Colossians 1:18

18–20. The thought continued. Greatness of the Redeemer as Head of the Church, Bearer of the Divine Plenitude, and Atoning Sacrifice

18. And he is] The same words as just above, and a solemn echo of them. He, the same Person, is also, necessarily, all that is now to be stated. The Head of Nature is the Head of Grace; the Person one, the operations analogous though differing.

the head] A word combining the thought of supremacy with that of the origination and conveyance of life and energy. The Son of God presides over His Church, but more—He is to it the constant Cause and mighty Source of spiritual vitality. “Because He lives, it lives also.” Its organization is rooted in Him, grows from Him, and refers to Him. Cp. 1Co_11:3; Eph_1:22; Eph_4:15; Eph_5:23; and below, Col_2:10; Col_2:19. The idea, it will be seen, appears in this precise form (the Headship of the Body) only in Eph. and Col.; but cp. Rom_12:5; 1Co_10:17; 1Co_12:21.

the body] Cp. Rom_12:5; 1Co_10:17; 1Co_12:27; Eph_1:23; Eph_2:16; Eph_4:4; Eph_4:12; Eph_4:16; Eph_5:23; Eph_5:30; below, Col_1:24, Col_2:19, Col_3:15. This side of the imagery is strictly correlative to that of “the Head.” It presents the believing Company as an Organism subject to the Lord, dependent vitally on Him for its being, cohesion, and energy, and forming an animated vehicle for the accomplishment of His will. And it indicates of course the mutual relations of “the members” (see on this esp. 1 Corinthians 12) in their widely differing functions of life and service.

“To know, to do, the Head’s commands,

For this the Body lives and grows:

All speed of feet, all skill of hands,

Is for Him spent, and from Him flows.”

the church] The Greek admits the rendering, “of the body of the Church;” i.e., of the Church defined, or described, as a body; viewed as being a body. The difference between this rendering and that of A.V. and R.V. is however almost imperceptible; and Col_1:24 below, and Eph_1:23, incline the rendering in their direction.

The word “Church” here appears in its highest reference, denoting the society of human beings “called out” (as the word ecclêsia implies) from the fallen world into vital union with the glorified Christ as Head. It occurs again Col_1:24, and nine times in Eph. (Eph_1:23,Eph_3:10; Eph_3:21, Eph_5:23-25; Eph_5:27; Eph_5:29; Eph_5:32), always with the same reference. See also Heb_12:23; and cp. Act_20:28; 1Co_15:9.—As presented here, the idea rises above the level of “visibility;” it transcends human registration and external organization, and has to do supremely with direct spiritual relations between the Lord and the believing Company. It is in fact “the Bride, the Lamb’s Wife,” of Revelation 21, only not yet manifested in bridal splendour. It is the “called, justified, and glorified” of Romans 8; “the Church of the firstborn” of Hebrews 12; “the royal priesthood, the people of possession,” of 1 Peter. All other Christian meanings of the word Church are derived and modified from this, but this must not be modified by them. See Hooker, Eccl. Polity, iii. 1, quoted below, Appendix H.

who is] Seeing He is (Ellicott).

the beginning] The Origin, the Principle and Secret, of the life of the living Body. Cp. Rev_3:14, where the probable reference is not (as here) to the spiritual creation specially but to created existence generally. Perhaps also (as Wordsworth suggests) the word (Archê) points also to the Son’s governing primacy, supreme above all possible angelic “Governments.” But this would be a secondary reference.

the firstborn from the dead] Not merely “of the dead,” but “from them;” passing in a supreme and unique sense “from death unto life;” rising in “the power of an indissoluble life” (Heb_7:16), a life-originating life (cp. 1Jn_5:11-12).—The word “Firstborn” here echoes Col_1:15, where the Son appears as (by right of nature, “First-born,”) antecedent and supreme with regard to the whole natural creation. Here He is such, by a similar right, as to the whole spiritual creation. But now comes in the great paradox that He is this, in the sphere of grace, through the process of death, not through Incarnation alone apart from death. As slain and risen He enters, by right and in fact, on His position as living Head of Grace for His Church; “declared to be the Son of God with power” (Rom_1:4), in order to our adoption and regeneration. Not as if He could be thus “born” a new Personality; but as being thus constituted actually the Second Adam of the new Race He is not only the “First-fruits” but the “First-Born” in His resurrection.—For the term in this connexion cp. Rev_1:5.

in all things] Of grace as of nature, of new life as of old.

he] Emphatic in the Greek; He, the same, and without partner or rival.

have the preeminence] Lit., and better, might become (the) First, might take the first place (so Ellicott).—The thought here of “becoming,” as distinguished from “being,” must not be lost; what He “is” eternally to finite existence at large He “becomes” actually to His new Creation in His finished and victorious Sacrifice and risen Life. Nor must the echo from clause to clause (in the Greek) of the word “first” be lost.

“With this clause the predications respecting Christ seem to reach their acme” (Ellicott); an acme of calm but rapturous ascription and confession concerning the all-beloved Son of the Father, Secret of Creation, Life and Lord of His happy Church.—No passage in the N.T. more fully, perhaps none so fully, witnesses to the Divine “Nature, Power, and Eternity” of the Saviour of mankind.

I. HOOKER ON THE CHURCH. (Col_1:18.)

“That Church of Christ which we properly term His body mystical, can be but one; neither can that one be sensibly discerned by any man, inasmuch as the parts thereof are some in heaven already with Christ, and the rest that are on earth (albeit their natural persons be visible) we do not discern under this property whereby they are truly and infallibly of that body. Only our minds by intellectual conceit are able to apprehend that such a real body there is, a body collective, because it containeth a huge multitude; a body mystical, because the mystery of their conjunction is removed altogether from sense. Whatsoever we read in Scripture concerning the endless love and the saving mercy which God sheweth towards His Church, the only proper subject thereof is this Church. Concerning this flock it is that our Lord and Saviour hath promised: ‘I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hands.’ They who are of this society have such marks and notes of distinction from all others as are not object unto our sense; only unto God, who seeth their hearts and understandeth all their secret thoughts and cogitations, unto Him they are clear and manifest. All men knew Nathanael to be an Israelite. But our Saviour, piercing deeper, giveth further testimony of him than men could have done with such certainty as He did, ‘Behold indeed an Israelite in whom there is no guile.’ If we profess, as Peter did, that we love the Lord, and profess it in the hearing of men … charitable men are likely to think we do so, as long as they see no proof to the contrary. But that our love is sound and sincere … who can pronounce, saving only the Searcher of all men’s hearts, who alone intuitively doth know in this kind who are His? And as those everlasting promises of love, mercy, and blessedness, belong to the mystical Church, even so on the other side when we read of any duty which the Church of God is bound unto, the Church whom this doth concern is a sensible known company. And this visible Church in like sort is but one.… Which company being divided into two moieties, the one before, the other since the coming of Christ, that part which since the coming of Christ partly hath embraced and partly shall hereafter embrace the Christian religion, we term as by a more proper name the Church of Christ.… The unity of which visible body and Church of Christ consisteth of that uniformity which all several persons thereunto belonging have, by reason of that one Lord, whose servants they all profess themselves; that one faith, which they all acknowledge; that one baptism, wherewith they are all initiated.… Entered we are not into the visible before our admittance by the door of baptism.… Christians by external profession they are all, whose mark of recognisance hath in it those things (one Lord, one faith, one baptism) which we have mentioned, yea, although they be impious idolaters, wicked heretics, persons excommunicable, yea and cast out for notorious improbity.… Is it then possible that the selfsame men should belong both to the synagogue of Satan and to the Church of Jesus Christ? Unto that Church which is His mystical body, not possible; because that body consisteth of none but only … true servants and saints of God. Howbeit of the visible body and Church of Jesus Christ, those may be, and oftentimes are, in respect of the main parts of their outward profession.… For lack of diligent observing the difference, first between the Church of God mystical and visible, then between the visible sound and corrupted, sometimes more, sometimes less; the oversights are neither few nor light that have been committed.”

Of the Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, iii. 1.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Col_1:18

And He is the Head of the body, the Church.

Christ and His Church

I. The Church.

1. The English word is formed from κυριακή--belonging to the Lord.

(1) Sometimes a distinction is draw between Church and congregation. Although Christ is Lord of all, yet He bears a peculiarly endearing relationship to the company within the congregation who constitute the Church proper. They are His peculiar possession, people, servants, and friends.

(2) Sometimes we call the edifice in which the disciples assemble a church, and properly, because it belongs to the Lord.

2. The word is a translation of ἐκκλησία, and is peculiarly applicable to the people as distinguished from the place. It was borrowed from those Greeks who had free municipal institutions. Slaves were not permitted to form part of the company, and were not eligible to municipal offices and honours, and had no voice or vote. A church, therefore, is a company of free men.

3. The two meanings in combination reach the idea that the Church of Christ is the company of free men whose privilege it is to belong to the Lord.

4. Christians are a body, an organized community, in which all the members, however humble, find a place and do a work, and not a mere heterogeneous mob. Each member can be helpful to the others.

II. The head. This implies--

1. That Christ belongs to the body, the Church. He is not outside and merely over it. He is within it as its principal member. He partakes of its moral nature, and then of the moral nature of all its members. He is free as they are, only more gloriously; it is His joy also to be useful, only His devotion is far more sublime.

2. The representation is incomplete. He is Heart too--both head and heart in one; even as He is corner-stone at every corner, and all round the Temple of God. As the Heart, He is the centre of all the vitalizing influences that build the whole body into the fulness of health and vigour; the fountain of the love which is the sweetest outcome of manhood.

3. As the Head, He thinks for the whole body, and plans and guides. The hands cannot think for themselves, though they are noble workers; the feet do not know where to go, but beautiful are they when running errands at the bidding of the love that is in the heart, or of the life that emanates from the head.

III. The beginning. Of what? Jesus was the beginning of the creation of God. Here He is at once--

1. The beginning of the resurrection life, being Himself the firstborn from among the dead, and thus--

2. The beginning of the Church of the living God; the Head of that body in which, even as it exists on earth, there is a spring-seed of that higher life that has been brought within the reach of all.

IV. Christ is consequently eminently qualified to have in all things the pre-eminence. It was the Fathers pleasure that he should have it. He has it now as His right, and will continue so to have it, until all opposition to its rule be swept away for ever. (J. Morison, D. D.)

Christ the Head of the Church

I. Christ is the head of the Church in each of His natures. For here He is called the Head of the Church, who had before been called the image of the invisible God. But that image was the eternal Son of God, the incarnate Word: therefore Christ, the God-man, is the Head of the Church. For the Church ought to possess such a head as might have a natural conformity with the rest of the members to be incorporated in it. Now this conformity suits Christ according to His human nature; whence Christ and the Church are called one flesh (Eph_5:31). But it was also necessary that the Church should have such a head as could infuse into it spiritual life. This is the province of God alone; whence God is plainly called the husband and the Head of the Church (Psa_45:10). Hence many observations arise:

1. Whereas the Head of the Church is God, we infer

(1) that the Church will abide for ever, neither shall the gates of hell prevail against it; for if God be with us, who shall be against us? A less than God would have been incompetent to the protection of the Church; for the devil, and almost the whole world, wage constant war against it.

(2) That the members of the Church ought to obey their Head in all things. For there is an infinite obligation which binds every creature to obey its God; but that obligation, if possible, surpasses infinite, whereby the Church, redeemed and sanctified, is bound to be subject to its, God, its mystical and life-giving Head.

(3) That the ascension of Christ into heaven has not deprived the Church of its Head: nay, He is present, and will be always present, with His whole Church, by the power of His Divinity, although He may not appear to our eyes by His bodily presence.

2. Inasmuch as our Head is a man, we infer two things:

(1) On account of His alliance of nature, He must of necessity intimately love us, and have such a keen sense of our miseries as to be most ready to succour us (Jdg_10:16; Heb_2:17-18).

(2) We have this comfort, that every ground of triumphing over us is taken from the devil. He overcame the first Adam, the head of the race; but the Second Adam, the Head of the Church, overcame him. Nay, in Christ, we who are His members conquer, just as in Adam we were conquered.

II. In what respects Christ is called the head.

1. The head differs from its members--

(1)In eminence or dignity. The head possesses more perfectly all the senses than the subordinate members; so Christ, the mystical Head, possesses all spiritual grace more abundantly than men and angels put together (Joh_3:34).

(2) In way of direction or government. The head regulates and directs; the members are ruled and directed. So Christ has the absolute government of the Church (Eph_5:22-23).

(3) In way of causality or influence. For the head communicates sense and motion to all its members. So Christ sends forth spiritual life and the motion of grace into His members which are otherwise insensible, dead, and destitute of all spiritual motion (Joh_15:5; Php_4:13).

