Colossians 1 Doesn't End at Verse 20

Every set of study notes I've seen on Colossians 1 does the same thing. Verses 15 through 20 get the attention, because they're the great passage about Christ and creation, and the other twenty-three verses get treated as a greeting up front and some housekeeping at the back. I understand why, since six verses that big are hard to look away from, but I don't think Paul wrote the chapter so that we could cut out the middle and frame it.

I read it Monday before work, and what I noticed was how much the passage leans on what comes right before and right after it. Take those away and you have a very fine paragraph. Leave them in and you have a letter.

What is Paul doing for fourteen verses before the big passage?

He's thanking people he hasn't met, and verse 4 says "since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints," and verse 7 tells us who did the telling: Epaphras, "our dear fellowservant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ." The news came secondhand, so Paul is writing a church he knows only by report. He opens with the good he's heard and moves into a prayer that they might be "filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding" (v9).

Then comes a verse that's easy to hurry past, since it sits in the lead-up.

In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins (Colossians 1:14).

Redemption and blood are already on the table in verse 14, so by the time verse 20 says "having made peace through the blood of his cross," the reader has heard the word before. That changes how the big passage reads, because it isn't a detour into cosmology that Paul takes and then returns from. It's the reason the forgiveness in verse 14 is believable: the one forgiving is the one who made everything.

I like a small word in verse 13, too. God "hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son," and translated there means moved from one place to another, so nobody is being told to feel differently about where they live. They're being told they live somewhere else now.

What are verses 15 through 20 actually claiming?

A lot, and I won't pretend to cover all of it, but two things caught on me and the first is the word "image." Hebrews 1:3 calls the Son "the express image of his person," and I think both writers are reaching for the same thing: if you want to know what the invisible God is like, you can look. Paul follows it at once with a list of everything that was made, "visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers" (v16), and then puts them all in one sentence with the phrase "all things were created by him, and for him." The thrones and powers are in that list as things made, which makes them furniture and not rivals.

Then verse 17, which I'd put next to any verse in Paul for plain strangeness: "And he is before all things, and by him all things consist." Consist is old English for hold together, and where "created" is past tense, holding together is happening now.

The second thing is "firstborn," which shows up twice. In verse 15 he's "the firstborn of every creature" and in verse 18 he's "the firstborn from the dead." Latter-day Saints tend to hear the first one as a statement about the premortal life, and D&C 93:21 gives them good footing for that: "I was in the beginning with the Father, and am the Firstborn." I'm comfortable with that reading. What I'd add is that Paul himself seems to be using the word for priority and standing, because the very next thing he says, in verse 16, begins with "For by him were all things created." The firstborn is first in the sense that everything else comes through him. And verse 18 ends by saying why it matters to him: "that in all things he might have the preeminence."

I'm not sure the Colossians needed the premortal life explained to them, though I'm fairly sure they needed to hear that no power in the list of verse 16 outranked him.

Where does the chapter turn?

It turns on verse 21, and the first two words in particular.

And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled (Colossians 1:21).

Paul has just finished saying that God reconciled "all things unto himself" (v20), "things in earth, or things in heaven." That's the biggest possible sentence about the scope of the Atonement, and a reader could close the book right there feeling the universe is in good hands. Instead he says "And you," and I take the reconciliation of all things to be the setup for that, not the destination.

Then there's what he calls them: "enemies in your mind." The mind comes first in his order and the "wicked works" after, which I take as Paul saying the distance began inside. He isn't accusing anyone, either, since the verb is "were" and the next clause says "now hath he reconciled."

Then verse 23 has the condition that the cosmic reading likes to skip: "If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel." Reconciliation is a finished act and it also asks something, and both are within three verses of each other. Verse 20 by itself sounds like a promise that nobody needs to do anything, while verse 23 by itself sounds like a threat. Together they sound like a man who has built a bridge and wants you to keep walking on it.

I wrote about a similar turn in the prison letters when I looked at Ephesians 3 and the sentence that waits until verse 14, where Paul also holds a thought for a long while before he lets it land on the reader.

Can I say anything about verse 24?

Not much, and the verse is "Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake." I don't know how to explain what is "behind" in the afflictions of Christ without making something up. Paul has spent the whole chapter on what the blood of the cross accomplished, so whatever he means can't be that the cross fell short, and past that I'd rather leave it alone.

What I do trust is the end of the chapter, where the large language comes down to a very small address. The mystery that was "hid from ages and from generations" turns out to be "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (v27), which is a long way from thrones and powers.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does "image of the invisible God" mean in Colossians 1:15?

I take it as a claim that you can see what God is like by looking at him, and Hebrews 1:3 says something close with "express image of his person." I wouldn't build much more on the Greek word than that, since the surrounding verses already say it plainly enough.

Does "firstborn of every creature" mean Christ was created?

Not the way a lot of readers hear it, since verse 16 gives the reason, which is that all things were created by him. Latter-day Saints also read the phrase through D&C 93:21, where he says he was in the beginning with the Father and is the Firstborn. Either way the sentence is about his standing over everything else.

Does "reconcile all things" in verse 20 mean everyone is saved automatically?

I don't think so, and verse 23 is why: Paul says reconciled and then says "if ye continue in the faith grounded and settled." The reconciliation is real, and it's also something you remain in.

What was the false teaching Paul was worried about?

Chapter 1 never names it, which surprised me, so you have to go to chapter 2, where verse 16 mentions "in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday" and verse 18 mentions the "worshipping of angels." The first chapter answers that in advance by putting thrones and powers in a list of things that were made.

Last thought

I came to this chapter expecting to spend my time on verses 15 through 20 and spent most of it on 21. If you teach Colossians 1, or you've sat through a lesson on it, where did the lesson stop? Did anyone get as far as "And you"?

— D.