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

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. 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. St John Chrysostom explains that this Image is “itself also invisible”: the Son does not begin to be the Father’s Image when He becomes man.² He is the Father’s Image as God before all ages. Because the eternal Image has taken flesh, the unseen God is made known through His human face, voice, touch, obedience, mercy, suffering, and risen life. In seeing Him, we see the Father (John 14:9). 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 eternally shares the Father’s divine life; in becoming man He makes the Father known within our human life. 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.³

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 shows the exact likeness.”² St Athanasius likewise insists that the One called Firstborn is “not a Creature, but Offspring of the Father.”⁴ Verse 16 supplies the decisive explanation: every creature exists through Him.

In Against the Arians II.62, St Athanasius distinguishes the Son’s eternal generation from His saving relation to us. Only-begotten names the Son’s unique relation to the Father, with no other son sharing that eternal generation. Firstborn names His relation to those He makes His brethren, “because of the Word’s condescension to the creatures”.⁵ Condescension here means His gracious coming down to us, not loss of His divinity. The title does not put the Son among the creatures He made. He takes our humanity and opens His risen life to those who belong to Him. The title that protects His lordship also announces His generosity: He has not kept us at a distance, but gathers us into the life of His Body.

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.⁶

“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.⁷

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.⁸ 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.

The Coptic Anaphora of St Basil names the principalities, authorities, thrones, dominions, and powers standing before God. In the Anaphora of St Gregory, the Church addresses the Son Himself: “You are He Whom the principalities bless”.⁹ The powers created through Him and for Him are worshippers, not rivals or intermediaries whom we need to win over.

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.¹⁰

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.¹¹

Verse 19 says that all the fullness dwells in Him. The NKJV supplies “the Father”, whom the Greek does not explicitly name; the fullness dwells in Christ. Colossians 2:9 will state this still more explicitly: all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him bodily.¹²

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 became flesh, and in that flesh “He reconciled the enmity which was against us”.¹³ Cosmic peace is the self-offering of the incarnate Son.

“Reconcile all things” proclaims the cosmic sufficiency and final reach of Christ’s work. It does not promise salvation apart from repentance and faith, as verse 23 makes plain. Every created order stands under the crucified and risen Lord.¹⁴

Cross-shaped peace bears the character of Christ’s own offering: voluntary, truthful, holy, and protective of life. Peace must not be used to conceal harm or silence the wounded.

That is why Paul’s next sentence can narrow from “all things” to “And you”, as Colossians 1:21-23 - Reconciled and Steadfast in Hope explores. 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 ⛪

On Mesra 13, the Feast of the Transfiguration, the Coptic Liturgy reads Colossians 1:1-23 beside Mark 9:2-13. The Image of the invisible God is proclaimed on the feast when the incarnate Son’s glory shone before His disciples, and the Father’s voice commanded, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!” (Mark 9:7). Matins reads Matthew 17:1-9, and Vespers reads Luke 9:28-36.¹⁵

The Catholic Epistle, 2 Peter 1:12-21, recalls the apostolic eyewitnesses of that majesty. Acts 7:44-8:1 places beside them Stephen’s vision of the Son of Man at God’s right hand. Together these readings teach us to receive the glory of the same Lord in His earthly ministry, His risen reign, and His witness through the martyr. Glory does not lead away from the Cross. In Mark’s Gospel, Christ joins the mountain’s revelation to His coming suffering and Resurrection. The One whose face is revealed in glory is the One whose blood makes peace.

The Saturday of the first week of the Holy Fifty Days again joins Colossians 1:12-23 to a Transfiguration Gospel, Luke 9:28-35, so that the Firstborn from the dead is heard in Paschal light.¹⁶ See Colossians 1:9-14 - Walking Worthy in the Kingdom of the Son for that day’s readings. 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.

Teaching Notes

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

• Ask: Why must “firstborn” be read with Paul’s explanation in verse 16 rather than as an isolated vocabulary item?
• Emphasize: The Son is the Father’s Image eternally; in the Incarnation the eternal Image becomes visible. Firstborn is not first-created: the Creator makes us His brethren.
• Watch for: Arian or semi-Arian readings that make Christ the highest creature, and icon language that confuses depiction of the incarnate Son with depiction of the invisible divine essence.
• Connect: John 1:1-3, John 14:9, 2 Corinthians 4:4-6, and Hebrews 1:1-4 deepen the confession that the Son reveals the Father and creates and sustains all things.
• Practice: Read verses 15 and 16 together. Name what belongs to the Creator and what belongs to the creature, then turn the distinction into a prayer of trust in the Son.