2. Those things in which the agreement of the head and the members is perceived.

(1) The natural head hath a natural conformity with the rest of the members; for as Horace hath rightly said, it would be monstrous and ridiculous if a painter should form a design of uniting a horses neck to a human head. Thus monstrous would it be if the Head of the Church had not a natural conformity with the Church. But Christ hath this, as is shown (Heb_2:1-18.).

(2) The head and the members have a conformity in their destination to the same end, viz., the preservation and safety of the whole person: thus Christ, and His members, which are one person, are ordained to the attainment of eternal glory and happiness; and to the accomplishment of this end both head and members assiduously co-operate. This is the care of the Head, to lead its members to final blessedness (Joh_17:12). Hence He is called the Saviour of the body (Eph_5:23).

(3) They agree in the circumstance of their having a continuous union with each other, and all of them deriving their motion and intellectuality from the same soul. So this mystical Head, and all the members of it, have a certain mutual continuity, and have their spiritual intellectuality and vivifying principle from the same source. For there is between Christ and His members an uninterrupted union by means of the Holy Spirit (Eph_4:16).

III. Who and what are they out of whom the body of Christ is composed?

1. The term Church is derived from a word signifying to call out; it is therefore an assembly of those called out. And this calling is effected by the ministry of the gospel, and other means which God has appointed.

2. This external vocation and profession constitutes the visible Church. But there is also another more effectual vocation joined to this in some persons, namely, by grace implanted through the power of the Spirit in the hearts of the called.

3. Then it follows--

(1) That those who stand related to the Church as evil humours to the human body are not true members of the Church; for each sound body desires the preservation of its members; but it does not preserve evil humours, but expels them.

(2) That those who stand related to the Church as dead men to humanity are not true members of the Church; such as wicked men and infidels.

(3) That those whom the Church itself would not acknowledge as members or its parts, if it knew what they are, Christ, who knows all things, does not acknowledge.

(4) That the Church, which is the body of Christ, hath no member which doth not receive a vital influx from the Head: for the same Spirit is diffused from the Head to all the members (Rom_8:9). But infidels and the wicked have not this vitality of grace flowing from the Head.

(5) That the same man is not at the same time a member of Christ and of the devil; but the wicked men are numbered amongst the servants and the children of the devil (Joh_8:38; Joh_8:44), therefore they are not to be reckoned among the members of Christ.

4. We conclude, therefore, that this body of the Church, of which Christ Himself is the Head, does not consist of any unfaithful and wicked members, but of the pious and holy alone; whom God delivers from the power of darkness, and translates into the kingdom of His dear Son.

5. Hence we may learn--

(1) It is not sufficient for salvation to be a member of any visible Church by an outward profession of faith, unless you are a member of the Catholic Church by a true faith and the Spirit dwelling in the heart.

(2) It is not befitting Christians to envy those who are endowed with the more excellent girls; because they are members of the same body: what, therefore, is conferred on one, that should be esteemed as given to all.

(3) Since godly members are of the same body, it behoves them to be ready to assist each other; and they ought to feel equally affected with the good or evil which fall to others as with their own (1Co_12:26). (Bp. Davenant.)

The Head of the Church

I. What is meant by our Lords headship?

1. His representation of the Church as a body. At the first creation God dealt with the race as represented in Adam--hence original sin. In order to salvation, which was only possible, perhaps, because we did not fall singly, God instituted a second federation, of which Christ is the Head, the second Adam. Christians are chosen, accepted, and preserved in Him.

2. Our Lord is Head in a mystical sense (Col_2:19).

(1) The head is indispensable to life; so Jesus is the vitalizing Head of all His people. He is our life. Separation from Him is spiritual death.

(2) The head is the throne of supreme government. It is from the brain that the mandate issues which uplifts the hand, etc. Thus in the Church Christ is the great directing Head; from Him the only binding commands go forth; to Him the spiritual yield a cheerful homage.

(3) The head is the glory of the body. There the chief beauty of manhood dwells. Christ is fairer than the children of men, and in Him the beauty of the Church is summed up.

3. Christs Headship is conjugal. He is the Bridegroom, the Church is His Bride. As the husband exercises headship in the house, not at all tyrannical or magisterial, but founded upon the rule of nature and endorsed by the consent of love, so Christ rules in His Church, not as a despot compelling His subject bride against her will, but as a husband well beloved, obtaining obedience from the heart.

4. Christ is Head as King in Zion. One is your Master, etc. To no other do we render spiritual obeisance. Martyrs have bled for this truth. Some Churches have not learned it.

II. What it implies. Since Christ is Head of the Church-

1. He alone can determine doctrines for her. It is nothing that a doctrine comes down with gray antiquity to make it venerable. All the fathers, divines, and confessors put together cannot add a word to the faith once delivered to the saints. Nothing is doctrine to the Church but what is contained in the Scriptures.

2. He only can legislate for the Church. In a state, if a knot of persons should profess to make laws for the kingdom they would be laughed at; if they should attempt to enforce them they would be amenable to punishment. So the Church has no power to make laws for herself since she is not her own head; and no one has any right to make laws for her but Christ.

3. He is the living administrator in the Church; but as monarchs often administer through lieutenants, so Christ ad ministers through His Spirit who dwells in the hearts of His people. When we search the Law Book He is their guide.

4. This sole authority must be maintained rigorously.

(1) Some would have us guided by results. It has been discussed whether missions should continue since there are so few converts. But how can the question be raised when He has said, Go ye into all she world, etc.

(2) We are not to be guided by the times. Our King and laws are the same, and let the times be scientific or barbaric, our duty is the same.

III. On what does it rest?

1. On the natural supremacy of Christs nature. He is perfect man and God over all blessed for ever.

2. On His redemption.

3. On His conquest.

4. On the Divine decree (Psa_2:1-12.).

IV. What does it teach?

1. Does it not make each inquire, If the entire Church is to yield this obedience, am I yielding it?

2. Am I in the habit of judging according to my wishes or according to the Statute Book of the King? ( C. H. Spurgeon.)

The body and its Head

What striking figures are employed to describe the union between Christ and His Church!

1. They are the flock, He is the Shepherd (Joh_10:11-14). They are the bride, He is the Bridegroom (Rev_21:2-6).

3. They are the branches, He is the Stem.

4. Here, and elsewhere, they are the body, He the Head.

I. How close the connection between the head and the body. Yet as close is that between Christ and His Church. Not only is it near and dear to Him, it is identified with Him (Eph_1:23). His human body was not less necessary to His completeness as a man than His Church is to the completeness of His glory. It was much for Christ to notice, more to pity, more still to die for sinners, but to draw so near to them as this--well may Paul call it a great mystery.

II. What a fellow feeling there is between the body and the head! Is a mans body in pain, and does not the head know and feel, and the tongue complain? So when the Church suffers the Saviour feels.(Heb_4:15; Mat_25:40).

III. What a beautiful conformity; how exactly is the head proportioned to the body, and how precisely is it suited in its make to the bodys wants! Suppose the head of a brute were affixed, not only would the sight be monstrous, but that which the bodys fashion renders necessary could never be supplied. And is not the Head of this Church exactly what it wants? Christians need Almighty succour and support, such as could be given by no merely human head.

IV. What an eminent station does the head occupy, when by its various senses and faculties it is capable of regulating and directing all our movements! So Jesus is made Head over all things to His Church, that He may preside over all its concerns, and order the whole course of its events. He sees, hears, speaks, and thinks for it. It is guided by His eye, directed by His wisdom, recommended by His intercession.

V. The human head may be separated from the body. Hence the body in that case dies. But the Church cannot die because no separation can take place between it and its Head (Rom_8:35-39). Conclusion--

1. Is the Head gone up into heaven? Then the members will follow.

2. Are we members of this body? not members of the visible Church, nor professors of Christianity.

3. This union is effected by faith, cemented by love, and exhibited in obedience. (A. Roberts, M. A.)

The Head

The importance of a military position may be always estimated by the determination with which it is on the one hand assailed, and on the other defended. According to this rule we should conclude that the Church has regarded the Headship of her Lord as the very key of the position. For Christs crown, and His sole right to rule His own house without Caesars interference, her costliest and most powerful sacrifices have been made. Peter and John were the first to publicly maintain this doctrine (Act_4:19; Act_5:29).

I. Christs body is the Church. While all other bodies shall die, this is deathless. Because I live, etc. This body, paradox as it sounds, is ever changing and yet unchangeable; one undying whole formed of dying parts. Yet not more strange than things in nature. You are not the same person you were a year ago. Look at a river. The exile returns to the haunt of his early years, and there the river flows as it did when he was young; yet the liquidations have undergone perpetual change. And so the stream of time bears on to eternity, and the stream of grace on to glory, successive generations, while the Church herself, like a river fed by perennial fountains, remains unchangeable in Christs immutability, in His immortality immortal.

II. Christs body, which is not identical with any one church, is formed of all truly-believers, to whatever denomination they may belong. Mothers are prone to think their own daughters loveliest, and nothing is more natural than to say of our own denomination, Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all. But to foster a spirit of sectarianism is an offence as great as to sin against His truth. In some respects bigotry is worse than heresy; and most hateful of all in Gods sight is the haughty Churchism which says, Stand by, I am holier than thou.

III. Christs body, in a sense, embraces all those churches which hold the essential truths of the gospel. There is a broad line between the essentials and the circumstantials of the faith. Yet what unnatural attempts at uniformity have men made, as if uniformity were a law of God! On no such model has God constructed our world. God, while He preserves unity, delights in variety. Why then insist on all men observing a uniform style of worship, or thinking alike on matters non-essential to salvation? You might as well insist on all men wearing the same expression, or speaking in the same tone. How tolerant was Paul of differences! His Church has not followed her Lords example. Christ drove thieves from the temple, but His followers have cast out their brethren. Divisions are bad things. I have no sympathy with those who, confounding charity with indifference, regard matters of religion as not worth disputing about. Such a state of death is worse than war. Yet divisions are bad things. Therefore we ought to aim to heal them, and where we cannot do that to soften their asperities. Blessed are the peacemakers. Let us recognize a common brotherhood, and love one another as Christ has loved us. Branches of a tree which is still one in root, stem, sap, flower, and fruit; members of the same family, travellers to the same home, see that ye fall not out by the way.

IV. As head of the church Christ is the life of the members.

1. By means of the connection which grace establishes between Him and the believer, He maintains our spiritual life. Without Me ye can do nothing. All our wishes, words, and works, however expressed in looks, sounds, and movements, are born in the brain, and there is not a good wish, word, or work but Christ was its fountain-head.

2. He is the source of our spiritual life. We must not confound the means of life with its first cause. The life which Christ gave you was His own. If any heavenly fire burns in you Christ kindled it. The spirit life is not hereditary, not of blood or of the will of the flesh. By His life He now maintains us.

V. As head of the church Christ rules its members. It is not pain that makes the insect go spinning round and round to the entertainment of the thoughtless boy who has beheaded it. It has lost in the head that which preserves harmony among the members, and prevents such anarchy as there was in the body politic when there was no king in Israel, and every man did what was right to his own eyes. Seated as becomes a king, in the highest place, the head gives law to all beneath it. Its subjects never mutiny. Patterns of the obedience we should yield to Christ, the members hesitate not to obey the head even to their own loss and suffering. How happy we should be were our hearts, minds, bodies, as obedient to Christ as the hand and tongue to the head that rules them I What else but this is needed to preserve the purity and peace of our souls, and restore the same to distracted churches? There is no essential difference between the evangelical denominations, and what should hinder them from being as ready to love and help one the other as my foot is ready to run in the service of my hand?

VI. As head of the Church christ sympathizes with his members. All the rivers run into the sea; all the nerves run into the brain, and through them mind corresponds with matter, looking through the eyes, etc. Let the foot but touch a thorn, and it is instantly withdrawn. How? Pain thrilling along the nerves flashes the danger upward to the head, which, by another set of nerves, flashes back an immediate order, so that before the thorn is buried in the flesh the foot is withdrawn. Such is the sympathy between Christ and His people. He is in closest communication with them, and by means of lines which pass from earth to heaven the meanest cottage is joined to the throne of God. No accident breaks that telegraph. The lines of Providence radiate out, and the lines of prayer radiate in. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

One with Christ

The moment I make of myself and Christ two, I am all wrong. But when I see that we are one, all is rest and peace. (Luther.)

The Holy Catholic Church

I. Its nature and characteristics. A congregation of faithful men, etc. (Act_19:1-41.).

1. The members of which it is composed.

(1) Their privileges. They are believers--faithful men, chosen, redeemed, regenerated, sanctified.

(2) You must view them as brought together in the bonds of a common profession; for they are faithful men assembled. Solitary individuals, however eminent for piety, cannot form a church (Mat_18:15).

(3) They must be brought together for religious purposes. A company of believers brought together for secular ends would not be a church. They must assemble to worship God, hear His Word, communicate, etc.

