Ephesians 2:21

In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord. — There is some difficulty about the rendering-”all the building.” Generally the best MSS. omit the article in the original. But the sense seems to demand the rendering of the text, unless, indeed, we adopt the only other possible rendering, “in whom every act of building” — that is, every addition to the building — “is bonded to the rest, and grows,” &c. The clause agrees substantially, and almost verbally with Ephesians 4:16 — “From whom the whole body, fitly joined (framed) together and compacted... maketh increase of the body unto the edifying (building up) of itself.” In this latter passage the leading idea is of the close union of the body to the head, to which, indeed, the metaphor more properly applies than to the relation of the building to the corner-stone. For we note that St. Paul, apparently finding this relation too slight to express the full truth of the unity of the Church with Christ, first speaks of the whole building as compacted together in the corner-stone, and growing — that is, being gradually built up — in that closely compacted union; and next, calls the temple so built up a “temple holy in the Lord” (i.e., the Lord Jesus Christ), deriving, therefore, all its sacredness as a temple from a pervading unity with Him. The corner-stone is only a part, though a dominant part, of the building. Christ not only “keeps all together, whether you speak of roof, or wall, or any other part whatsoever” (Chrys.), but by contact with Himself makes the building to be a temple.