In Part 2 we noted Paul’s thanksgiving to God for the salvation of those who came to Christ in Colosse and his prayer to God for them. Here are some additional comments on that prayer:
Paul prayed that the Colossians would be filled with the knowledge of God’s will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. How do we get this wisdom and understanding? The Holy Spirit is the chief instructor who takes the Word of God and applies it to our hearts and minds. We need to practice meditating on the Word of God, asking the Spirit to help us to understand. Memorizing Scripture is most useful. (See Psa. 119:9-11.) When your mind is filled with the Word of God, it is immediately available to the Holy Spirit so He can bring it up to your consciousness.
1) To help us live a life worthy of the Lord and please Him in every way;
2) Bear fruit in every good work;
3) Grow in the knowledge of God;
4) Be strengthened with all power according to His glorious might (the might that was demonstrated when Christ was raised from the dead and returned to heaven).
5) Have great endurance and patience which will enable us to endure all the rough treatment and hostility of the world.
6) Joyfully give thanks to the Father as Paul and Silas did in the prison at Philippi because He has qualified us (made us fit to be acceptable to God through Christ—a sheer work of grace). Why did He do this? So we could share in the inheritance of the saints (all believers in Christ) in the kingdom of light. Out of the darkness and despair of godless lives, we are given an inheritance in light.
There were at Colosse false teachers who believed that the physical world was evil, therefore, God could not have created it. If Christ were God, they reasoned, He would be in charge only of the spiritual world. They also taught that Christ was not the unique Son of God, but rather one of many intermediaries (go-betweens) between God and people; they refused to see Him as the source of salvation.
Paul’s description of how we could be brought into a relationship with God by faith in His Son ran counter to these teachers. Jesus, the Son of God, did come into the world as a man. He did die on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins. The world was created by Him and it was good.
Paul then gives a wonderful statement about Christ in two parts. The first part speaks of the relationship with Christ to creation. The second part deals with Christ’s relationship to the Church.
Verse 15
He [Christ] is the image of the invisible God. The usual understanding of God is that He is invisible. No one could see God and live. When Moses asked to see God, He refused to let Moses see Him face to face. Instead He had Moses hide in a cleft in the mountain and as He passed by, God let Moses see His hind parts. (See Exod. 33:12-23.) Jesus Christ is the visible representation and manifestation (revelation) of God.
God created man in His own image. (See Gen 1:27.) He visited with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and evidently spent some time talking with them. But Adam and Eve’s disobedience shattered that relationship.
The image of God in man is that part that sets him apart from the animals— his ability to reason and plan, his linguistic (language) ability, etc. So when Paul speaks here of Christ as the image of the invisible God, he means that if we want to know what God is like, we should look to Jesus who manifested the revealed character of God in human form.
Jesus was the firstborn over all creation. He was begotten by His Father before there was anything. He was of the same nature as God, His Father. We may wonder if “firstborn” speaks of a chronological position (relating to the order of birth). The common understanding is that “firstborn” refers to Christ’s position as the agent of creation.
Verse 16
For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. Christ, the Creator, has the position of highest majesty in the whole structure of the universe and the supreme place of power and authority.
Verse 17
He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Why does the world hold together as it does? Why do the planets and stars wander across the skies in such an orderly way? Why does the physical world stay orderly? From the Christian point of view, it’s the work of Christ that keeps the laws of nature operating faithfully. “The heavens declare the glory of God” (Psa. 19:1).