(4) These thus congregated are distinguished by the general consistency of their outward behaviour. Hypocrites and evil persons may be found in the Church, but they are not of it.

2. Its characteristics.

(1) Unity. The Church is one in

(a) The foundation on which it rests. Other foundation can no man lay.

(b) Its worship. Through Him we all have access.

(c) Its sympathy and spirit, which is much to be preferred to uniformity of opinion.

(2) Sanctity. This does not refer to external and ritual holiness, but to real and internal. Be ye holy.

(3) Catholicity, diffusiveness, generality. We may each of us have our denominational preferences, but we must not unchurch one another. The Church is catholic in the following particulars:

(a) It is the true Church wherever it may be, as to country or clime.

(b) It is found equally among all denominations who are in connection with the Head.

II. The relation in which Christ stands to it.

1. He is the teaching Head. From Him as the great Prophet of the Church flows all the light by which it is illumined and cheered. In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom, etc.

2. He is the Head of influence.

3. The Head of government--both legislative and executive.

4. The only Head.

(1) Appointed as such.

(2) Necessarily so. There can be but one head of the body.

(3) All-sufficient.

III. The duties we owe to this hallowed confederacy.

1. To try the spirits, whether they be of God--the pretensions of those who offer themselves to our notice as assumed members of the Church.

2. To admire the goodness of Christ in undertaking this government.

3. To inquire whether we belong to the Holy Catholic Church.

4. To exult in its prospective triumphs.

5. To look forward to the glorious consummation when this one Church shall be presented in its full numbers before the throne. (G. Clayton, M. A.)

Church authority

It is indispensable to every society to have a central person or idea round which it may revolve; a supreme government to which it must refer and submit, The will of the person, the essence of the idea, is the reason and law of its existence. Such in the Church is Christ. Accordingly He combines in Himself all the elements of which the Church is to consist. The idea of Christian life is that the qualities of spiritual and visible worlds should be brought together. It recognizes, therefore, as its appropriate Head the God-man who combines the Divine nature to be communicated, and the human capacity for its communication, and who embodied in His incarnate life the model of what human nature should be. Around the Mediator, then, all believing men are gathered. He is the central figure around whom the Church is grouped, the essential bond and reason of its existence. As Head of the Church Christ is--

I. The source of the peculiar truths whereby it is founded. That which constitutes a society is not the truth it has in common with others, but that which is peculiar to itself. A literary society may have a morality common to themselves and hundreds about them; but it is their peculiar element of literature which constitutes them a literary society. So the Church may have a great deal of the morality common to them and unregenerate men, and so with theological ideas. Hence the name Christian cannot be accorded to those who deny the Deity and atonement of Christ, and the personality and regenerating influence of the Holy Ghost, because these are the characteristic revelations of the New Testament. Of these truths Christ is the source, and all His work concerns itself with them. As the great Prophet of the Church He announces them, as its Priest He realizes them, as its King He reigns to enforce them.

II. The source of the spiritual life wherein it consists. The idea o! a society is the reception by its members, and their practical embodiment of its peculiar truths. The Church is, therefore, more than an association of theoretic believers in the atonement and regeneration; it lives under their power and for their promulgation. Common theories only bring men into juxtaposition; common experiences knit them together. The truth which Christ has given the Church becomes a quickening thing.

1. This supposes that previously men were dead. Moral death is the most lamentable of all deaths.

2. In this condition Christ finds him. You hath He quickened. Restoration to moral life is effected--

(1) By His atonement, by which He rescues men from legal death, and procures a reversal of the sentence of condemnation.

(2) By His Spirit the soul is quickened, and men having the Spirit of Christ are born again.

(3) This moral life is a right state of the heart towards God, and is sustained by these truths. They constrain to holy obedience.

III. The source of all the authority or law wherewith it is regulated. He determines the precise, direction and shape which spiritual feeling should assume, but such direction need not interfere with the spontaneousness of the feeling. And so the Christian precept prompts the desire for duty and directs it, but is nowhere arbitrary. Thus is it also in the associated life of the Church. Whatever law Christ has given He has given in accordance with the spontaneous prompting of Church life; the prompting might be vague, the precept enlightens it. At the same time, when institutions are needed Christ alone has authority to enjoin them as laws. This we see e.g., in the sacraments. Christ is the sole legislator, and for any individual to interpose an authority between Christ and the Church is open rebellion.

IV. Christ administers the providences which constitute its experience. This is part of His mediatorial right in pursuance of His purpose of world restoration.

1. Within the Church He orders the succession and distinctions of its ministry, the accession or removal of its members, their spiritual birth or translation, their trials and privileges.

2. Without the Church He determines or permits the experiences that shall visit it; the waves that shall beat upon the ark; the assaults upon the fortress.

Lessons--

1. If Christ be the source of all spiritual truth and life, our constant temper should be practical gratitude for our participation of it.

2. If Christ be the source of all authority, our constant habit should be holy obedience.

3. If Christ provides, then we may safely leave all things in His hands.

4. Let us assure ourselves of its final and glorious triumph. (H. Allon, D. D.)

Who is the beginning.

Names and titles among men are generally insignificant, and not characteristic of the persons who wear them; but Christs are both descriptive and recommendatory. He is the beginning.

I. As to his Divine nature. It implies His eternity and self-existence. He is not God by derivation and commission. He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. He is therefore the beginning and fountain of created existence. He who received life from none communicates life to all. Not only our being but our intellectual and moral excellencies are from Him. By His power we are what we are as men; by His grace we are what we are as Christians.

II. As mediator.

1. He is the origin of the Church of God. It is He that has raised it out of the ruins of the fall. Is it a temple? He builds it. Is it a garden? He plants it.

2. He is the beginning to individual saints. Our life is from His death, and all the streams of blessedness flow from His fulness. More particularly

(1) He is the source of reconciliation and the beginning of our peace with God. Our prayers and tears have no influence; neither our own work nor that of the Holy Spirit. There is no admission to Divine favour without satisfaction to Divine justice; and Christ alone has made that by the Cross.

(2) He is the beginning in reference to the change wrought in us by regeneration. This change is wrought by the Holy Spirit, but as the Spirit of Christ He shall receive of Mine. Christ within us is the hope of glory. He is our Life.

3. With respect to the resurrection. His own was the pattern and pledge of that of His saints. The same Spirit who quickened Him shall also quicken us.

Learn--

1. The honour that is due to Christ.

2. As Christ is the beginning of all spiritual blessings, so those blessings can belong to none but those who are in Him.

3. He who is the beginning is also the end; and this secures the happiness of all the saints. He who has begun will also finish (Heb_12:2).

Christ the beginning

The same place and dignity that Christ has in the order of nature He has in the order of grace; He is the beginning of the new as He was also of the old creation.

I. In the way of order as first and chief of the renewed state.

1. AS Founder and Builder of the Church (Mat_16:18; Heb_3:3-5). One of the noblest of Gods works is His Church of the firstborn; none could constitute it but the God-man. For the materials are sinful and guilty men. Neither men nor angels could raise them into a holy temple to God.

2. As the Lord of the Church (Heb_2:7).

II. In the way of causality.

1. As a moral, meritorious cause (1Jn_4:9-10).

2. As an efficient cause by His Spirit who works in the members of His mystical body (2Co_5:17; Eph_2:10). The influence we have from our Head is--

(1) Life (Gal_2:20; Joh_6:57).

(2) Likeness (Gal_4:19; 2Co_3:18). It is for the honour of Christ that His image should be upon His members, to distinguish them from others. As to life, He is the root (Joh_15:1-2); as to likeness, He is the pattern (Rom_8:29).

III. The reason of this.

1. It is for the honour of the Son to be the Head of the new world. In the kingdom of Christ all thing are new; a new covenant, paradise, ministry, ordinances, members, and so a new Head or Second Adam (1Co_15:45). It is suited to our lost estate. (T. Manton, D. D.)

The beginning

I. This term expresses Christs divine nature. He must be Divine who is almighty, and who is, and was, and is to come; and since the beginning is a title applied in the same passage (Rev_1:8), Paul pronounces Him Divine.

II. It expresses Christs relation to his church.

1. The beginning of a tree is the seed it springs from. The giant oak had its origin in the acorn. Now as a seed Christ was apparently of little promise, a root out of a dry ground, yet out of Him has grown that Church which shall bear the blessings of salvation to the ends of the earth.

2. A house, again, begins at the foundation. The first stone laid is the foundation-stone. Christ is this, a tried stone, a firm and immovable basis for the believer.

4. The Author of our faith, the Founder of the Church, began it, ere sun or stars shone in heaven. He provided for the fall before it happened. He had the lifeboat on the beach before the bark was stranded, or launched, or even built. He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

III. He is the beginning of salvation to every individual believer.

1. Whatever was the instrument employed it was His grace that began what had a beginning. The preacher was a man but drawing a bow at a venture, It was Christs eye that aimed the shaft, and His strength that bent the bow. When our sins were carrying us out to burial He stopped the bier and imparted life.

2. As Christ is the beginner, so is He the finisher of our faith. He does no half work, half saving, or half sanctifying a man. Trust Him that when He has begun a good work He will carry it on to the end. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

The firstborn from the dead.--

I. Open the terms. Firstborn. If the grave was as a womb to Christ, and His resurrection as a birth, then Christ was in a manner born when He rose. Only He hath the precedency; surely others will follow Him (Act_26:23; 1Co_15:20). As in the consecration of the firstfruits the whole harvest was consecrated, so Christ by rising raises all.

II. Vindicate the notion. Two objections lie against it.

1. Many were raised before Him or by Him (1Ki_17:1-24.; 2Ki_4:1-44; 2Ki_13:21; Luk_7:15; Luk_8:55; Joh_11:44; Mat_27:52).

(1) We must distinguish between a proper and improper resurrection. He arose by a proper, which is to rise to a life immortal; they only to a mortal estate, and so the great disease was rather removed than cured (Act_13:34).

(2) Others were raised by the power and virtue of His resurrection, but He by His own power (Joh_8:18). Thus Christ is said not only to be raised again, but to rise (Rom_4:25).

(3) All those who rose before, rose only by special dispensation to lay down their bodies again when God should see fit, and rose only as private persons. But Christ rose as a public Person, and once for all.

2. Concerning the raising of the wicked. Christ cannot be the firstborn to them who belong not to His mystical body. The firstborn implies a relation to the rest of the family. The offering of the firstfruits did not sanctify the tares and weeds.

(1) Certainly the wicked shall rise again (Act_24:15; Joh_5:28-29); but

(2) they will be raised by Christ as a Judge, not as a Redeemer. The one sort are raised by the power[of His vindictive justice, the other by the Holy Ghost by virtue of His covenant (Rom_8:11); the one by Christs power from without as Judge of dead and living, the other by an inward quickening influence flowing from Him as their proper Head.

(3) The wicked are forced to appear to receive their sentence, the other go joyfully to meet the Bridegroom and enter into eternal life.

III. How is this an evidence and assurance to all Christians of their happy and glorious resurrection 9

1. There shall be a resurrection. It is necessary to prove that--

(1) Because it is the foundation of all godliness (2Co_15:32).

(2) Because it is not easy of belief. The great and public evidence thereof is Christs which makes ours--

(a) Possible. That is the least we can gather from it (1Co_15:13).

(b) Easy. By rising Christ has conquered death (1Co_15:57; Heb_2:14).

(c) Certain and necessary from--First, our relation to Christ as Head. He cannot live gloriously in heaven and leave His members under the power of death (Eph_1:23; Eph_4:13), otherwise He would be a maimed Christ. Second, the charge and office of Christ (Joh_6:39). Third, the mercy of God through the merits of Christ to the faithful who have hazarded their lives for His sake (1Th_4:14; 2Co_4:14).

2. The resurrection to the faithful will be happy and glorious.

(1) Because Christs is not only a cause, but pattern. The members were appointed to be conformed to their Head (Rom_8:19; 1Pe_1:21).

(2) By the grant of God. They have a right and title to it. Being admitted to His family they may expect to be admitted into His presence; and they have the Holy Spirit as an earnest till it be accomplished (Eph_1:14; Eph_4:30; Rom_8:28).

IV. The use is to persuade you to the relief of these two grand articles of faith.

1. The resurrection of Christ. That is the great foundation of faith (1Co_15:14). All the apostles preaching was built on this supposition.

(1) Partly because this is the great evidence of the truth of Christianity (Act_23:31; Act_13:33).

(2) Partly to show that He is in a capacity to convey spiritual and eternal life to others; which, if He had continued in the state of death, He could not be (Joh_14:19; 1Pe_1:3; Eph_1:20-21).

2. Your own resurrection.

(1) Consider it as a work of omnipotency. To an infinite power there can be no difficulty (Php_3:21; Zec_8:6).

