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Colossians 1:15-20
New Catholic Bible
Colossians 1:15-20
New Catholic Bible
The Supremacy of Christ
In Christ, through Him, and for Him[a]
15 He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation.
16 For in him were created all things
in heaven and on earth,
whether visible or invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—
all things were created through him and for him.
17 He exists before all things,
and in him all things hold together.
18 He is the head of the body,
that is, the Church.
He is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead,
so that in every way
he should be supreme.
19 For in him
it pleased God
to make all fullness dwell,[b]
20 and through him
to reconcile all things for him,
whether on earth or in heaven,
by making peace through his blood of the cross.
Footnotes
- Colossians 1:15 This great hymn to Christ and his universal primacy was probably a baptismal hymn. It draws upon the most beautiful motifs of the Old Testament on Divine wisdom (see Prov 8:1-9, 12; Wis 7:21—8:12; Sir 24). In the perspective Paul adopts here, he contemplates Christ as the image of the invisible God and clearly asserts his Divine preexistence (see 2 Cor 4:4; Phil 2:6; Heb 1:3).
Christ is before all and above all; whether we consider the universe or the History of Salvation, he is both the reason for being and the explanation of everything in them. If we seek the origin of, the rationale for, or the end of creation, he is the one we must name. All the heavenly forces and hierarchies so prized in certain Jewish or Christian circles in Colossae—in a word, everything that claims to rule the universe—are subject to him as the Creator.
He alone is Lord of the world. He alone is the power giving life to the Church, that is, his Body. He alone is the Mediator who reconciles all beings with one another and with God. We experience a universe disordered by sin; it is re-created and transformed in him. Hence, for the Christian, history has a movement and a meaning: it is oriented toward Christ, directed by him, and consummated in him.
Paul wants to enunciate a hope that is infinitely more than merely human, a hope founded in faith (see Rom 8:19-22; 1 Cor 15:22-28; Phil 3:21): the risen Christ is the center in whom two worlds are united, the Divine and the created. - Colossians 1:19 All fullness (plêrôma): the fullness of deity (see Col 2:9) or, better, the universe full of the creative and redemptive presence of God. According to Paul, the risen Christ rules the whole of creation, what has been raised from sinfulness to salvation.
