Ephesians Chapter 4 verse 13 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 13. - Until we all come. This marks the duration of the office of the ministry. Some maintain that it implies that all these offices are to continue in the Church until the result specified is obtained (Catholic Apostolic or Irvingite Church): this is contradicted by Scripture and by experience, so far as apostles and prophets are concerned, for the gifts for these offices were not continued, and without the gifts the offices are impossible. The meaning is that, till the event specified, there is to be a provision in the Church of the offices that are needed, and the apostle, in using "until," probably had in view the last office in his list - pastors and teachers. To the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God. Both genitives are governed by unity; already there is one faith (ver. 5), but we all, i.e. all who compose or are yet to compose the body of Christ, the totality of this body, have to be brought to this faith. As in ver. 5 "faith" is not equivalent to "creed," or truth believed, but the act of believing; so here the consummation which the ministers of the Church are given to bring about is a state in which faith in the Son of God shall characterize all, and that, not a blind faith, but a faith associated with knowledge. Usually faith and knowledge are opposed to each other; but here faith has more the meaning of trust than of mere belief - trust based on knowledge, trust in the Son of God based on knowledge of his Person, his work, and his relation to them that receive him. To bring all the elect to this faith is the object of the ministry; when they are all brought to it, the body of Christ will be complete, and the functions of the Christian ministry will cease. Unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. The idea of organic completeness is more fully expressed by these two clauses; the consummation is the completeness of the whole body of Christ as such; but that involves the maturity of each individual who is a constituent part of that body; and the measure or sign of maturity, both for the individual and for the whole, is the stature of the fullness of Christ (comp. Romans 8:29, "Whom he did foreknow, them he also foredained to be conformed to the image of his Son"). The question has been put - Will this consummation be in this life or the next? The one seems to melt into the other; the idea of a complete Church and that of a new economy seem inseparable; as the coming of Christ will terminate the observance of the Lord's Supper, so it will terminate the ministries ordained by Christ for the completion of his Church.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(13) Till we all come.--The marginal rendering is correct: till we all arrive at the unity of the faith. The "one faith" has been spoken of above; the full grasp of that faith by each and all is the first object of all the ministries of the Church, since by it both the individual perfection and the corporate unity begin to be secured. Such faith always goes on to knowledge, that is (as in Ephesians 1:17) "full knowledge" of Him in whom we have believed. So in 2Peter 1:17, "Add to your faith virtue" (that is, energy in well-doing), "and to virtue knowledge." This knowledge (see Ephesians 3:17-19) is gained mainly through the love in which faith is made perfect.Of the Son of God.--These words should be connected with the word "faith" (as in Galatians 2:20) as well as "knowledge." They are probably to be considered as a distinctive phrase, designating our Lord especially as glorified and exalted to the right hand of the Father in "the glory which he had with the Father before the world was." So in Romans 1:4, He is "declared to be the Son of God by the Resurrection;" and in Hebrews 4:14, "Jesus the Son of God" is "the High Priest ascended into the heavens." Compare also our Lord's declaration that "if any man speaks against the Son of Man it shall be forgiven him" (Matthew 12:32) with the declaration of the certain vengeance on him who "treads under foot the Son of God" (Hebrews 10:29). Note again, in St. John's First Epistle, the constant reference to the belief in and confession of Jesus as "the Son of God" as the one thing needful (Ephesians 4:15; Ephesians 5:5; Ephesians 5:10-12; Ephesians 5:20). For on the belief not only of what He was on earth, but of what He is in heaven, all distinctive Christianity depends. If He is only "Son of Man" He cannot be the universal Saviour. . . .