fullness

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full·ness / ˈfoŏlnəs/ (also ful·ness) • n. 1. the state of being filled to capacity: scores of cans in different states of fullness. ∎  the state of having eaten enough or more than enough and feeling full: the feeling of fullness you acquire from eating brown rice. ∎  the state of being complete or whole: the honesty and fullness of the information they provide. ∎  (in or alluding to biblical use) all that is contained in the world: God's green earth in all its fullness is for the people. 2. (of a person's body or part of it) the state of being filled out so as to produce a rounded shape: the childish fullness of his cheeks. ∎  (of a garment or the hair) the condition of having been cut or designed to give a full shape. ∎  richness or intensity of flavor, sound, or color: the coffee is of a luxurious fullness. PHRASES: the fullness of one's (or the) heart poetic/lit. overwhelming emotion. in the fullness of time after a due length of time has elapsed; eventually: he'll tell us in the fullness of time.

fullness The translation of the Greek pleroma, which can be either active or passive—either ‘that which fills’ or ‘that which is filled up’, which is a complication affecting the meaning of passages in the NT. It is used in Mark 6: 43 of the broken pieces of bread which filled twelve baskets, but in John 1: 16, ‘we have all received from his fullness’, is explained by 1: 14, where the Word is filled by grace and truth.

The word pleroma is found in the LXX but in NT times the Gnostics used it for the totality of all reality and this may be why it is used in Eph. 1: 23 and 3: 19. The fullness of God is in Christ; but these verses are unclear whether the meaning is also that the Church is filled by Christ. Perhaps the meaning is that Christ (head of the Church) and the Church (the Body of Christ) are a unity; both are filled by God, who fills all (is supreme).