(2) We have relief from the justice of God. He is the rewarder of good and bad, but He does not dispense His rewards in this life (1Co_15:29).

(3) Gods unchangeable love, which inclines Him to seek the dust of His confederates; therefore Christ proves the resurrection from Gods covenant title (Mat_22:31). (T. Manton, D. D.)

The firstborn

Christ is the firstborn from the dead.

I. In the dignity of His person. He is the greatest who ever entered or shall ever leave the gates of death. Isaiah in one of his boldest flights of fancy sets forth the destruction of the Babylonian monarchy. He sees a mighty king descending into the grave, breaking its awful silence and entering alone the dark domain of a monarch mightier than himself. On his ear fall the voices of kings long buried, muttering, Art thou become as we? When we die we sink into the grave as snowflakes on the water, but Christ being the Lord of glory, the fountain of life, His descent into the tomb was an event which may well be set forth by the prophets imagery. I can fancy all the dead astonished at His coming. Fancy some great, good monarch thrust into the common jail; and were such a reverse of fortune borne out of love to His subjects, how would it move their love and admiration as well as their wonder and pity! Yet what were such an event compared with what, unnoticed by the world, took place in the garden? Christs descent into the tomb awoke death from its deepest apathy. That awoke those who are heedless of the shock of earthquakes. The graves were opened. Waiting for Him to lead the way, many dead saints left the tomb.

II. Because He rose by His own power. There is no sensibility, passion, or power in the dead. They can do nothing to help themselves. In all cases but Christs, life was given, not taken back.

III. Because He is the only one who never rise to die again. The others twice drank the bitter cup.

IV. Because He has taken precedence of his people. It is better for me, if I am a poor man standing in need of royal favours, to have a friend at court than in my own humble cottage; and it is better for us that Christ is with the Father in heaven than with us on earth. But apart from that, precedence was His right. ]: he King precedes His train; the Head was first out of the grave, afterwards the body and its members. It is as the prelude to our own resurrection that Christs is to us the object of the greatest satisfaction and joy. Henceforth the grave holds but a lease of the saints. Because He rose we shall rise. If we are reconciled to God through Jesus Christ what reconciling views of death does this open to us! (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

The Divine harbinger

Sweeter to our ear than the full chorus of bright skies and green wood are the first notes of the warbler that pipes away the winter, and breaks in on its long, drear silence! And more welcome to our eye than the flush of summers gayest flowers is the simple snowdrop that hangs its pure white bell above the dead, bare ground. And why? These are the firstborn of the year, the forerunners of a crowd to follow. In that group of silver bells that ring in the spring with its joys and loves and singing birds, my fancys eye sees the naked earth clothed with beauty, the streams, like children let loose, dancing and laughing, and rejoicing in their freedom, bleak winter gone, and natures annual resurrection. And in that solitary simple note my fancy hears the carol of larks, wide moor, hillside, and woodlands full of song and ringing with all music. And in Christ, the Firstborn, I see the grave giving up its dead: from the depths of the sea, from lonely wilderness and crowded churchyard they come, like the dew of the grass, an innumerable multitude. Risen Lord! we rejoice in Thy resurrection. We hail it as the harbinger and blessed pledge of our own. The first to come forth, Thou art the Elder Brother of a family whose countless numbers the patriarch saw in the dust of the desert, whose holy beauty he saw shining in the bright stars of heaven. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

That in all things He might have the pre-eminence.--

The Pre-eminent One

It is the ordination of providence that in every society or profession there should be a head--some one who should have the pre-eminence. The father ought to be the chief of his house. Israel was governed by God, yet He chose Moses as His vice-gerent, and when the nation was afterwards divided into tens, hundreds, etc., still Moses retained the preeminence. No society could hang together without this. The same ordination holds good in the Church. From its members some are made eminent pastors, etc., yet there is but one to whom the pre-eminence belongs. And we are told the reason of it. Among men we see eminence variously displayed: one is eminent for wisdom, another for power, and so on; but Christ is pre-eminent in all things. Therefore Christ is reserved for this honour; and that not simply as God, but as Mediator. Christ has pre-eminence.

I. In the estimation of deity.

1. On whom does the Father concentrate His love and delight? Jehovah calls Him His own Son, His dear Son, His beloved Son. Christ is the only begotten Son in the bosom of the Father, and He speaks of the glory He had before the world was. Thrice did the Father glorify Him--at His baptism, transfiguration, and lust before His passion. At His incarnation the Father said, Let all the angels of God worship Him, and after His burial sent angels to roll away the stone.

2. The same pre-eminence is given by the Holy Spirit. He anointed Him with the oil of gladness above His fellows--descended on Him at His baptism, glorifies Him, and receives of His.

II. In the testimony of the scriptures. They wrote of Me. The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. Every metaphor that the glowing glories of earth or heaven have offered is selected to put honour on His brow.

1. Consider His titles--Foundation, Door, Captain, Advocate, Judge, etc.

2. His offices--Prophet, Priest, King, Shepherd, etc.

III. As exhibited in the glory of His works.

1. Creation. Angels have done wonders, and men; but whoever saw anything equal to the works of Christ?

2. Providence. The government is on His shoulders.

3. Redemption.

IV. In the opinion of relievers. There are many who are very dear to us on earth and in heaven; but who has the pre-eminence? Unto you that believe He is precious. He is the chief among ten thousand, and the altogether lovely.

V. In the happiness of heaven. TO be with Christ, apart from the consideration of its other glories, that is heaven. Conclusion. Give Christ the pre-eminence.

1. In your hearts.

2. In your houses.

3. Labour that He may have it in the whole world. (J. Sherman.)

Christ pre-eminent

I. He is the first.

1. He is pre-eminent in age (verse 15). Before Abraham was I am.

2. In the work of redemption, firstborn from the dead.

II. He is the mightiest.

1. As Creator (verse 16).

2. As Preserver (verse 17).

3. As Destroyer. We cannot destroy the tiniest piece of matter. He can desolate a world.

III. He is the richest. He owns--

1. All the treasures of creation (verse 10).

2. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col_2:3).

3. All the treasures of grace (verse 19).

IV. He is the highest.

1. He now occupies the throne of mercy.

2. He will leave this for the throne of judgment.

3. He will finally sit on the throne of glory and reign for ever and ever.

V. He is the lovliest. The altogether lovely.

1. As the brightness of His Fathers glory.

2. As the fairest of the children of men.

VI. He is the last as He is the First. He only hath immortality; ours is derived from Him. (H. G. Guinness.)

Christ pre-eminent in all things

Some are eminent for one thing, some for another. Some are distinguished for vast wealth, some are ennobled by intellectual resources, some obtain a name for personal bravery, but none has pre-eminence in all things. But in whatever light we look at Christ He is pre-eminent.

I. In His Divine and mysterious nature. God manifest in the flesh, mighty God, etc.

II. In the unrivalled glory of His perfections. He has every attribute of Deity, and Whatever things the Father doeth, these doeth the Son likewise.

III. In the stupendous character of His works.

1. All creation is His handiwork.

2. In the work of Providence governing and sustaining the universe.

IV. In the illustrious dignity of His offices. Shepherd and Bishop of souls; His throne is for ever and ever; He is the Mediator of a better covenant; in Him, as Prophet, are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

V. In the consistent testimony of scripture. Take any doctrine you choose, it must have some connection with Christ. Promises send us to Christ to fulfil them; precepts send us to Christ, by whose strength alone we can perform them; threatenings send us to Christ, by whose atonement and intercession alone they can be averted. Take Christ from the Bible and you its life; its promises have no reality, its prophecies are empty words, its laws lose their power, and its hopes their animation and realization.

VI. In the stupendous work of human redemption. For this He alone was competent. Salvation begins and ends with Him.

VII. In Christian experience. The Christians faith is faith in Christ; his joy, joy in Christ; his strength, strength in Christ; his life, life in Christ. Think of what is necessary to a perfect Christian and you will find it all in Christ. All worship is to be offered in His name, and all obedience rendered Him.

VIII. In Christian preaching and testimony. To bear witness to Christ and to secure Him homage is the end of our creation.

IX. Christ will yet have pre-eminence in the world. (W. P. Appelbe, LL. D.)

Christ in all things the pre-eminent

Nature and the Bible are alike in this respect--that you find in each two kinds of objects: the one simple, quiet, beautiful; the other grand, majestic, overpowering. In this chapter we get amongst the Highlands of Revelation.

I. The supremacy of Christ.

1. As extending over two spheres, the realms of nature and grace, the universe and the Church.

(1) He is the firstborn of every creature. We cannot suppose Him to be a creature, because He is before all things, dec. In Rabbinical literature Jehovah is styled the firstborn of creation, by which is meant that He is supreme over the universe; for the birthright carried with it supremacy. In like manner the phrase must be taken in reference to Christ. His dominion extends to all things in heaven: sun, moon, stars, dec., and angels who never fell; to things on earth: the globe and its inhabitants, all mineral, vegetable, animal, and human existence.

(2) He is Head of the Church. Lord of the Churchs mind--in their religious thinking believers are to think under Him. Lord of the Churchs heart--in their affections believers are to be guided by Him. Lord of the Churchs life--for His Word is law.

2. This supremacy has been obtained in two different ways.

(1) Christs birthright of authority and power over the universe is by creation.

(2) In His redemptive work He is the firstborn of the dead. He is the firstborn in both, but creation is by life; redemption is through death.

3. There is a distinction between the relations in which the created universe and the redeemed Church stands to Him. He made the one; He is the Head of the other. The universe is a grand collection of things made by His power and for His use. Thus we are led to separate between the universe and Christ. He is no part of it. But in relation to the Church the distinction is dropped, and an idea of most intimate union introduced--it is His body, which is nowhere attributed of nature.

4. This pre-eminence issues in the union of the two realms. Verse 20 should be read in connection with this. The reconciliation goes further than persons and laws and governments. Thus much appears.

(1) That Christ, in His mediatorial reign, through His death, becomes the Lord and Guardian of the entire universe of holy beings, redeemed and unfallen; that He gathers all in one unto God, and is equally King of earth and heaven.

(2) That the sin of man has disturbed the relation between Him and angels; that man getting out of place, throws into disorder the whole sphere of existence to which he belongs, as a wandering star would the solar system, and that Christ, by putting men right, reconciles them to angels and angels to them.

(3) That without an atonement it was an unbefitting thing that heaven should receive depraved mortals; but that with an atonement it is quite befitting that men redeemed and sanctified should enter the ranks of the glorified; and that in the end such will be the number of the saved, and the relation in which they stand to the rest of the universe, that in some sense a reconciliation of all things will be accomplished.

5. Let me ask whether in correspondence with these views of Christs supremacy He has pre eminence in our hearts and lives?

II. The plenitude (verse 19).

1. The fulness of the Father exists in Christ as it nowhere else does. In nature there are streams of the Divine glory, yet the ocean fulness is not there. In the reason of man there are Divine sparks; in the history of the world Divine footprints; in the souls of believers and the united virtues of the Church there is much Divine light and goodness; but the fulness nowhere, not even in the Bible, only in Christ. And wherever else in any measure it is, it is from Him. He is the Creator and Upholder of the world; Light and Lord of human reason; Sovereign of the ages; Giver of gracious power; Inspirer and Subject of the Book of books.

2. This plenitude must be taken in connection with the supremacy of Christ.

(1) In creation He has the pre-eminence, because in Him all fulness dwells of infinite power, wisdom, goodness.

(2) How could He be Head over all things to His Church if He were a man? A created Saviour could not supply all our need; but in the Divine Christ there is all fulness of pardoning mercy, renewing power, supporting love, strength for a day of trouble, a dying hour.

3. The pre-eminence and fulness of Christ constitute the leading object of our blessed faith. Agencies are needed to bring men to Him, but nothing can add to the completeness of those who are in Him. (J. Stoughton, D. D.)

Christ is pre-eminent

I. As to His personality. He stands unique. All the elements in His make up to which the term human can be applied show Him to be pre-eminently human. He came into the world by the gateway of the Hebrew nation, but He is not a Jew. He belonged to 1800 years ago, and yet He is of no age. He spent His days and nights under the Eastern skies, but He is of no clime. He gathers up into Himself all the best elements in Jewish, Greek, and Roman life. He was pre-eminently moral and devotional; He was in sympathy with everything beautiful; He glorified the moral law, was loyal to the national, and had worldwide ambitions, only, unlike those of Rome, they were benevolent.

II. As to His ideas of God and man. The test of pre-eminence of nature is largeness of idea on these themes.

1. The idea Christ gave us of God was pre-eminent. No one ever approached it. There had been many attempts to put the nature of God into a word, but all had failed till He said Father.

2. So with His idea of the nature of man. The noblest man among the Jews was the chief of the Pharisees or Sadducees; among the Greeks the most physically beautiful; among the Romans the strong man able to trample every one who was in His path into the dust. Under the influence of Jesus the noblest man is the gentlest, humanest, chastest, and most charitable. This is a new idea.

3. Other ideas help us to see how pre-eminently Jesus was the worlds greatest thinker, such as the brotherhood of man; the idea that love of God is best expressed in the service of man, the idea that the worst man may be saved.

III. As to His mission in the world. NO other man ever carried on such a mission or was capable of entertaining the idea of it. It was to bring a revolted world back into such an allegiance as is worthy of God to accept and man to give; not forced, but based on love. The accomplishment of such a mission seems to us impossible, but in individuals it has been accomplished, and will yet be in the whole world.

IV. As to unbiassed human opinion of Him. Only one conspicuous man in the world of literature has been blind to His excellency--Voltaire; but Rousseau, another great sceptic, wrote, If the life and death of Socrates be those of a saint, the life and death of Jesus are those of a God. Napoleon I., the old Roman, back again in the Christian centuries, said, I know men, Jesus was not a man. (R. Thomas, D. D.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Col 1:18-19. And he is the head of the body, the church — The apostle having displayed the greatness of the Son, as Creator of all things, visible and invisible, in the heavens and upon the earth, proceeds, in this clause, to display his glory as head of the church, which is called the body, and his body, to intimate, that as the human body is influenced, directed, and governed by the head, so the church universal, including the whole body of believers, is influenced, directed, and governed by Christ its head. Who is — The repetition of the expression (see Col 1:15) points out the entrance on a new paragraph; the beginning — Αρχη, the principle, or cause of all things; absolutely the Eternal. The Greek philosophers expressed the first cause, or efficient principle of things, by this word αρχη, beginning. In this sense Christ called himself (Rev 3:14) αρχη της κτισεως του Θεου, the first cause of the creation of God. But though it be a high honour to the church that he is its head who is the first cause of all things, yet, as the apostle in this verse is speaking of Christ as the head of the church, it is probable that he is here called the first cause, or beginning, in respect of it, which began immediately after the fall, in the view of Christ’s coming into the world to perform that one great act of obedience, by which the evil consequences of Adam’s one act of disobedience were to be remedied. The firstborn, or first-begotten, from the dead — From whose resurrection flows all the life, spiritual and eternal, of all his brethren. Christ is called the firstborn, from, or of, (as εκ may be here rendered,) the dead, both because he was the first who ever rose to an immortal life, and because he is the Lord of all the dead, (as well as the living, Rom 14:9,) and will raise them at the last day. That in all things — Whether of nature or grace; he might have the pre-eminence — Suitable to the infinitely superior dignity of his nature above all created beings. For it pleased the Father — “The words, the Father, are not in the original; but they are very properly supplied by our translators. For, as the expression is elliptical, it must be completed, either as our translators have done, or as others propose, by adding the word him: It hath pleased him; namely, Christ. But, not to mention the confusion which this method of supplying the ellipsis occasions in the apostle’s discourse, it represents the Son as taking the fulness of perfection and government to himself, independently of the will of the Father; contrary to the whole tenor of Scripture, in which the Son is said, in the affair of our salvation, to act in subordination to the will of his Father.” — Macknight. That in him should all fulness dwell — All fulness of truth and grace, of wisdom, power, and love, and all divine perfections; or, as the expression may chiefly mean, all fulness of gifts and graces, to supply the wants of his church. That this fulness should reside in him constantly, and be always ready to supply the wants of those that in faith and prayer apply to him.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

c. His relation to the Church, Col_1:18.

18. He is the head—Better, he himself. Not any angel or mere created being, but the Son, who has this high dignity, is the head of the Church. The incarnate and glorified Christ is now spoken of. The Church, including those who have passed away and those yet on earth, is a new spiritual creation, of which he is the beginning, the founder, as he is creator of the universe, and so rightful Lord and Governor of both. He is also the firstborn from the dead, εκ των νεκρων, out from the dead, leaving others behind. The phrase occurs in but three other places. See note on Luk_20:35. He is the firstfruits (1Co_15:23) of the coming harvest, the first who rose out of all the myriads of the dead with the immortal, glorious body. Here, too, he has precedence.

Preeminence—In order that in all things he might become preeminent. The εν πασιν must be held as co-extensive with the τα παντα. The pre-incarnate Son, the Λογος ασαρκος, was Lord of the entire creation, and the purpose of maintaining this supremacy in the Λογος ενσαρκος, the Son incarnate, requires his priority in the resurrection, which in its turn is essential to his supremacy in the Church. Our Lord’s Headship in the Church is fully brought out in the parallel passage in Eph_1:22, where see notes. Here it enters as an element in the broader view of him as Head of the universe, which distinguishes the present epistle. It was the divine purpose that everywhere and in all things the incarnate Christ should have the highest place, although it will not be fully realized until the final triumph at the end of time.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The words, And he is the Head of the body, the Church (Col_2:10, Col_2:19; Eph_1:22, 23 3:8-10 4:15, 16; Heb_1:3; Joh_15:1-6) identify the mediatorial Lord of creation (vers. 15-17) with the redeeming Head of the Church, and claim the prerogatives belonging to him in the former capacity as the basis of his position and offices in the latter. (comp. Eph_1:22) The Pauline doctrine of the Church as the body of Christ is developed in Colossians and Ephesians, especially in the later Epistle, where it receives its fruitful application. Here the doctrine of the Person of Christ and the doctrine of the Church find their meeting-point as mutually implying each other, and together opposed to the double effect of early Gnosticism, which tended first to lower the dignity of Christ, and then to impair the unity of his Church. (see Col_2:19, note) In 1Co_12:12-27 Rom_12:4, 5 the figure of the body and members is merely a passing illustration of the mutual relation of believers in the Church; now the body of Christ becomes the formal title of the Church, expressing the fundamental and fixed conception of its nature as related to him, who is the centre of its unity, the source of all vital energy and directing control within it (comp. the vine and branches, Joh 15). In vers. 16, 17 the writer passed from the thought of the origin to that of the constitution of the cosmos; now he proceeds in the reverse order. (He is the head) who is (the) Beginning (Rev_3:14 Rev_21:6 Rev_22:13; Act_3:15 Act_5:31; Heb_2:10 Heb_12:2) Arch is without article, used as a proper noun. It is arbitrary to identify it with ajparch ("firstfruits") of 1Co_15:20, 1Co_15:23; Rom_11:16. As explained by the following words, it denotes, as in philosophical Greek, a first principle, originating cause, fens et origo (see Lightfoot"s note and references) To borrow "of the dead" from the following parallel clause weakens the force of both. His body, the Church, begins in him, dating and deriving from him its "all in all" (Col_3:11, Col_3:4; 1Jn_5:12; Rev_21:5; 2Co_5:17) This is quite consistent with the "all things are of God" 2Co_5:18; for the apostle is thinking here of the relative, historical beginning of "the kingdom of the Son" (ver. 13), there of the absolute beginning of the Divine work of redemption. (comp. 1Co_1:30 1Co_3:23; and note on "unto him," ver. 16) St. John, writing to the neighbouring Laodicea, echoes, apparently, this language of our apostle (Rev_3:14) As Firstborn out of the dead (Col_2:12, 13 3:1; Eph_1:19, Eph_1:20; Rom_1:4 Rom_6:1-14; 1Co_15:13-18; 2Co_13:4; Act_13:30-39; 1Pe_1:3, 1Pe_1:21; Rev_1:5, 18 2:8; Joh_11:25) this Beginning actually begins; Christ becomes the source, of a new humanity, a new creation. (2Co_4:14 and Rom_8:21) The apostle derives the whole life and power of Christianity, whether as seen in Christ or proved by his people, from his resurrection (see parallels). The name Firstborn brings over with it into this verse the glory which surrounds it in ver. 15. The Divine Firstborn, who is before and over all things, wins his title a second time for his earthly brethren"s sake. (Heb_2:10-15) As he appears "out of the dead," born anew from the dark womb of the grave, the nether abyss (Rom_10:7; Eph_4:9; Php_2:8) the Father declares to him, "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee" (Act_13:33; Heb_1:5) the Church exclaims," My Lord and my God"; (Joh_20:28) "all authority in heaven and on earth" becomes his (Mat_28:18; Joh_17:2) he is made "Firstborn over many brethren," who call him (Rom_8:29 Rom_14:9; Rev_5:12) and proceeds to "subdue all things unto himself". (Php_2:9, 10 3:21; 1Co_15:25; Heb_10:13; Rev_19:11-16) "Firstborn out of the dead" in the source of his new birthright of lordship in the Church, he is" Firstborn of the dead" (Rev_1:5, R.V: comp. ver. 15) in his abiding relation to dying humanity. And he won this title so as to carry out an antecedent purpose in his mind, (comp. Rom_14:9; "In the mind of the father," say Meyer and others a thought true in itself, but interpolated here) viz. that he might become in all things preeminent. (ver. 13; Col_2:6; Eph_5:5; 1Co_15:25; Luk_19:12-27 Luk_22:29, Luk_22:30; Joh_18:36; Rev_1:5 Rev_3:21 Rev_19:16; Psa_2:7, Psa_2:8) The purpose of creation as "unto Christ" (ver. 17) had been frustrated, so far as related to man, by the entrance of sin and death, and his rightful pre-eminence denied. (Joh_1:10) He must, therefore, recover it, must become preeminent; and this he does by his death and resurrection (Joh_12:31, Heb_2:14, 15 12:2; Php_2:6-11; Isa_53:12) "To this end Jesus died and lived again" (Rom_14:9: comp. 2Co_5:15; Rev_1:18)

Christ"s headship of the Church.

He is the head of the new creation as well as of the natural creation. "And he is the Head of the body, the Church: who is the Beginning, the Firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the pre-eminence.

I CONSIDER WHAT IS INVOLVED IN THIS HEADSHIP OF THE CHURCH. There is a real essential union of the Head and the members.

1. Christ is the Centre of the Church"s life. He is its Life. "Because I live ye shall live also". (Joh_14:19) The union is strictly vital. "The second Adam is a quickening spirit". (1Co_15:45)

2. He is the Centre of its unity. Believers are all one in Christ Jesus. (1Co_12:12) We are baptized by the Spirit into one body. (1Co_12:13)

1. He is the Source of all its blessings and comforts.

1. He loves it. (Eph_5:27)

2. He sympathizes with its distresses. (Mat_18:5)

3. He supplies it with abundant grace. "Of his fulness have we all received, even grace for grace". (Joh_1:16)

4. He is the Maid, spring of all its holy activity. "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me"; (Php_4:13) "Without me ye can do nothing". (Joh_15:5)

II CONSIDER WHAT IS INVOLVED IN THE SUBJECTION OF THE BODY TO THE HEAD.

1. The Church must own no other Head than Christ. There are undercurrents of priestly domination in our day subversive of this headship. The Pope is not and cannot be the head of the Church in any sense. We can be in subjection to no other than Christ.

2. We must do nothing to dishonour our Head either in flesh or spirit. (2Co_6:15-18)

3. We must use all means to grow up into our Head in all things, that "there may be increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love". (Eph_4:16)

4. We must dwell with our fellow members in love and humility. "Keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace". (Eph_4:3) The members must sympathize with one another. (1Co_10:24)

III THE ORIGIN OF THE HEADSHIP OF CHRIST. "Who is the Beginning, the Firstborn from the dead.

1. Christ is the Beginning of the new creation. Two ideas are implied in the expression.

(1) Priority in time. He is "the Firstfruits of them that have fallen asleep". (1Co_15:20)

(2) The origination of spiritual life. As he is "the Beginning of the creation of God", (Rev_3:14) he is the Beginning of the new creation. He is the "Prince of life", (Act_3:14) the "Author of salvation". (Heb_2:10)

2. Christ is Head through his resurrection. He is "the First-begotten from the dead." Consider:

(1) That he was among the dead. Thus he made expiation for our sins.

(2) That he was begotten from among the dead, because he was raised from death to life "for our justification". (Rom_4:23, Rom_4:24)

(3) That he was the first so begotten.

(a) Others were translated or died again.

(b) He rose to die no more. (Rom_6:9)

(c) His resurrection involves the resurrection of all his saints.

(4) His resurrection is his title to headship. (Eph_1:20-23)

(5) Let us realize "the power of his resurrection" (Php_3:10) in a holy life.

IV THE DESIGN OF THE FATHER WAS THAT ALIKE IN THE SPIRITUAL AND THE NATURAL ORDER CHRIST MIGHT HAVE THE PRE-EMINENCE. "That in all things he might have the preeminence." Both in nature and in the Church he is pre-eminent; and the Father"s design will be yet more fully accomplished when all things are put under his feet and "the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdom of our Lord and his Christ". (Rev_11:15) Thus our Divine Redeemer is "Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the Ending, the First and the Last". T.C. (Rev_1:8, Rev_1:11, Rev_1:17, Rev_1:18)

Vers. 18-20.

