul is telling the Ephesians that they have a goal, an aspiration, that they are to so grow in grace that they become in every possible way, more and more godly, that they will develop more godlike characters, more Christlike, as they walk the Christian pathway. Furthermore it is a theme Paul will take up again in chapter 4, when he reminds them just why God has given the church pastors, ministers… Ephesians 4:11-12 We are to measure ourselves against Jesus and pursue Godliness, as we seek to be like him, with the help of the Holy Spirit. 

Now that begs another question. Just how godly, how Christ-like can we become in this life? When we search the scriptures to find out what God is LIKE we arrive at a list of characteristics that describe him. We call these characteristics his ‘attributes.’  We divide these descriptions, or attributes into two classes:-

• God’s incommunicable attributes. Those are the aspects of the character of God that we can never share in. For example, God is eternal, he is omnipresent, he is omniscient, he is immutable… Now, while we are to be filled to the extent of God’s fulness, that can never include any of those incommunicable attributes. 
• God’s communicable attributes. There are some aspects of the character of God that he shares with us – after all were created to be like him, in his image. So, for example, God wants us to be holy, as he is holy, to be righteous, as he is righteous, to be kind as he is kind, to be merciful, as he is merciful, to hate sin, as he hates sin, and to love others as he has loved us. Those are the attributes of God that we should desire to be filled with, and they are the result, the fruit of the indwelling love of Christ. Paul lists them for us in Galatians 5:22-23.  Remember how we are described as trees, bearing fruit in season.

That is our goal as Christians in this life, to be like Him, as the Holy Spirit strengthens us and roots us in his love. But there is one more aspect to this climax of Paul’s prayer. 

3. YE – This filling is for YOU.

Paul has already stressed in verse 18, that we understand and practice the love of God in the context of ‘all the saints.’ But how can sinful human beings like me ever achieve even a tiny measure of Christlikeness in this life? How far short of the measure do I fall, – and you? I suggest that it is only possible because we have Jesus, because we have Christ within, through the Holy Spirit!  READ: John 14:23, Colossians 1:19,  Colossians 2:3, Colossians 2:9-10, 

The fulness of God the father dwells in Christ, and he dwells in us! If we have Christ we are filled to all the fulness of God, we know and understand something of his immeasurable love for us, we want to walk in his steps and live in obedience to him, and we have a goal before us, Matthew 5:48  That’s our goal. That’s our lofty ideal, and despite the fact that we know we shall never attain it in this life, like Paul in Philippians 3:14 

So we have come now to the last clause of Paul’s great wonderful, truly sublime prayer for the saints at Ephesus. What an amazing prayer, full of rich language, pregnant with meaning, praying that these believers will have a life changing experience of God as they walk with Christ. Paul’s not anywhere near the end of the epistle though, but when he thinks back over what he he has written in chapters 1-3, his heart just bursts open with praise, and pours out this beautiful song of praise to Almighty God, in verse 20-21, 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, 21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21. That song, – we call it a ‘doxology’ will occupy our thoughts in our next lesson.

© Bob McEvoy 2023