Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ:
All Commentaries on Ephesians 4:13 Go To Ephesians 4
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the age of men. The Greek word, as St. Jerome observes, may signify by the deceit or fallacy of men; by illusion, says St. Augustine. And St. Chrysostom tells us it is spoken by a metaphor, taken from those who cheat at dice, to gain all to themselves, to draw men into errors and heresies. Such, about that time, were the disciples of Simon the magician. (Witham)
Every one must labour to become perfect in the state in which he is placed, by increasing in the knowledge and love of God, which knowledge and love of God constitute the full measure of a Christian. (St. Chrysostom)
St. Augustine also admits to another interpretation of this place, but prefers the former. According to him, it may mean: that all people, at the resurrection, will be raised in such a state as they would have had if they lived to the age of Christ, viz. thirty-three years. (St. Thomas Aquinas)
This text of the apostle, assuring to the one true Church a perpetual and visible succession of pastors, in the ministry, successors of the apostles, warranted the holy Fathers in the early ages of the Church, as it does Catholics of the present day, to try all seceders by the most famous succession of the popes or bishops of Rome. See this in St. Iren us, lib. iii. chap. 3; Tertullian, in præscript. Optatus. lib. ii. contra Par men.; St. Augustine, contra ep. Manic., chap. iv., Ep. 165alibi.; St. Epiphanius, hæres. 27.
