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For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; and in him ye are made full, who is the Head of all principality and power. The apostle is here condemning one of the false principles that underlay the teaching of the Gnostics - the substitution of angelic mediators for Christ.

I. CHRIST'S TRUE DEITY AND TRUE HUMANITY.

1. He is no mere emanation from the supreme God, but "all the fulness of the Godhead." All the infinite perfections of the essential being of God are in him. The Gnostics taught that the fulness of the Godhead was distributed among many spiritual agencies. The apostle teaches that it is in Christ as the eternal Word. "The Word was with God, and was God."

2. This fulness "dwells" in him now and forver. It is a blessedly abiding fact. It is a permanent indwelling.

3. It dwells "bodily;" that is, with a bodily manifestation. The false teachers, imagining that matter was essentially evil, could not brook the thought of the Divine Redeemer linking himself forver with a human body, and they, after Docetic theory, either denied the reality of his body or its inseparable connection with him forver. But "the Word was made flesh" (John 1:14), and "The spirit which confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh,.., is the spirit of antichrist" (1 John 4:3).

II. OUR RELATIONSHIP TO THE FULNESS OF CHRIST. "And in him ye are made full, who is the Head of all principality and power."

1. Christian life is union with Christ.

(1) We can obtain nothing from Christ till we are in Christ (1 John 5:20). "In him we have life" (1 John 5:11), as in him we are chosen (Ephesians 1:4).

(2) We cannot, therefore, look for life from subordinate mediators.

2. Christian life is the enjoyment of his fulness.

(1) Therefore nothing is to be looked for from angelic mediators. "Out of his fulness have we all received, and grace for grace" (John 1:16). His fulness is not finite, but infinite. There can never, therefore, be lack of supply.

(2) It ought to be our prayer to receive more largely of this fulness. The apostle prayed for the Ephesians that they might be "filled up to all the fulness of God," and "grow unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Ephesians 3:19; Ephesians 4:13).

(3) To share in this fulness is no privilege of an esoteric few, but is that of all who are united to Christ by faith.

III. THE EXPLANATION OF THIS RELATIONSHIP OF CHRIST'S FULNESS TO OUR FULNESS. "Who is the Head of all principality and power." He is more than Sovereign over the powers. He is the Source of their life and activity. This headship over angels is asserted elsewhere (Hebrews 1:1-14). Angels are not, therefore, mediators for man, displacing "the one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 2:5). They are but fellow servants under the same Head (Revelation 22:8, 9). Therefore we do not seek our fulness in them, but in our Head. - T.C.

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KJV: For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

WEB: For in him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily,