Ephesians 4:13

till we all come in Render, come unto. The thought is of the holy Community converging into the spiritual harmony of a developed, equal, identical faith in and knowledge of the Son of God, under the mutual influence of individual believers stimulated and guided by the spiritual ministry. This would take place by growth and development in the faith and knowledge of individuals; but the cohesion of the true Church would bring these individual growths to converge and result in the maturity of the collective faith and knowledge, so to speak, of the whole Body, the ideal "fullgrown Man" of which the "fullgrown men" were the elements and miniatures.

of the faith, and of the knowledge of I.e., faith inHim and knowledge ofHim. "Faith of" often, in the N.T., means "faith in"; e.g.Galatians 2:20 (A.V., "the faith of the Son of God," identically as here). See above on Ephesians 3:12. "Knowledge" :the Gr. word indicates true, full, developed spiritual knowledge, but too delicately, perhaps, to admit translation. See above on Ephesians 1:17.

the Son of God This sacred Title belongs to the Saviour specially, among other respects, as He is the Head of the Church, the Firstborn, "in Whom" the "children" have adoption and regeneration; "in Whom" they are one with the Father. Their progress in the regenerate life and likeness will be largely effected through their "faith in Him and true knowledge of Him" as such.

perfect Better, as R.V., full-grown. The maturity of the life to come is in view; the state in which the mutual "edification" of the present life will have done its work.

man The Gr. corresponds to the Latin vir, not homo. It indicates manas against child. See next verse.

unto the measure of the stature The metaphor is of height, not age, though the word rendered "stature" means "age" as readily, by itself. The imagery of growthin this passage decides the alternative here. "The measure" :the allotted, proper, standard.

the fulness of Christ Cp. the phrases "fulness of the Gentiles" (Romans 11:25), and "fulness of the time" (Galatians 4:4), and note on Ephesians 1:23. The phrase here appears to be analogous: the total, at length attained, of what is meant by Christ. And "Christ" in this passage (so full of the idea of the oneness in and with the Lord of His mystical Body) is, in effect, Christ and His Church (see above on Ephesians 1:23); as in 1 Corinthians 12:12, "as the body is one, and hath many limbs … so also is Christ." The Lord the Son becomes in accomplished fact all that He wills, and is willed, to be, only when He is the Head of a perfected mystical Body which lives by His sacred Life and is His incorporate "limbs," His immortal vehicle of action, if we may so speak. So He and they are guardedly and reverently spoken of here and there as One Christ, with full reservation, from other Scriptures, of the truth of the undying personality of each individual "limb" of the glorious Head, and of His Divine Personality. See further above on Ephesians 1:22.

It is possible to explain the present phrase to mean "the fulness which flows from Christ," the full, ideal, supply of grace and glory derived to the members from the Head. But we think this less probable, in view of the passage above quoted, 1 Corinthians 12:12. See also below, Ephesians 4:15-16.