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Colossians 1:15-20 - All Things Through Him and For Him

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Paul has just thanked the Father for delivering His people from darkness and bringing them into the Kingdom of the Son of His love. Before he tells the Colossians how to live in that Kingdom, he tells them who the Son is. The King who redeems and forgives is the Image of the invisible God, the One through whom and for whom every creature exists, the Head of the Church, the Firstborn from the dead, and the Peacemaker whose blood reconciles.

The repeated title firstborn holds the confession together. In verses 15-17, Christ stands over the first creation as its Lord, agent, goal, and continuing center. In verses 18-20, He stands at the head of the new creation as the beginning and Firstborn from the dead. Paul brings these truths from creation to the Church, the Resurrection, the fullness dwelling in Christ, and the blood of the Cross. The One in whom all things hold together is the One who makes peace by giving Himself. This is the ground of the Gospel hope already named in verse 5 and commanded again in verse 23: hope is steadfast because it rests on the preeminent, risen, full, crucified, and reconciling Lord.

This was a pointed confession for the churches of the Lycus Valley. Epaphras had taught the Gospel in Colossae, and the letter later names pressures involving spiritual powers, angelic fascination, severe regulations, and promises of fullness apart from holding fast to Christ the Head. The evidence does not let us reconstruct one complete system behind those pressures. It does show why Paul begins by making Christ impossible to supplement: no created power can add fullness to the One through whom that power was made.1

The Image and Firstborn Over All Creation (Colossians 1:15)

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

The Son is the living Image, the eikōn, of the invisible Father. Because the eternal Son has taken flesh, He makes the unseen God known through His human face, voice, touch, obedience, mercy, suffering, and risen life. Christian faith begins with the Father revealed in Christ rather than with a picture assembled from our fears or desires.

Image names revelation from within divine Sonship. The Son is the perfect Image because He shares the Father’s divine life and truly became man. The Incarnation therefore gives Orthodox iconography its ground: the One who cannot be circumscribed according to His divinity accepted a circumscribed human life. An icon of Christ confesses the incarnate Son; it does not claim to paint the invisible Father or contain the divine essence.

Paul then calls Christ the firstborn over all creation. The Greek phrase, prōtotokos pasēs ktiseōs, can be rendered more literally firstborn of all creation; the NKJV’s over all creation expresses the relation that Paul’s next sentence makes clear. Verse 16 begins with because or for: Christ is Firstborn in relation to creation because every created reality comes to be in Him, through Him, and for Him.2

Paul’s whole sentence establishes the title’s force. Firstborn can carry priority, inheritance, authority, and preeminence; in verse 18 it also stands within the sequence of resurrection. Here all created realities appear as works that exist through the Son. The first-created reading collapses under Paul’s explanation, because the Son stands on the Creator’s side of the distinction. He is before the created order and gives it existence.

This confession directs prayer and worship. The true Image reveals the Father, and the Firstborn is Lord over every created claim on the heart. Correct Christology is spiritually decisive: it tells us whom we may worship, obey, and trust without reserve.

Gems from the Fathers 💎

St John Chrysostom reads Image as a confession of the Son’s true relation to the Father. He writes, if as God and God’s Son, God’s image, he shows the exact likeness.3 St Athanasius gives the Church’s anti-Arian guardrail in a single sentence: But by calling Him First-born, He shews that He is not a Creature, but Offspring of the Father.4 Neither Father replaces Paul’s argument. Both insist that verse 15 must be heard through verse 16: the Son called Firstborn is the One through whom all creatures exist.

Through Him, For Him, and In Him (Colossians 1:16-17)

16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

Paul repeats all things until the whole created order stands before Christ. Heaven and earth, visible and invisible, ordinary material life and the powers named as thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers all receive existence through the Son. Their authority is creaturely, received, and answerable to Him.

This confession steadies the Church. Holy angels serve Christ; hostile powers remain under His lordship. The believer therefore meets the unseen world with sober vigilance, prayer, and worship. Paul turns attention away from speculative hierarchies and fear-driven fascination toward the Creator in whose authority every power already stands.

Language insight: in Him, through Him, toward Him

The Greek arranges creation around Christ with three prepositional phrases: en autō, di’ autou, and eis auton. The NKJV renders them by Him, through Him, and for Him. No single English gloss exhausts the first phrase, but the full sequence is clear. Creation exists in determining relation to Christ, comes through Christ, and tends toward Christ as its goal. He is more than the agent at the beginning of a universe aimed somewhere else. The world comes from God through the Son and finds its purpose in the Son.5

For Him gives every gift and responsibility its direction. Work, service, knowledge, and care for others become disordered when they are made to secure the self rather than offered in thanksgiving and love. Paul restores their true end. The question is whether what came through Christ can be returned truthfully to Christ.

