Colossians 1:15-29
We will be spending a couple of weeks in Paul’s letter to the Colossians, so first let’s get some background and context for this remarkable letter.
The city of Colossae was around 180 or so kms east of Ephesus, in the Roman province of Asia, what we would call eastern Turkey.
Ephesus was a very important centre in the early Church. Paul spent three years there and his teaching we are told, “spread throughout the province of Asia.”
Our understanding of the three-fold ministry of deacons, priests, and bishops (also called overseers) comes from Paul’s organisation of the early church.
So we can legitimately describe Paul as the Archbishop who oversaw other bishops to lead the other provincial churches.
Paul ordained (laid hands on) Timothy as the Priest-in-Charge if you like, of the church in Ephesus and its surrounding churches such as Colossae, its Pastor.
The church in Colossae was probably started by a man called Epaphras, who was evangelised and taught by Paul.
Ephesus and Colossae were of course gentile cities, and the remnant of old beliefs, superstitions, and gods were still impacting the church in Colossae in the form of an unnamed ‘philosophy.’
This philosophy was a conglomeration of pagan superstitions, nature worship, and extreme Jewish sects.
This philosophy debased this supremacy and sufficiency of Christ and undermined the Colossians assurance of eternal life through Jesus.
Part of this philosophy is much like the thinking in Australia and western culture in general – belief in the one God is either quaint or dangerous, whilst worshipping multiple Gods is more than OK, as is worshipping creation instead of its creator.
This philosophy, then and now, worships anything but the living God and believes everything except the truth.
What the Colossians then, and we now, need to know above all, if we are to grow as Christians generally and as a parish specifically, that is, increasing in wisdom, love, and patience is the centrality and supremacy of Jesus Christ.
In Romans (1:20), Paul writes that God is revealed in all his creation, but it is an incomplete revelation. The full and only revelation of God is in Jesus Christ, which brings us to today’s NT reading, specifically the opening six verses.
Vv. 15-20 of today’s reading is a beautiful mixture of a poem, a hymn, and a creed. It is so good, let’s listen to these six verses again.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 16 for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.
There is some great teaching here!
The first is the opening line of today’s reading, v.15, “He is the image of the invisible God.” It is by looking at Jesus that we discover who God is.
I said this before, but it’s a good way to think about this; if I am sitting in a room, I can’t see the person in the next room because a wall is in the way. But if there is a mirror in the hall, I can see the mirror image of that person.
In the same way, Jesus is the mirror image of God who is always with us, but we normally can’t see.
Now many philosophies, including the one that pervaded the world of the Colossians, acknowledge that there is ‘somebody or something’ there. A large majority of Australians believe in something they call God (76% in 2020).
People say things like, “I’m not religious, but I’m spiritual.” Paul is saying, with Jesus, we find ourselves looking at the true God himself. If you are “spiritual” but not religious, you should be filled with joy at this, as God is Spirit.
In the passage immediately before today’s reading (last week’s NT reading), Paul prays a beautiful prayer for the Colossians that they, in Christ, will be ever thankful and grateful to God for what he has done in Jesus.
The more we look to Jesus, the very image of the invisible God, the more we see that our Father, this one true God, is utter self-giving love, and our only response is spontaneous thanksgiving and gratitude for the giving of himself to us in his Son, Jesus Christ.
The second thing that this passage tells us is that there are two worlds held together in Christ Jesus - two places in which to live.
Our current uncertain world surely has beauty, God’s glory and ineffable sweetness, but also pain, suffering, death, absolute deceit and downright evil.
And the other world, the Kingdom of God, the renewed creation of both humanity and nature.
Both worlds are somehow held together in Jesus Christ. Paul writes in vv.16-17,
“for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”
What a bold statement! The whole creation, old and new was made by him and for him in the absolute unity of Father, Son and Spirit.
When we look at the beauty of creation, we don’t worship it, as the old and new “philosophies” might, but we are forced to worship Jesus – it was his idea!
This is what Paul means by the supremacy of Jesus, one with the father in the unity of the Holy Spirit.
And we well might ask, what about the ugly nature of the world and death itself?
Jesus has dealt with that too, once and for all on the cross, to deal with the wickedness and corruption of the world brought about through living to satisfy our base needs, what Paul calls elsewhere “the elemental forces of this world.”
This Jesus, by whom and for whom the world was made has redeemed all of creation. He is both the firstborn of creation (he was with God in the beginning), and the firstborn of the dead. In him all things hold together!
What does it mean then, that he is the firstborn of the dead? Just that Jesus himself, as Tom Wright describes it, “is the blueprint for the genuine humanness, which is on offer through the cross and the gospel.”
The one through whom this wonderful new creation has begun.
We are the dead (we all die, don’t we?), and because Jesus is the firstborn of the dead, means that we too are reborn into the authentic Godly fullness of our humanity. We are and always will be human beings.
In heaven, in the final and total fulfilment of the Kingdom, we won’t stop being human beings and doing human things like thinking and feeling.
Our very humanity, that which is itself made in the image of God, is finally restored. If Jesus is the image of the invisible God, we too, will become just that as well.
He writes v.22, that Jesus presents us “holy and blameless and without blemish” before our loving Father.
Because of Jesus, God now sees us as we were intended to be from before the foundation of the world. No other “philosophy” or belief, or god, or Spirit, or movement or grouping can do that.
Christ is supreme above all things. It is pretty breathtaking, isn’t it!
There is much more we could say about this amazing 6 verse hymn-poem-creed, so take it home with you and read it again and pray that God will give you wisdom to fully penetrate its fathomless depths. Let us pray …