Larry Reynolds, Denton, TX

Colossians 1:15-18 is one of the most complete descriptions of Jesus in the Scripture.  These verses tells us that Jesus is "the image of the invisible God" (v.16a) and "the first-born of all creation" (v.16b) and "the head of the body, the church" (v.18). 

Three statements are made in verse 18 concerning the relationship between Christ and the church.

• He is the head of the church.  Just as the physical body is powerless and dead without the head, so the church is powerless and dead and without direction apart from Christ.
• He is the beginning of the church.  The word for beginning is arche, and it has a double meaning. It means first in the sense of time or order, i.e. ‘A” is the first letter in the alphabet. But it also means first in the sense of originating power or the source from which something comes. Christ began the church both in time and in originating power. The world is the creation or Christ and the church is the new creation of Christ.
• He is the first-born from the dead.  To be consistent we must interpret the word “first-born” in that phrase in the same way we translated it in the phrase “the first-born of all creation” in v. 15. The basic idea is not that Christ was the first person to be resurrected completely (even though He was!). The basic idea is that He is Lord over death, He has conquered man’s greatest enemy! Christ is not a dead hero or a past founder, He is a living person!

The last part of v.18 gives the result of Christ being “the image of the invisible God” (v.16a), “the first-born of all creation” (v.16b), and “the head of the body, the church” (v.18). The purpose of Paul’s telling us all that about Christ is “…so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything…” If He is indeed all that we claim He is, it makes perfect sense to give Him the absolute priority in our lives.

(For more detailed notes on Colossians go to http://www.larryreynolds.org-a.googlepages.com/home)