Verse 17 adds time and continuing reality: He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. The verb synestēken carries the sense of standing or holding together and appears in a perfect form, pointing to a settled reality with continuing effect. Paul’s claim is theological and cosmic: creation’s continuing coherence and existence remain dependent on Christ. The Maker has not withdrawn from what He made.6

This word meets the scattered heart without offering a sentimental shortcut. Grief remains grief, and faithful people do not always feel inwardly ordered. Yet reality has not fallen out of Christ’s hands. When competing responsibilities and uncertainty divide attention, prayer returns them to the One in whom they already stand. We receive the next faithful act from the Lord who sustains what we cannot control.

Chrysostom notices how Paul’s sentence places even the invisible powers after the Son: they cannot be before Him when they were created through Him.7 No hidden power deserves the fear, bargaining, or attention that belongs to Christ. The heart becomes stable by cleaving to the Lord of the whole created order.

Head, Fullness, and Peace Through the Cross (Colossians 1:18-20)

18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. 19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

Verse 18 turns from creation to the Church without changing the subject. The Lord through whom all things were made is the head of the body, the church. The Church lives from Christ as the source of her unity, direction, nourishment, and growth. Every teacher, practice, and ministry serves the Body faithfully by keeping its members joined to Him.

Paul then joins three expressions: Christ is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, and the One who is to have the preeminence. This is the hinge between first creation and new creation. The Son who stands before the first creation rises as the beginning of the renewed one. Other people were restored to mortal life before Easter, but Christ rises beyond death’s mastery and opens the deathless life in which His Body will share. Chrysostom calls Him the Firstfruits of the Resurrection, the One whose risen life carries the promise of the harvest to come.8

The repeated firstborn now reveals its full force. In verse 15, Christ is Firstborn over creation because all created things exist in, through, and for Him. In verse 18, He is Firstborn from the dead because His Resurrection begins the new creation and establishes His first place in everything. Creation and redemption are one work of the same Lord: the Creator enters death, rises in the body, and gathers a people whose life comes from His Resurrection.

The purpose clause uses prōteuōn, having first place. Christ’s preeminence becomes visible when His rule reaches actual decisions. A person may confess every title in this passage while allowing resentment or anxious self-protection to govern a wounded relationship. Repentance returns that decision to the One who already possesses first place in reality.9

Verse 19 says that all the fullness dwells in Him. The NKJV reads, it pleased the Father, supplying the Father as the subject. The Greek clause does not name the Father with an explicit noun, so its syntax should not be made to carry a claim more precise than the evidence allows. The central confession is secure: the fullness dwells in Christ. Colossians 2:9 will state this still more explicitly: all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily.10

Fullness therefore has an incarnate and ecclesial shape. Christ is not the first installment in a larger spiritual collection. The fullness dwells in Him, and the Church receives life by holding to Him as Head. When anxiety makes hidden supplements seem necessary, Paul reveals the inexhaustible Son rather than a thinner faith.

The confession reaches its climax in reconciliation. All things appears again, and creation’s fracture is answered by the Cross. Peace is made through the blood of His cross. The Creator enters the created order, truly takes flesh, and offers His life. St Athanasius keeps reconciliation joined to the Incarnation: the Word has been made flesh subsequently … in which Flesh, as the Apostle says, He reconciled the enmity which was against us.11 Cosmic peace is the self-offering of the incarnate Son.

Reconcile all things proclaims the cosmic sufficiency and final reach of Christ’s work. The passage therefore gives no warrant for automatic universal salvation or speculation about the salvation of demons. It declares that every realm stands under the crucified and risen Lord while preserving repentance, faith, judgment, and perseverance.12

Cross-shaped peace bears the character of Christ’s own offering: voluntary, truthful, holy, and protective of life. It calls the sinner to confession, restitution, and patient repair; it gives the wounded permission to seek safety, accountability, and wise boundaries. Bringing hidden harm into the light can be an act of peace because it ends the lie that silence and reconciliation are the same.

That is why Paul’s next sentence can narrow from all things to And you. The peace made in verse 20 is not distant cosmic language hovering over ordinary life; it is the ground on which alienated people are reconciled, presented holy, and commanded to continue grounded in the hope of the Gospel.