The supremacy of Christ in the moral universe.

So supreme is the glory of Christ, that he occupies a similar position in the moral as he does in the material universe. We may linger on the exhaustless theme of the glory of Christ us we see further illustrations of it

I IN HIS RELATION TO THE CHURCH.

1. He is the Head of the body, the Church. For he is its Founder; the Church is his creation. (Mat_16:18 Mat_18:17-20) Having "all power in heaven and earth," his glory and grace are so great that he can sustain the whole Church in life, and rule and guide each member of it. Our life is bound up with his life; our interests are made his own by the sympathy of our living Head. (Illustrate from Act_7:56 Act_9:4 Act_18:9, 10 23:11 27:23, 24; 2Ti_4:17, 2Ti_4:18)

2. Who is the Beginning the first in time and the first in power in relation to the Church. Because he is "the First and the Last," "the Beginning of the creation of God," he is also the Fountain, "the Prince or, "Author" of life" (Act_3:14) to his Church. Every act of pardon granted, every shower of reviving grace bestowed, every interposition of Providence, is from him. (Illustrate from Jesus Christ"s use of "I" and "me" in John 14-16.)

3. "The Firstborn from the dead. He is the supreme Lord from among all who have entered the grave, by virtue of his being the first to rise to the new life from the dead. Note the contrast between the resurrection of Christ and of others. Dying voluntarily, though sinless, (Joh_10:17, Joh_10:18) he rose by his own power, (Joh_2:20) not to die again, (Rom_6:9) in an immortal body. (Rom_1:18) Thus he is the Cause, the Pledge, and the Pattern of our resurrection, and has supremacy over his Church in both worlds. (Rom_14:9) Already we have seen that he is Firstborn, and Lord of the material creation; and he has the same position in the spiritual creation, "that in all things he might have the preeminence." He is the Image and Manifestation of God, the First Cause and the Final Cause, the Creator and Preserver of the universe, the Head and Lord of the Church, the Author and Pattern of our glorious resurrection. Yes; and in all things he shall have the pre-eminence (Psa_72:17; 1Co_15:25) The day will come when commerce, science, art, literature, shall all be consecrated to him; when the minority shall become a majority, and an innumerable multitude shall "honour the Son even as they honour the Father" (Joh_5:23; Rev_7:9-17)

II IN HIS WORK AS THE UNIVERSAL RECONCILER. Whichever of the alternative renderings of ver. 19 in the Revised Version we adopt, the precious practical truth is the same. The pre-eminence of Christ is assured by "the fulness" that abides in him. All the Divine perfections are his. (Col_2:9) We may take the term in its widest signification a fulness of life and power and glory, of goodness and grace, without limit and without end. Thus the Man Christ Jesus, full of a Divine life, (Joh_3:34 Joh_5:26) was qualified to be the Agent by which the great reconciliation in the universe should be accomplished (ver. 20). "The well is deep;" the place is "holy ground." The reconciliation of "things upon the earth" is a mystery; how much more of "things in the heavens"! Notice:

1. Sin introduced discord into the universe, which spread to this earth. It not only separates men from God, but brings thereby calamities to "the whole creation." Sin left to itself works universal ruin; "when it is full grown it bringeth forth death." God must stand in a different relation to sinners and to the unfallen. If the guilty are to be saved, a new relation must be established between them and God. This is" the reconciliation". (Rom_5:11) The change in man"s heart is a result, but the sequel of the change of relations established by "the reconciliation". (2Co_5:18, 2Co_5:19)

1. To effect this reconciliation a propitiatory sacrifice was needed. To show righteous grace to the guilty both the holiness and the love of God called for a Divine sacrifice. No theory can fully clear up this mystery of

2. Divine mercy; but faith accepts it and Christian experience attests it. (Luk_7:35) No sacrifice less than "the death," "the blood of the cross," could effect this reconciliation (Rom_5:6-10; 2Co_5:21) O paradox of mercy! The shedding of human blood stirs up strife; Christ"s blood brings down peace. Innocent blood cries for vengeance; the blood of the cross pleads for pardon. (Heb_12:24)

3. But what is meant by the reconciliation of the things in the heavens? It is not universal restoration of the devils and the damned; for Paul is speaking of what God has already done by the blood of the cross, and in ver. 23 he speaks of the final salvation of believers as conditional. The passage which best illustrates ours is Eph_1:10. We can only throw out hints as to the meaning. We know that angels are intensely interested in the work of redemption (Eph_3:10; 1Pe_1:12) The entrance of sin and its spread among the human race may have produced, though not distrust, yet something like dismay. But the death of Christ revealed the majesty and mercy of God as they had never been combined before. The very fact that the lost sons of men could be "made nigh" by the death of Christ brought these celestial sons of God still nearer. The bends which unite these unfallen yet finite creatures to God become firmer than ever, and thus the harmony of the universe becomes more complete. Such are some of the jewels in the crown of our Divine Mediator and Redeemer.

Learn:

1. The glory of the cross. Though "all the fulness" dwelt in Christ, even he could not effect a reconciliation except by death. (Gal_6:14)

2. The efficacy of the cross. Though erected on this tiny globe, its power extends throughout the universe.

3. The motives from the cross. E.S.P. (2Co_5:14, 2Co_5:15, 2Co_5:20)

The Firstborn from the dead.

I RESURRECTION IS BIRTH. Christ rising the first from the dead is called the first born. Death looks ugly to us because we only see the earthly side. The experience of Christ should help us to look on to the other side and the issue of death in birth in the heavenly sphere. Thus the sunset of the east is the sunrise of the west. The Christian future is not merely rest; it is life. It is not a repetition of the old weary life of earth; it begins afresh in birth.

II CHRIST INSTITUTES A NEW ORDER OF LIFE. He is the new Adam. Mankind began its old life in the garden of Eden; it begins its new life in Joseph of Arimathsea"s garden. The sins, sorrows, and failures of the past are crucified with Christ, dead and buried. To the old weary earth Christ brings a new spring-time, and with it the birth of new hopes and energies. But the perfect development of this new order of things is only possible after death. Christ has begun it, and as one by one his people follow him they too enter into its growing glories.

III CHRIST IS SUPREME IN THE NEW LIFE. On earth he was lowly, despised, rejected, and slain. Proud enemies seemed to triumph over him. A Tiberius sat on the throne of the world and the Son of God was nailed to the cross. But in the new order he who was the Firstborn of all creation (ver. 15) resumes his rightful rank and becomes the Firstborn from the dead. Therefore "he is the Head of the body, the Church." From this fact we may derive some important inferences; e.g.:

1. Christ being supreme in the heavenly world, his Spirit of purity and love will pervade and rule all its life.

2. They who follow Christ most closely in obedience to his will and in imitation of his character will enjoy the highest places in heaven.

3. Christ is worthy of the highest adoration now and through all eternity.

IV THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST IS THE EARNEST OF THE FUTURE LIFE OF HIS PEOPLE. He is the Firstborn, not the Only begotten from the dead; and he is "the Firstborn among many brethren". (Rom_8:29)

1. The historical fact of the resurrection of Christ demonstrates by one instance the fact that death does not necessarily end all and indicates the possibility of a similar birth for us into a future life.

2. The character, teaching, mission, and work of Christ all teach us that he is not content to enjoy the resurrection life by himself, but will bring many sons to glory.

3. The risen life of Christ is the type and pattern of the future life of his people. W. F. A,

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

Col_1:18. And He is the head of the body, the Church.—As He held priority of all creation, so also His is the name above every name in the new creation. The firstborn from the dead.—The cardinal point of the apostle’s faith.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF Col_1:18

The Relation of Christ to the Moral Creation.

After showing that Christ holds the position of absolute priority and sovereignty over the whole universe, the apostle now proceeds to point out His relation to the principal part of that whole—the Church, as the symbol and embodiment of the new, moral creation. From this verse we learn that Christ is the supreme Head, and primal life-giving Source of the Church, and as such is invested with universal pre-eminence.

I. Christ is the supreme Head of the Church—the new moral creation.—

1. The Church is the body of Christ. “The body, the Church.” Much controversy has prevailed as to what constitutes the Church; and the more worldly the Church became, the more confused the definition, the more bitter the controversy. The New Testament idea of the Church is easily comprehended. It is the whole body of the faithful in Christ Jesus, who are redeemed and regenerated by His grace—the aggregate multitude of those in heaven and on earth who love, adore, and serve the Son of God as their Redeemer and Lord. The word ἐκκλησία contains two leading ideas: the ordained unity, and the calling or separating out from the world. Three grand features ever distinguish the true Church—unbroken unity, essential purity, and genuine catholicity. (Cf. Eph_1:22-23; Eph_4:15-16; 1Co_12:12-27).

2. Christ is the Head of the Church.—“And He is the Head of the body, the Church.” That the world might not be considered this body, the word “Church” is added; and the materialistic conception of a Church organism thus refuted. As the Head of the Church—

(1) Christ inspires it with spiritual life and activity.

(2) He impresses and moulds its character.

(3) He prescribes and enforces its laws.

(4) He governs and controls its destinies.

(5) He is the centre of its unity.

II. Christ is the originating, fontal Source of the organic life of the Church.—In respect to the state of grace, He is the beginning; in respect to the state of glory, He is the firstborn from the dead. He gives to the Church its entity, form, history, and glory; except in and through Him, the Church could have no existence.

1. He is the Author of the moral creation.—“The beginning.” Christ has been before described as the Author of the old material creation. Here He is announced as the beginning of the new spiritual creation. The moral creation supplies the basis and constituent elements of the Church. In the production, progress, and final triumph of the new creation, He will redress all the wreck and ruin occasioned by the wrong-doing of the old creation. Of this new moral creation Christ is the source, the principle, the beginning; the fountain of life, purity, goodness, and joy to the souls of men.

2. He is the Author of the moral creation as the Conqueror of Death.—“The firstborn from the dead.” Sin introduced death into the old creation, and the insatiable monster still revels and riots amid the corruptions he perpetually generates. The Son of God, in fulfilment of the divine plan of redemption, became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. He descended into Hades, and placed Himself among the dead. On the third day He rose again, “the firstfruits of them that slept.” He was “the firstborn from the dead”; the first who had risen by His own power; the first who had risen to die no more. By dying He conquered death for Himself and all His followers. He can therefore give life to all that constitute that Church of which He is fittingly the Head, assure them of a resurrection from the dead, of which His own was a pattern and pledge, and of transcendent and unfading glory with Himself in the endless future.

III. The relation of Christ to the Church invests Him with absolute pre-eminence.—“That in all things He might have the pre-eminence.”

1. He is pre-eminent in His relation to the Father.—He is “the image of the invisible God”; the Son of His love, joined by a bond to us mysterious and ineffable, and related in a sense in which no other can be. He is the first and the last; the only divine Son.

2. He is pre-eminent in the universe of created beings.—He existed before any being was created, and was Himself the omnipotent Author of all created things. The whole hierarchy of heaven obey and adore Him. He is alone in His complex nature as our Emmanuel. Mystery of mysteries; in Him Deity and humanity unite!

3. He is pre-eminent in His rule over the realm of the dead.—He entered the gloomy territory of the grave, wrestled with and vanquished the King of Terrors, rose triumphantly from the dismal battle-field, and is now Lord both of the dead and of the living. “I am He that liveth and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore; and have the keys of Hades and of death” (Rev_1:18).

4. He is pre-eminent in His relation to the Church.—The Church from beginning to end is purely His own creation. He sketched its first rough outline, projected its design, constructed its organism, informed it with life, dowered it with spiritual riches; and He will continue to watch over and direct its future until He shall “present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing”!

5. He is pre-eminent in the estimation and homage of a ransomed world.—He is the central figure of all history; around Him all events group themselves, and by Him are stamped with their true character, significance, and worth. The dream of the ages, the teaching of figures and symbols, the shadows and forecastings of coming events, are all dismissed in the effulgent presence of Him to whom they all point, like so many quivering index-fingers. Christ has to-day the strongest hold upon the heart of humanity. His perplexed enemies admire while they reject Him; the ever-increasing multitude of His friends reverence and adore Him; and the era is rapidly advancing when to Him a universe of worshippers shall bow the knee and acknowledge that “in all things He has the pre-eminence.”

Lessons.—

1. The pre-eminence of Christ entitles Him to universal obedience.

2. The highest blessedness is found in union with the Church of Christ.

GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE

Col_1:18. The Church the Body of Christ.

