(Eph. 2:7).

`The love of Christ, which passeth knowledge' (Eph. 3:19).

We go from the power of His resurrection to the riches of His grace, and

on to the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. `To know ... that which

passeth knowledge' sounds like a contradiction.  That is because the subject

transcends all human thought.  We are here in the realm of the superlative.  It

is the same in Philippians.  There a peace is spoken of, a peace that can be

experienced, and yet when all is said it remains a peace `that passeth

understanding' (Phil. 4:7) or as Weymouth renders it `which transcends all our

powers of thought'.  Christ Himself is God's `unspeakable Gift', yet who can

refrain from speaking of Him?  Christ's love is beyond our comprehension, yet

throughout life's present pilgrimage, and on through the ages to come, that

love, which passeth knowledge, must surely be the goal of all attainment.  Let

us then seek the apparently impossible, `to know the love of Christ that passeth

knowledge', for we are heirs of glory beyond the dreams of man.

The third and final stage of the central prayer of Ephesians 3 is now

before us; it is the climax petition `that ye may be filled with all the fulness

of God'.  There is no intention on the part of the apostle to suggest that any

one believer or all put together could contain `all the fulness' of God.  What

the apostle said was hina plerothete eis

pan to pleroma tou Theou, `In order that ye may be filled unto all the fulness

of God'.  `Unto' indicates a goal or a standard.  The members of the One Body

differ in capacity; some are by grace enabled to contain more than another.  The

point however is not the size of the vessel, but that no vessel should remain

only partly filled whatever the capacity; it should be filled to the brim.  From

the doctrinal and basic point of view this is looked upon as an accomplished

fact, for this church is actually called `The fulness of Him that filleth all in

all'.  Using similar words as those found in Ephesians 3:17, the apostle wrote

to the Colossians:

`Rooted and built up in Him ... In Him dwelleth (katoikeo as in Eph. 3:17)

all the fulness (pan to pleroma as in Eph. 3:19) ... and ye are those

having been filled to the full (pepleromenoi) in Him' (Col. 2:7-10

author's translation).

Here every member is conceived of as being `filled unto all the fulness of

God'.  In Ephesians 3, this same full measure is the object of prayer.  The

apostle is working along similar lines to those which led to this prayer in the

first place.  It will be remembered that, at the close of chapter 2 of

Ephesians, there is a reference made to the `habitation' of God and as a

consequence Paul prayed that what the believer is in grace, in Christ and in

position, he may be in experience, in realization and in enjoyment `in order

that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith'.  So even now this church of the

One Body has already been given its ultimate title `The fulness of Him that

filleth all in all' (Eph 1:23).  Is it any marvel then that in such a prayer the

apostle should intercede and pray that members of such a company and calling,

with such a title and destiny, might be `filled Up To all the fulness of God'?

Whether looked at in Christ Himself or in the church itself this fulness resides

`bodily' -- it is the Divinely appointed vehicle of manifestation, and if the