The Preeminence of Christ: Col. 1:9-20
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"For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.
And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross." (Colossians 1:9-20)
I wanted to start out this blog post with the entire scripture of this particular passage; "The preeminance of Christ", because "Christ is the full God head body" (Colossians 2:9) The complete essence of God resides in Him, in human form.
The book of Colossians centers on Christ - "the head of all principality and power"(2:10) Paul probably wrote Colossians in approximately
AD 60.
The Colossians faith was grounded in the nature and work of Jesus Christ. Love flows from faith and proves the genuineness of one's faith (James 2:14-26) The Colossians sacrificial love for "all the saints" proved their true belief in Christ. The Greek term translated "saints" means "holy people". The essence of "Holiness" is being set apart to God. All believers are saints, not because they are perfect but because they belong to God.
"Hope" (1:5) refers to the result of faith, the treasure "laid up in heaven", where our faith will find it's fulfillment in the presence of Christ.
Paul's prayer for the Colossian christians, starting in verse 9, is a model for us. As soon as he heard of the new faith of the Colossians, he began interceding with God for them, asking Him to give them knowledge, wisdom, strength and joy. He prayed that the new believers at Colosse would grow into Christian maturity so that they might walk before God, pleasing Him and producing good works. Paul's chief concern is that the Colossians might be filled with the full "knowledge" of God's will. And isn't that our prayer today, for us, and for our loved ones? The desire to serve God will be in vain without a proper understanding of the One we want to serve. Thus Paul prays that the Colossians might be filled with the full knowledge that encompasses "all wisdom and spiritual understanding". Wisdom is the practical outworking of knowledge(see James 3:17), and that knowledge cannot be separated from the spiritual understanding that comes through the discernment of the Holy Spirit.
In addition to the full knowledge of the Lord's will mentioned in verse 9, Paul desires that the Colossians may "walk worthy of the Lord".(1:10) Paul wanted the Colossians to live in a manner that adequately reflected what God had done for them and was doing in them.
Paul interrupts his description of his prayers for the Colossians with a song of praise. These verses are generally recognized as an early Christian hymn celebrating the supremacy of Jesus Christ. (1:15-20)
Following the celebration of Christ's authority over all creation, theis early Christian hymn proceeds to proclaim His authority over the church. He is the head of His own "body", which is the church. (1:18) Noone should underestimate the significance of the church, for it is in fact Christ's body. The sovereign Creator of the universe , as Head of the church, provides leadership and oversight over it. No wonder He is so jealous for it. (see 1 Cor. 3:16,17) "firstborn from the dead" (1:18) Christ was the first to be raied from the dead. His own resurrection guarantees that the church will one day be resurrected. (see 1 Cor 15:12-28)
Paul used the term "fullness" in verse 19, to refer to the complete embodiment of God. Christ is theonly intercessor for human beings and fully embodies all of God's nature (1 Timothy 2:5). No other intermediary, whether person or group, is able to stand in our place before the Father. Only Jesus can do this!
In verse 20, "reconcile all things...now He has reconciled". This phrase shows the significance of Christ's work on the Cross. It does not mean that allpeople will be saved, since many passages clearly say that unbelievers will suffer eternal separation from God. (see Matt 25:46).
The work of Christ will overthrow the damage effected by the Fall and change all of creation from a position of enmity to a relationship of peace and friendship. (see Romans 8:20-23; 2 Corinthians 5:18-20)
Isn't that wonderful news friends? All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, that God was reconciling the world to Himself, in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.