I. As the body of Christ the Church is one with Him.—

1. One in covenant dealing with God.

2. One in respect of the principle of life.

3. One in history.

4. How Christ may be served or persecuted.

II. As the body of Christ the Church is one in itself.—

1. Identity of principle.

2. Substantial agreement in faith.

3. A visible association through sympathy.

III. As the body of Christ the Church has many co-operating and mutually dependent members.—

1. The members are as numerous as are believers or as are offices.

2. Their mutual dependence and co-operation illustrated in the work of spreading the gospel.

3. Let each one know his own place and duties.

IV. As the body of Christ the Church must grow up to completeness and maturity.—

1. Each believer is first a babe in Christ, and advances to the measure of the stature of a man in Christ.

2. As a whole the Church is gradually augmented and increased—from Abel onwards.

3. To gather in and perfect the elect is the peculiar work of time.

V. As the body of Christ the Church must be restored to perfect soundness and health.—

1. Christ receives the Church—dead.

2. The first step towards perfect soundness is a resurrection.

3. Hence each believer is quickened with Christ in order to be healed.

4. The bodies of the saints shall likewise be perfect.—The Physician.

5. In heaven no one shall say, “I am sick.”

VI. As the body of Christ the Church is the object of His unremitting care.—

1. To provide for the wants of his body is man’s unceasing care.

2. Christ has made ample provision.

3. He now ministers to His Church’s wants—clothing, food, defence, habitation.

VII. As the body of Christ the Church is the instrument through which He accomplishes His purposes.—

1. The body the instrument of the heart or soul.

2. The Church the instrument of Christ.

3. The Church but the instrument.—Stewart.

Christ the Firstborn from the Dead—

I. In the dignity of His person.

II. Because He rose by His own power.

III. Because He is the only one who rose never to die again.

IV. Because He has taken precedence of His people who all shall rise from their graves to glory.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

1:18 head of the church: The Greek word kephalē (head) usually has the sense of authority over or chief when Paul uses it as a metaphor (see also 2:10, 19; 1 Cor 11:3-10; Eph 4:15; 5:23). • which is his body: The metaphor of the church as Christ’s body expresses the essential unity of Christ and the church (see also Col 1:24; 2:19; 3:15; Eph 1:23; 2:16; 4:4, 12; 5:23, 30). • supreme over all who rise from the dead (or the firstborn from the dead): See study note on Col 1:15.

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Col 1:18. Καὶ, and) He now comes down from the whole to the principal part, the Church, comp. Eph 1:22, note.—ὅς ἔστι, who is) The Anaphora [repetition of the same words in beginnings], comp. Col 1:15, shows that there is here the beginning of a new paragraph, and its own ὅτι, because, is added to each member.—ἀρχὴ, beginning) This word corresponds to the Hebrew word ראש, especially concerning Christ, Hos 2:2, and ראשית, concerning a first-begotten in particular, Deu 21:17, but chiefly of Christ, Pro 8:22. ἀπαρχὴ, first fruits, is the term used, 1Co 15:23, the word being rather restricted to the resurrection of the dead: ἀρχὴ, beginning, more expressly denotes distinguished excellence; comp. Col 2:10; Psa 89:27. ἀρχὴ in the singular is antithetic to ἀρχαὶ, principalities, in the plural, Col 1:16.—πρωτότοκος ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν, the first-begotten from the dead) Christ, even before His resurrection from the dead, nay, before the creation of the world, was the first-begotten, Col 1:15; but He is said to be first-begotten from the dead, because, for this reason, inasmuch as He was the Son of God, He could not but rise again, and because, in consequence of His resurrection, He is acknowledged [recognised] to be the Son of God; comp. Act 13:33, note; and especially since there flows from His resurrection the life of many brethren.—πᾶσιν, in all things) In the neuter gender, Col 1:17.—αὐτὸς, He) by Himself, without deputies or substitute.—πρωτεύων, holding the first place) for example, in His resurrection, ascension, etc., Joh 3:13. Victorinus translates it, primarius, “the pre-eminent One.”

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Col_1:18. Second part (see on Col_1:15) of the exhibition of the exaltedness of Christ. To that which Christ is as πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως (Col_1:16-17) is now added what He is as πρωτότοκος ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν, namely, the Head of the Church, and thus His πρωτεύειν has its consummation (ἐν πᾶσιν). The latter, namely, ἵνα γένηται … πρωτεύων, embraces also a retrospect to that πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως, and includes it in ἐν πᾶσιν, without its being necessary, however, to attach Col_1:18 to the carrying out of the relation to the world expressed in πρωτότοκ. π. κτίσ. (Hofmann, comp. Rich. Schmidt). The perspective proceeds from the dignity of the original state of our Lord to that of His state as Saviour, from His cosmical to His soteriological glory, and so at length exhibits Him to view as the ἐν πᾶσι πρωτεύων.

That Col_1:18, with its confirmation in Col_1:19 f., has an apologetic reference to the Gnostic false teaching, must be assumed from its connection with what goes before. The passage is to be looked upon as antagonistic to the worship of angels (Col_2:18), which disparaged Christ in His dignity as Head of the Church, but not (in opposition to Bähr and Huther) as antagonistic to a theological dogma, such as is found in the Cabbala, according to which the body of the Messiah (the Adam Kadmon) is the aggregate of the emanations. For the emphasis of the passage and its essential point of doctrine lie in the fact that Christ is the Head of the church, and not in the fact that He is the head of the church; it is not the doctrine of another σῶμα, but that of any other πρωτεύων, which is excluded.

καὶ αὐτός] stands again, as κ. αὐτός in Col_1:17, in significant reference to τὰ πάντα: et ipse, in quo omnia consistunt, est caput, etc., so that the passage continues to divide itself as into the links of a chain.

τοῦ σώματος τῆς ἐκκλησ.] to be taken together; the second genitive is that of apposition (Winer, p. 494 [E. T. 666]), which gives to the word governing it concrete definiteness; comp. Müller in the Luther. Zeitschr. 1871, p. 611 ff. On the familiar Pauline mode of considering the church of believers, livingly and actively ruled by Christ as the head (Eph_3:10; Php_3:6; Act_9:31), as His body, [40] comp. 1Co_10:17; 1Co_12:12 ff., 1Co_10:27; Eph_1:23; Eph_4:12; Eph_5:23; Eph_5:30; Rom_12:5.

ὅς ἐστιν κ.τ.λ.] epexegetical relative clause (as in Col_1:15), the contents of which are related by way of confirmation to the preceding statement (Matthiae, p. 1061 f.; Kühner, ad Xen. Mem. i. 2. 64; Stallbaum, ad Phil. p. 195 f.), like our: he, who, etc., which might be expressed, but not necessarily, by ὅστις (or ὍΣΓΕ). Comp. on Eph_1:14. If Christ had not risen, He would not be Head of the church (Act_2:24-36; 1 Corinthians 15; Rom_1:4, et al.).

ἀρχή] beginning; which, however, is not to be explained either as initium secundae et novae creationis (Calvin), progenitor of the regenerate (Bisping), or author of the church (Baumgarten-Crusius), or even ruler of the world (Storr, Flatt); but agreeably to the context in such a way, as to make it have with the appositional πρωτότοκος its definition in ἘΚ ΤῶΝ ΝΕΚΡῶΝ, just as if the words ran: ἈΡΧῊ ΤῶΝ ΝΕΚΡῶΝ, ΠΡΩΤΌΤΟΚΟς ἘΞ ΑὐΤῶΝ, although Paul did not express himself thus, because at once upon his using the predicate ἀρχή in and by itself the exegetical ΠΡΩΤΌΤΟΚΟς suggested itself to him. Accordingly Christ is called ἈΡΧῊ (ΤῶΝ ΝΕΚΡῶΝ), inasmuch as He is among all the dead the first arisen to everlasting life. It is arbitrary to discover in ἀρχή an allusion to the offering of first-fruits sanctifying the whole mass (Chrysostom, Beza, Ewald, and others); especially as the term ἀπαρχή, which is elsewhere used for the first portion of a sacrifice (Rom_11:16), is not here employed, although it has crept in from 1Co_15:20; 1Co_15:23, in a few minusculi and Fathers, as in Clement also, Cor. I. 24, Christ is termed ἀπαρχὴ τῆς ἀναστάσεως. To assume a reminiscence of 1 Corinthians 15 (Holtzmann) is wholly unwarranted, especially as ἈΠΑΡΧΉ is not used. On ἈΡΧΉ, used of persons, denoting the one who begins the series, as the first in order of time, comp. Gen_49:3, where ἀρχὴ τέκνων μου is equivalent to ΠΡΩΤΌΤΟΚΟς ΜΟΥ, as also Deu_21:17. In what respect any one is ἀρχή of those concerned, must be yielded by the context, just as in this case it is yielded by the more precisely defining ΠΡΩΤΌΤΟΚΟς ἘΚ Τ. ΝΕΚΡῶΝ; hence it has been in substance correctly explained, following the Fathers: ἀρχή, φησίν, ἐστι τῆς ἀναστάσεως, ποὸ πάντων ἀναστάς,[41] Theophylact. Only τῆς ἀναστάσεως is not to be mentally supplied, nor is it to be conjectured (de Wette) that Paul had intended to write ἀρχὴ τ. ἀναστάσεως, but, on account of the word πρωτότοκος presenting itself to him from Col_1:15, did not complete what he had begun. It follows, moreover, from the use of the word πρωτότοκος, that ἀρχή is to be taken in the temporal sense, consequently as equivalent to primus, not in the sense of dignity (Wetstein), and not as principle (Bähr, Steiger, Huther, Dalmer, following earlier expositors).

πρωτότοκος ἐκ τ. νεκρ.] ἐκ τ. νεκρ. is conceived in the same way as in ἀναστῆναι ἐκ τ. νεκρ. (Eph_5:14), so that it is the dead in Hades among whom the Risen One was, but from whom He goes forth (separates Himself from them, hence also ἀπὸ τ. νεκρ., Mat_14:2; Mat_27:64; Mat_28:7), and returning into the body, with the latter rises from the tomb. Comp. πρῶτος ἐξ ἀναστάσεως νεκρῶν, Act_26:23, also 1Co_15:22 f. This living exit from the grave is figuratively represented as birth; comp. Rev_1:5, where the partitive genitive τῶν νεκρ. (not ἐκ. τ. ν.) yields a form of conceiving the matter not materially different. Calvin takes πρωτότοκος ἐκ. τ. ν. as specifying the ground for ἀρχή: principium (absolutely), quia primogenitus est ex mortuis; nam in resurrectione est rerum omnium instauratio. Against this it may be urged, that ἀρχή has no more precise definition; Paul must have written either ἀρχὴ τῆς καινῆς κτίσεως, or at least ἧς instead of ὅς. Calvin was likewise erroneously of opinion (comp. Erasmus, Calovius) that Christ is called Primogenitus ex mortuis, not merely because He was the first to rise, but also quia restituit aliis vitam. This idea is not conveyed either by the word or by the context, however true may be the thing itself; but a belief in the subsequent general resurrection of the dead is the presupposition of the expression πρωτότοκος (αἰνίττεται δὲ ὁ λόγος καὶ τὴν πάντων ἡμῶν ἀνάστασιν, Theodoret). This expression is purposely chosen in significant reference to Col_1:15, as is intimated by Paul himself in the following ἵνα γένηται ἐν πᾶσιν κ.τ.λ. But it is thus all the more certain, that πρωτότοκος ἐκ τ. νεκρ. is to be taken independently, and not adjectivally together with ἀρχή (Heinrichs, Schleiermacher, Ewald), which would only amount to a tautological verboseness (first-born beginning); and, on the other hand, that ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν may not be separated from πρωτότοκος in such a way as to emphasize the place, issuing forth from which Christ is what He is, namely, ἀρχή, πρωτότοκος; the former, as the personal beginning of what commences with Him; the latter, in the same relation to those who belong to the world therewith coming into life as He held to the creation (Hofmann). In this way the specific more precise definition, which is by means of ἐκ τ. νεκρῶν in significant reference to Col_1:15 attached to the predicates of Christ, ἀρχή and πρωτότοκος, would be groundlessly withdrawn from them, and these predicates would be left in an indefiniteness, in which they would simply be open vessels for receiving a gratuitously imported supplement.

ἵνα γένηται κ.τ.λ.] not to be restricted to the affirmation ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν (Hofmann),[42] but to be referred to the whole sentence that Christ is ἀρχή, πρωτότοκος ἐκ τ. νεκρ., expressing the divine teleology of this position of Christ as the Risen One: in order that He may become, etc.; not: in order that He may be held as (Baumgarten-Crusius), nor yet that He may be (Vulgate, and so most expositors), as γίγνεσθαι and εἶναι are never synonymous. The ἐν πᾶσιν αὐτὸς πρωτεύει is looked upon by Paul as something which is still in course of development (comp. Steiger and Huther), and is only to be completed in the future, namely, when the Risen One shall have conquered all the power of the enemy (1Co_15:25 f.) and have erected the kingdom of the Messiahbut of this result His resurrection itself was the necessary historical basis, and hence the future universal πρωτεύειν is the divinely intended aim of His being risen.