The Church’s Voice in Worship ⛪

The Coptic lectionary does not present Colossians 1:15-20 as an exact standalone reading in the witnesses used here. The whole passage is contained within Colossians 1:1-23 in the Pauline reading for the Feast of the Transfiguration, and within Colossians 1:12-23 on the Saturday of the first week of the Holy Fifty Days.13 These are larger ranges, so the Church’s choice should not be reduced to one isolated phrase.

The settings nevertheless illuminate the passage without creating its meaning. At the Transfiguration, the Church hears of the Image of the invisible God and the fullness dwelling in Him while beholding the glory revealed in the incarnate Son. In the Holy Fifty, firstborn from the dead, Head of the Body, and peace through the Cross are heard within Paschal life. The lectionary joins revealed glory to Resurrection and keeps cosmic Christology within worship.

Spiritual Fruit 🍇

Let Christ’s preeminence reach the decision you are protecting. We may confess Christ as first in everything while allowing one grievance, ambition, or fear to set the terms of obedience. Name the decision in which you most want control. Pray, Lord Jesus Christ, You are before all things. Have first place here. Then take the truthful and merciful step that His lordship requires, even if it costs self-justification.

Release the burden of holding everything together. A divided heart often treats worry as responsibility and control as faithfulness. Verse 17 gives a humbler place to stand: Christ sustains creation, while you are called to the next act of love that is actually yours. Bring one burden to Him by name, identify that act, and entrust the outcome you cannot govern to the Lord in whom all things consist.

Turn fear of the unseen into worship of the Creator. Paul names thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers so the Church can see them under Christ. When fear begins feeding curiosity, omens, or imagined spiritual bargains, confess Colossians 1:16-17, make the sign of the Cross, and return your attention to prayer and the duty before you. Seek pastoral help when fear becomes persistent, while keeping Christ at the center.

Seek the peace made in the shape of the Cross. Christ’s peace tells the truth and bears the cost of love. If the fracture is yours, confess it without excuse and make the repair that repentance requires. If you have been harmed, bring the wound into the light and seek safety, accountability, and wise counsel without surrendering the heart to revenge. The blood of Christ frees us from both false peace and hatred.

For prayer: Lord Jesus Christ, Image of the invisible Father, Firstborn over creation and Firstborn from the dead, hold my scattered life together. Take first place in me, and teach me the truthful peace of Your Cross.

Footnotes

  1. Colossians 1:7-8; 2:1, 8-23; 4:12-16, with Alan H. Cadwallader, Colossae. The precise identity and organization of the pressures opposed in Colossians 2 remain unsettled. ↩

  2. Colossians 1:15 interlinear, Colossians 1:16 interlinear, and the lexical entry for πρωτότοκος / prōtotokos. ↩

  3. St John Chrysostom, Homily III on Colossians, on Colossians 1:15, Orthodox Church Fathers mirror of NPNF1, volume 13. ↩

  4. St Athanasius of Alexandria, Statement of Faith, section 3, NPNF2, volume 4, translated by Archibald Robertson, CCEL direct section. ↩

  5. Colossians 1:16 interlinear. The precise force of en autō requires grammatical judgment; the guide relies on the full three-part sequence rather than making one preposition prove a separate metaphysical claim. ↩

  6. Colossians 1:17 interlinear and the lexical entry for συνίστημι / synistēmi. ↩

  7. St John Chrysostom, Homily III on Colossians, on Colossians 1:16-17, Orthodox Church Fathers mirror of NPNF1, volume 13. ↩

  8. St John Chrysostom, Homily III on Colossians, on Colossians 1:18, Orthodox Church Fathers mirror of NPNF1, volume 13. ↩

  9. Colossians 1:18 interlinear, with the lexical entry for πρωτεύω / prōteuō. ↩

  10. Colossians 1:19 interlinear and the lexical entry for πλήρωμα / plērōma. The grammatical subject of eudokēsen is treated cautiously; the guide preserves the NKJV wording without making its supplied subject carry the argument. ↩

  11. St Athanasius of Alexandria, On Luke X.22 (Matthew XI.27), section 3, NPNF2, volume 4, CCEL direct section. ↩

  12. Colossians 1:20 interlinear, with the lexical entry for ἀποκαταλλάσσω / apokatallassō; compare the immediate continuation in Colossians 1:21-23. ↩

  13. Feast of the Transfiguration readings, August 19, 2026, Colossians 1:1-23, and Saturday of the first week of the Holy Fifty Days readings, April 18, 2026, Colossians 1:12-23. Neither presents Colossians 1:15-20 as an exact standalone reading. ↩

  14. Christ Icon Sinai, sixth century, Saint Catherine’s Monastery, unknown creator, public domain according to Wikimedia Commons. ↩

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