Full
– Containing as much as is possible
– Being complete
– Having the highest or greatest degree
– Possessing or containing a great number or amount
Those are some of the definitions of what came to be a favorite word or concept of the first Christians. Being filled, fullness, the state of being full – these seemed to be some of the best ways they described what it was like to experience Christ. The sense was that it was possible to experience something better than emptiness or incompleteness.
This Sunday at the Gathering Church the focus will be on what it means to experience “the fullness of Christ” as described in Ephesians 4:1-16. The passage makes a remarkable, if not outrageous, claim that God is building a community, the Church, through which people can experience Jesus as if he were here.
What does that look like?
How is that possible?
Has anyone ever told you that you were “full of it”? Typically, that’s not a good thing.
Is the “fullness of Christ” merely some religious hyperbole? A Hallmark card exaggeration?
If it were, I don’t think that we would be reading about it 2000 years later.