Exploring the Scripture
Today’s lection stresses the supremacy of Christ over all creation throughout all time. The text explains Paul’s involvement with the Colossian church. The first part (v. 15–20) may represent an early hymn used in Christian worship. Christ is the image of God. Christ’s existence preceded everything as the “firstborn of all creation” (v. 15). He helped in creating both the visible world and the invisible realm of angels (dominions, rulers, and powers that serve God). Creation not only occurred through Christ but “for him” (v. 16), pointing to his final triumph now and throughout time. He holds the universe together (v. 17).
Christ takes priority over everything. As the “firstborn of the dead” (v. 18), he governs life, death, and resurrection’s transforming action. As the Son of God, he is the full revelation of God. He reconciles and heals everything broken on Earth and in heaven. Thus, the Colossians also are reconciled. Their sins and distance from God are forgiven and healed, so they stand pure and holy before God.
One way of understanding this salvation is to imagine Christ as a lens that filters out sins and brokenness. God views humans through that lens and sees only the good in us. Paul makes the promise conditional on faithful adherence to the gospel of hope, which they have learned.
Jesus’s suffering on the cross did not end with his death. That suffering lives on in the pain and struggles of Paul, the Colossians, and every other disciple. As a servant of the gospel, Paul makes a remarkable claim: He is completing the work in the church begun by Christ’s sacrifice.
Jesus’s death resulted in the start of the movement now known as the church. But Jesus’s afflictions could not create the community of faith by themselves. That depends on Paul (and others like him) through whom the Risen Christ moves, suffers, reconciles, and acts to inspire new faith.
Paul received a commission from God to spread the gospel to the Gentiles, to reveal the mystery hidden through the ages. That mystery is “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (v. 27). Hidden in the history of the Jews was the promise the Gentiles, too, could be saved and be part of God’s peaceable realm. Once strangers, standing aloof from God, they are reconciled through Christ. For Paul personally, that reconciliation resulted in Paul’s call to be the apostle to the Gentiles.
What Paul proclaims—and by extension, what the Colossians proclaim—is Christ living within his followers, so their words and deeds are an extension of Christ’s teaching and spirit. The goal is to help everyone become mature disciples of Christ, living the life of God’s peace, by sharing the teachings and acts Jesus modeled.
Living as disciples of Jesus Christ, who is over and through all things, aligns us with creation. It unites us with the universal church and with the transforming efforts of followers all over the world. By living the gospel message, we proclaim the Risen Christ and bear witness to God’s vision of the new creation and completion of the unity of heaven and Earth.
Project Zion Podcast
Hosts Karin Peter and Blake Smith consider how this week's scripture connects to our lives today.
Central Ideas
- Christ is supreme over all creation throughout all time.
- All things exist in and through Jesus Christ, who was the agent of creation, and Christ holds all creation together.
- Jesus’s suffering on the cross lives on in the pain and struggles of every disciple.
- The church is to proclaim and live Jesus Christ.
- Jesus’s afflictions cannot create a community of faith by themselves. That depends on those through whom the Risen Christ moves, suffers, reconciles, and acts.
Questions to Consider
- How do some hymns in Community of Christ Sings present the divine and human natures of Christ? (Check 39, 405, 431, and 565 compared to 26, 36, 412, and 449. How would you classify the Christology of 22 or 32?)
- How does Christ’s suffering live in you? How has that transformed you?
- Who is the Christ your congregation proclaims, and how effective is that proclamation?
- How do you and your congregation witness God’s vision of the new creation and completion of the unity of heaven and Earth?