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which is his body, the fullness of him who fills up all things in all. (Ephesians 1:23)

Which is his body. It is common in the New Testament to find the church being compared to a body, of which Jesus Christ is the head. – Cf. 1 Cor. 11:3; 12:27; Eph. 4:15-16.

The fullness of him. The word here —(πλήρωμα plērōma) rendered fullness means completeness, fullness, a total quantity (Rom. 11:25) The exact meaning here, however, has many different interpretations. It seems apparent that the sense is fullness and completeness. In other words, the Christian congregation is the completion or fullness of his authority, power, and glory as he is carrying out the will and purposes of the Father. It is the Christian congregation that made his mission authority complete. He has all authority in heaven (angels and universes, and the spiritual heavens) and on earth, but his mission authority would not have been complete without his being head over the Christian congregation, and that makes his goal and purposes complete.

Who fills up all things in all. Shortly after Jesus’ resurrection and just before he ascended to the Father in heaven, Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.” After commissioning them to make disciples, he also said, “look, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:18-20) From the moment of his ascension, he would continue to be with his disciples as the head of the Christian congregation. In this letter to Christians in Ephesus and the letter Colossae, the apostle Paul compared the Christian congregation to a “body,” of which Christ is the Head. (Eph. 1:22, 23; Col. 1:18) So this metaphor is descriptive of the beginning of the union with the Head. The goal and purposes of the Head is carried out here on earth by the members of the body, his induvial and collective instruments to fulfil or complete the will of the Father since Jesus was invested with Kingdom power in 33 C.E. when he ascended to the heavens, and we entered into the last days.