Colossians 1:17 – He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
The Message of Colossians 1:17
The apostle Paul begins his letter to the church at Colosse by making clear what is the right for him to speak to them. He is an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God.
It is an essential fact for anyone who is a dedicated Christian to make very clear the great beliefs which underlie their thought, and in this particular passage Paul does that wonderfully well. He does this in one word – apostolos ( G652), meaning “sent out.”
He makes it clear that this is the right that belongs to him, not that which he has achieved or earned. He is an apostle by the will of God and that means he has been sent out to be his ambassador for the Gentiles.
Next he distinguishes four great facts in the relationship between Jesus Christ and the church: He is the Head, He is the power of creation, He holds all things together and He gives life.
We see here that the world of angels which the false teachers liked to talk about was in reality a system of intermediaries between man and God, with different grades of angels having their place in each of the spheres of the seven heavens. But the Creator and Sustainer of all these different emanations was not an ignorant and hostile emanation, but Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