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

• Ask: Which created realities are people most tempted to fear, serve, or use as substitutes for fullness in Christ?
• Emphasize: Trace Paul’s threefold relation of creation to Christ, then end with its continuing coherence in Him.
• Watch for: Speculative charts of angelic ranks, fear-driven demonology, or turning “hold together” into a modern scientific theory.
• Connect: John 1:3 and 1 Corinthians 8:6 confess creation through the Son; Colossians 2:6-15 - Buried, Raised, and Triumphant in Christ and Colossians 2:16-23 - Hold Fast to the Head show why Christ cannot be supplemented by powers, regulations, or secret fullness.
• Practice: Draw one simple line: “in Him → through Him → for Him”, then place “held together in Him” beneath it. Keep the diagram subordinate to the words of the passage.

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

• Ask: Why does Paul move from creation to the Church, from the Church to Resurrection, and from fullness to the blood of the Cross?
• Emphasize: The repeated “firstborn” joins first creation to new creation. The Creator is Head of His Body, rises as the beginning of the renewed creation, and makes peace through His own blood.
• Watch for: Treating fullness as a spiritual supplement, reading “all things reconciled” as automatic universal salvation, speculating about the salvation of demons, or using Cross-shaped peace to silence a victim. Reconciliation does not require returning to danger: seek protection, accountability, and wise help; repentance includes confession, restitution, and truthful repair.
• Connect: Colossians 1:21-23 - Reconciled and Steadfast in Hope applies reconciliation personally and calls for perseverance; Colossians 2:6-15 - Buried, Raised, and Triumphant in Christ explains the fullness dwelling bodily in Christ; 1 Corinthians 15:20-28 develops Resurrection and final subjection.
• Practice: Trace the two-creation confession: “Firstborn over creation → all things created and sustained → Head and Firstborn from the dead → fullness → reconciliation through the Cross”.

Sources

Scripture is from NKJV.

Patristic sources

• St John Chrysostom, Homily III on Colossians, on Colossians 1:15-20, Orthodox Church Fathers mirror of NPNF1, volume 13.
• St Athanasius of Alexandria, Statement of Faith, section 3 in NPNF2, volume 4, CCEL direct section.
• St Athanasius of Alexandria, Against the Arians, II.62-63, New Advent.
• St Athanasius of Alexandria, On Luke X.22 (Matthew XI.27), section 3, CCEL NPNF2, volume 4, direct section.

Greek text and lexical orientation

• BibleHub interlinear pages for Colossians 1:15, 1:16, 1:17, 1:18, 1:19, and 1:20.
• BibleHub lexical entries for prōtotokos, synistēmi, prōteuō, plērōma, and apokatallassō.

Coptic worship

• Coptic Katameros, Mesra 13, Feast of the Transfiguration, Liturgy, Pauline Epistle, Colossians 1:1-23; Gospel, Mark 9:2-13; Catholic Epistle, 2 Peter 1:12-21; Acts 7:44-8:1. Matins Gospel, Matthew 17:1-9; Vespers Gospel, Luke 9:28-36.
• Coptic Katameros, Saturday of the first week of the Holy Fifty Days, Liturgy, Pauline Epistle, Colossians 1:12-23; Gospel, Luke 9:28-35.
• The Divine Liturgy, Anaphoras of St Basil and St Gregory, Coptic service-book text.

Further biblical reading

• Genesis 1:26-27, humanity created according to the image of God.

• John 1:1-18, all things made through the Word and the Father declared by the incarnate Son.

• Hebrews 1:1-4, the Son as the exact representation, Creator, sustainer, purifier, and enthroned Lord.

• 2 Corinthians 4:4-6, Christ as the Image of God and the light of divine glory.

• Ephesians 1:20-23, the risen Christ as Head over all things to the Church.

• 1 Corinthians 15:20-28, Christ as Firstfruits and the final ordering of all things.

Footnotes

1. Colossians 1:7-8; Colossians 2:1, 8-23; Colossians 4:12-16. ↩

2. St John Chrysostom, Homily III on Colossians, on Colossians 1:15, Orthodox Church Fathers mirror of NPNF1, volume 13. ↩ ↩²

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

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

5. St Athanasius of Alexandria, Against the Arians, II.62-63, New Advent. ↩

6. Colossians 1:16 interlinear. ↩

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

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

9. The Divine Liturgy, Anaphora of St Basil, before the Sanctus; Anaphora of St Gregory, opening praise before the Sanctus, Coptic service-book text. ↩

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

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

12. Colossians 1:19 interlinear. ↩

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

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

15. Coptic Katameros, Mesra 13, Feast of the Transfiguration, Liturgy, Pauline Epistle, Colossians 1:1-23; Gospel, Mark 9:2-13; Catholic Epistle, 2 Peter 1:12-21; Acts 7:44-8:1; Matins Gospel, Matthew 17:1-9; Vespers Gospel, Luke 9:28-36. August 19, 2026. ↩

16. Coptic Katameros, Saturday of the first week of the Holy Fifty Days, Liturgy, Pauline Epistle, Colossians 1:12-23; Gospel, Luke 9:28-35. April 18, 2026. ↩