Ephesians 4:13

‘Until we all attain unto the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a full grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.'

The final aim is that we may attain to that unity to which he has earlier exhorted us (Ephesians 4:3) and to a deeper understanding and knowledge of the Son of God (compare Romans 1:4). And as we grow to a deeper knowledge of Him we become no longer babes but full grown men. The unity of faith is in respect of essential doctrine such as the true divinity of Christ and His work of redemption, not secondary matters.

‘Into a full-grown man.' Believing Jews and Gentiles form ‘one new man' (Ephesians 2:15). (Illustrative and not to be overpressed). This picture is linked with our oneness in Christ in the body. The full-grown man can thus be seen as Christ and His people growing as one into total Christ-likeness and perfect unity. This twofold strand runs through all Paul's teaching. The one and the many. He stresses both individual responsibility and corporate oneness.

But this verse could easily be intended as such a contrast, for he may mean that each of us is to grow into a full-grown man, each achieving the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (1 John 3:2).

‘To the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.' In the Christian sense to become a full grown man involves exactly this, reaching the level of the fullness of Christ, becoming like Him (1 John 3:2).

‘Stature (or maturity).' So translated of Zacchaeus who was ‘small of stature' (Luke 19:3), and in a number of other extra-Biblical occurrences. However the word later predominantly means ‘time of life, age' and can mean to be ‘of age', thus it may here refer to maturity of age.

‘The pleroma of Christ.' In the Gospels the word pleroma was used of the sufficiency of fragments which filled several baskets after the feeding (Mark 8:20). The word denotes entirety of content and is applied by Philo to the animals housed in Noah's ark. It is also used of a ship's complement. Thus it means that which is full and perfectly complete. Compare ‘the fullness of God' (Ephesians 3:19). See also on Ephesians 1:23.