Such a passage is overwhelming in its magnificence but even so, it does

not prove that the Church is God.  Again, in Ephesians 3:19 the climax of the

prayer there recorded is:

`That ye might be filled with (up to) all the fulness of God',

and once again, here is no aspiration after Deity.

Immediately following

Colossians 2:9 we read:

`And ye are complete (filled full) in Him', where the word `complete'

is pleroo, evidently leading on from the word `fulness' which is pleroma.

Further light on the Scriptural intention of these wonderful words, will be

found in Philippians 2:7, `But made Himself of no reputation', where the

Greek word kenoo means `to empty'.  Before the Saviour could be `filled with

all the fulness of the Godhead bodily' He `emptied Himself'; He Who was rich

became poor; He Who was made a little lower than the angels was made so much

better than the angels, having obtained a more excellent name than they.  It

is evident that He Who could be the Express Image of God's Person, He Who

could uphold all things by the Word of His power, He Who `in the beginning'

laid the foundation of the earth, must have been infinitely `better than the

angels'.  All the references to His being `filled' and becoming the `fulness'

are consequent upon His gracious self -emptying and refer to Him not as He

was `before the world was' but to Him as the Mediator Who stooped so low `for

us men and for our salvation'.

Another suggestive comparison of Ephesians with Philippians is the

usage of the words politeia, politeuma, politeuomai and sumpolites.  Let us

assemble the references first and consider them afterwards:

`Being aliens from the commonwealth (politeia) of Israel' (Eph. 2:12)

`Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow

citizens (sumpolites) with the saints, and of the household of God'

(Eph. 2:19).

`For our conversation (politeuma) is in heaven' (Phil. 3:20).

`Only let your conversation (politeuomai) be as it becometh the gospel

of Christ' (Phil. 1:27).

The ordinary word rendered `conversation' thirteen times in the New

Testament is the Greek anastrophe, Young's Concordance puts as the literal

meaning of politeuo `conversation', `act as a citizen', and politeuma

`citizen state or life'.  As some readers will have seen an attempt to lift

the impress of citizenship from these words, we draw their attention to the

facts of the case as set forth in Liddell & Scott:

Politeia `commonwealth' (Eph. 2:12).  The relation in which a citizen

stands to the state, the condition, right of a citizen, citizenship.

Only in a secondary sense does it mean `one's daily life' but civil

polity, a well ordered republican government, a commonwealth is the

essential meaning.  Politeuo, politeuma, while occupying twenty -five

lines of print for their explanation, never once is translated

`conversation'; always `to live as a citizen' is in view.

Ephesians tells us that the unsaved Gentile was an alien from `the

citizenship of Israel' but upon the breaking down of the middle wall of

partition, those who were then saved were no longer strangers and foreigners