Commentary On The Epistle To The Colossians
By the Rev. Horace M. Patton
Colossians 1:18-23
The section of Colossians (vs 15-23) is one of Paul’s greatest christological passages (brief statements of established doctrines concerning Christ). In these verses he holds up Christ as the creator by whom and for whom the universe was made. Having just finished declaring Christ’s place in the universe, Paul now moves on to point out Christ’s relationship to the Church.
Verse 18
Jesus is the head of the Church which is His body. How would you operate in this world if your body had no head? How would you see where you were going? Or how would you talk without a mouth and tongue? Or how would you do anything? How can the Church function if the various members are poorly connected to the Head? Do you try to see as Christ sees? Do you speak a word for Christ? Do your feet walk where Christ directs? Are you listening for His voice?
Jesus Christ is the beginning of the Church. Before the world was, He and His Father counseled with the Holy Spirit to decide how they would rescue lost mankind. The only begotten Son was going to lay down His life for lost mankind.
As the resurrected Christ, He is the first born from among the dead. What a triumph He won through His death and resurrection! He “disarmed the powers and authorities; he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” (Col. 2:15). All this was done so that He might be exalted and elevated to the status that was rightfully His. As Paul wrote, “every knee shall bow... and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:10-11).
Verse 19
Christ is fully human; He is also fully divine. Christ has always been God and always will be God. When we have Christ, we have all of God in human form.
Verse 20
Christ’s death provided a way for all people to come to God. We can have peace with God and be reconciled to Him by accepting Christ. Whatever had been lost by man's disobedience in the Garden of Eden, was reconciled by the blood of Jesus shed on the cross.
Verse 21
“This includes you who were once so far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions” (Col. 1:2 1 NLT). Sin corrupted man’s way of thinking about God. Wrong thinking leads to sin, which further perverts and destroys man’s thoughts about Him. When we were so far away from God, out of harmony with Him, our natural condition was to be totally hostile to His standards.
Verse 22
No one is good enough to save himself or herself. If we want to live eternally with Christ, we must depend totally on God’s grace. God reconciled us to Himself through the broken body of His only begotten Son nailed to the cross. Jesus faced death as God so we can be assured that His sacrifice was complete and that He truly removed our sin. He can now present us holy in God’s sight, without blemish and free from accusation. When a judge in a court of law declares a person not guilty, that person has been acquitted of all the accusations or charges. When God forgives our sins our record is wiped clean.
Verse 23
False teachers were introducing syncretistic doctrines (mixing false teaching with truth). Paul instructed the readers to continue in their faith and not to believe the heresies. We, too, must remain established and firm in the truth of the gospel, putting our confidence in Jesus alone to forgive our sins, to make us right with God, and to empower us to live the way He desires
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