ἐν πᾶσιν] in all points, without excepting any relation, not, therefore, merely in the relation of creation (Col_1:15-17). Comp. Php_4:12; 1Ti_3:11; 1Ti_4:15; 2Ti_2:7; 2Ti_4:5; Tit_2:9; Heb_13:4; Heb_13:18. Ἐν παντί is more commonly used by Paul (1Co_1:5; 2Co_4:8, et al.). According to Beza, πᾶσιν is masculine: inter omnes, videlicet fratres, ut Rom_8:29. So also Kypke and Heinrichs. But this would be here, after the universal bearing of the whole connection, much too narrow an idea, which, besides, is self-evident as to the Head of the church. According to Pelagius, it denotes: tam in visibilibus quam in invisibilibus creaturis. At variance with the text; this idea was conveyed by Col_1:16-17, but in Col_1:18 another relation is introduced which does not refer to created things as such.

αὐτός] emphatic, as in Col_1:17-18.

πρωτεύων] having the first rank, not used elsewhere in the N. T., but see Est_5:11; 2Ma_6:18; 2Ma_13:15; Aquila, Zec_4:7; Plat. Legg. iii. p. 692 D, Dem. 1416. 25: πρωτεύειν ἐν ἅπασι κράτιστον. Xen. Cyr. viii. 2. 28; Mem. ii. 6. 26. This precedence in rank is to be the final result of the condition which set in with the πρωτότοκον εἶναι ἐκ τ. νεκρ.; but it is not contained in this πρωτότοκον εἶναι itself,an idea against which the very ἵνα γένηται is logically decisive (in opposition to de Wettes double signification of πρωτότοκ.).

[40] In which is expressed the idea of the invisible church. Comp. Julius Müller, Dogmat. Abh. p. 316 ff. And this conception and representation belong quite to the apostles general sphere of ideas, not specially to that of the Epistle to the Ephesians, into which the interpolator is supposed by Holtzmann again to enter here, after he has manifested a comparative independence in vv. 1518.

[41] The Fathers have already correctly judged that even in regard to the isolated cases of rising from the dead, which have taken place through Christ and before Him, Christ remains the first-risen. Theophylact: εἰ γὰρ καὶ ἄλλοι πρὸ τούτου ἀνέστησαν, ἀλλὰ πάλιν ἀπέθανον· αὐτὸς δὲ τὴν τελείαν ἀνάστασιν ἀνέστη. Comp. on 1Co_15:20.

[42] So that it would express the design, which Christ Himself had in His coming forth from the dead.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Col 1:18 . The false teachers not only wrongly represented the relation of the angel powers to the universe, but they assigned them a false position in the work of redemption and a false relation to the Church. Hence Paul passes from the pre-eminence of the Son in the universe to speak of Him as Head of the Body. He is thus supreme alike in the universe and the Church. ἡ κεφαλὴ τ . σώματος ( cf. Col 2:19 , Eph 1:22-23 ; Eph 4:15-16 ; Eph 5:23 ). For Christ as Head simply, cf. 1Co 11:3 . For the Church as the body of Christ, Col 1:24 , Eph 4:2 , 1Co 12:27 , Rom 12:5 . For Christians as the members of Christ’s body, Eph 5:30 , 1Co 12:27 . For Christians as “severally members one of another,” Rom 12:5 . By this metaphor of “the head of the body” is meant that Christ is the Lord and Ruler of His Church, its directing brain, probably also that its life depends on continued union with Him. The Church is a body in the sense that it is a living organism, composed of members vitally united to each other, each member with his own place and function, each essential to the body’s perfect health, each dependent on the rest of the body for its life and well-being, while the whole organism and all the individual members derive all their life from the Head and act under His guidance. And as the body needs the Head, to be the source of its life and the controller of its activities, and to unify the members into an organic whole, so the Head needs the body to be His instrument in carrying out His designs. It is only in Colossians and Ephesians that Christ appears as Head of the Church, but the emphasis in Colossians is on the Headship, in Ephesians on the Church. τῆς ἐκκλησίας : often taken as in apposition to σώματος . For this we should have expected τ . σώμ . αὐτοῦ τ . ἐκκλ . ( cf. Col 1:24 ). It may also be taken as epexegetical of σώματος (so Weiss and Haupt, who quotes 1Co 5:8 , 2Co 5:5 , Rom 4:11 ; Rom 8:21 ; Rom 15:16 as parallels, all of which, however, are not clear). ἐκκλ . is here the universal Church. ὅς ἐστιν : inasmuch as He is. Paul is giving a reason for the position of the Son as ἡ κεφ . τ . σώματος . ἀρχή is not to be taken in the sense of ἀπαρχή , nor is it certain that it has, as Lightfoot and others think, the sense of originating power. It is defined by πρωτότ . ἐκ τ . νεκρῶν , and this seems to throw the stress rather on the idea of supremacy than that of priority. There is perhaps a tacit reference to ἀρχαὶ (Col 1:16 ). πρωτότοκος ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν : “firstborn from among the dead”. In Rev 1:5 we have ὁ πρωτότοκος τῶν νεκρῶν , which expresses a different idea. If the temporal reference in πρ . is the more prominent, the meaning will be that He is the first to pass out of the dominion of death. But if sovereignty is the leading idea, the meaning is that from among the dead He has passed to His throne, where He reigns as the living Lord, who has overcome death, and who, before He surrenders the kingdom to the Father, will abolish it. ἵνα … πρωτεύων : the purpose for which He is ἀρχή , πρωτότ . ἐκ τ . νεκρῶν . He is supreme in the universe. He has to become supreme in relation to the Church. αὐτὸς is emphatic; ἐν πᾶσιν neuter not masculine, on account of the context.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18. [ἡ] ἀρχή. The article is inserted by B alone of the uncials, and by the cursives 47, 67**, bscr. Its addition is easily accounted for on subjective grounds, after ἡ κεφαλή. But see commentary.

A few cursives read ἀπαρχή with Chrys.398 and Oecum.

18. καὶ αὐτός. In Col 1:14-20 αὐτός occurs twelve times, besides ὅς three times, in every case (vide infra) referring to Christ. St Paul will leave no loophole for another to creep in and steal His glory. In the present verse the thought is—He who is the image of God and the means and aim of all creation, He, and no other, is the source of life to believers. See the Letter to Diognetus, § 7, in Lightfoot.

ἡ κεφαλὴ. Col 1:15-17 seem to enlarge on τοῦ υἱοῦ τῆς ἀγάπης αὐτοῦ, Col 1:18 on the preceding words τὴν βασιλεἱαν (Col 1:13).

κεφαλή is used of Christ only in 1Co 11:3-4, where He is called the Head of an individual man, and here, Col 2:10; Col 2:19; Eph 1:22; Eph 4:15; Eph 5:23, where He is regarded as the Head of all spiritual powers as well as of the Church.

τοῦ σώματος. Had this been omitted κεφαλή might have appeared to be a mere figure of speech. Its insertion makes it clear that He stands to the Church in the relation of Head to body. He is “the centre of its unity and the seat of its life” (Lightfoot).

Observe that although St Paul compared the company of believers (or perhaps the local community of believers, see Hort, The Christian Ecclesia, p. 145) to a body in 1Co 12:12-27; Rom 12:4-5, following therein Greek and Roman precedents (for Latin examples see Wetstein on Rom 12:5), yet he now speaks rather of Christ as its Head; i.e. in that Second Group St Paul was laying stress on the relation of Christians to each other, here rather on the dignity of Christ and their relation to Him (cf. Beet).

Observe that “the relation thus set forth under a figure is mutual. The work which Christ came to do on earth was not completed when He passed from the sight of men: He the Head needed a body of members for its full working out through the ages: part by part He was, as St Paul says, to be fulfilled in the community of His disciples, whose office in the world was the outflow of His own. And on the other hand His disciples had no intelligible unity apart from their ascended Head, who was also to them the present central fountain of life and power” (Hort, The Christian Ecclesia, p. 148). See further on Col 1:24.

It is, by the way, somewhat strange that St Paul should here introduce the simile of the body as though it were well known to the Colossians. Perhaps Epaphras had heard St Paul use it at Ephesus about the time 1 Cor. was written.

τῆς ἑκκλησίας. In apposition to τοῦ σώματος and explanatory of it. Cf. Col 1:24; Eph 1:22-23. For ἑκκλησία in the Epp. and Apoc. see Hort, The Christian Ecclesia, pp. 116–118, Swete on Rev 22:16.

ὅς ἐστιν, an epexegetic relative clause. “Like the more usual ὅστις, the simple relatival force passes into the explanatory, which almost necessarily involves some tinge of causal or argumentative meaning” (Ellicott). Only by His resurrection, and all that this meant, did He enter into this relation to the Church.

[ἡ]ἀρχή. See the notes on Textual Criticism. Lightfoot shows by examples that the article is generally omitted when ἀρχή is predicate; e.g. Tatian, ad Graec. 4, θεὸς … μόνος ἄναρχος ὤν καί αὐτὸς ὑπάρχων τῶν ὅλων ἀρχή.

For ἀρχή used of Christ see Rev 3:14; Rev 21:6; Rev 22:13†, but hardly Heb 6:1.

It has been suggested that ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν is to be taken not only with πρωτότοκος but also with ἀρχή, thus limiting the reference of ἀρχή to the Resurrection.

But the thought is wider. The Son is regarded as the ἀρχή of all the beings that are reconciled (Col 1:20) and presented blameless (Col 1:22) in glory, i.e. of what is elsewhere called the new creation (2Co 5:17, εἴ τις ἐν Χριστῷ, καινὴ κτίσις, cf. Gal 6:15). Hence ἀπαρχή is avoided here, for He is more than “first-fruits” as regards the new creation. Contrast 1Co 15:20. Hence, rather, ἀρχή is parallel to εἰκών (Col 1:15), and πρωτότοκος ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν to πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως, and, as will be seen, ἵνα γένηται ἐν πᾶσιν αὐτὸς πρωτεύων, with its expansion in Col 1:19-20, to Col 1:16-17.

We must thus attribute to ἀρχή its fullest meaning, including, as in Pro 8:22-23, and perhaps in Gen 49:3, Deu 21:17, that of time (which however is but subordinate here), and that of dignity and worth, Hos 1:11 (= Col 2:2), besides its connotation of supreme source and originating power, cf. ἄρχηγος, Act 3:15.

Observe that this full meaning would come more naturally to St Paul than to a Gentile, accustomed as he would be to the Hebrew equivalent of ἀρχή, viz. רֶאשִׁית. Compare e.g. Rashi’s manifold interpretation of the first word in Genesis, b’reshith.

πρωτότοκος, Col 1:15 note; in conformity with St Paul’s words at Antioch in Pisidia that God had fulfilled the promise made unto the fathers, ἀνάστησας Ἰησοῦν, ὡς καὶ ἐν τῷ ψαλμῷ γέγραπται τῷ δευτέρῳ· υἱός μου εἶ σύ, ἐγὼ σήμερον γεγέννηκά σε (Act 13:33).

ἐκ. Not to be confused with the simple genitive (Rev 1:5, ὁ πρωτότοκος τῶν νεκρῶν), but expressly implying that He was among the dead, and came up from them leaving them there.

τῶν νεκρῶν. ἐκ νεκρῶν is very common, but the article is very rare, the exact phrase occurring only in Eph 5:14, καὶ ἀνάστα ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν, and perhaps in 1Th 1:10, ὅν ἥγειρεν ἐκ [τῶν] νεκρῶν. Compare also ἀπὸ τῶν νεκρῶν, Mat 14:2; Mat 27:64; Mat 28:7†, and μετὰ τῶν νεκρῶν, Luk 24:5†. The article has almost the sense of “all.” Contrast Col 2:12.

ἵνα. The final object of His inherent supremacy, and His priority in Resurrection.

γένηται, not ᾗ. For this He becomes (contrast preceding ἐστιν), partly at once on His Resurrection and Ascension (compare Php 2:9), but completely only at the consummation of all things. Cf. ib. Col 1:10.

ἐν πᾶσιν. Certainly neuter, because of τὰ πάντα in Col 1:17; Col 1:20. Compare Php 4:12. Observe that by position the stress is on ἐν πᾶσιν, not on αὐτός.

αὐτὸς, vide supra.

πρωτεύων†, “holding the first place.” Vulg. primatum tenens, cf. 3Jn 1:9, ὁ φιλοπρωτεύων αὐτῶν Διοτρέφης. πρωτεύειν has precisely the same meaning in Est 5:11 (B). Lightfoot quotes appositely from Plut. Mor. p. 9, σπεύδοντες τοὺς παῖδας ἐν πᾶσι τάχιον πρωτεῦσαι.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Having gloriously declared the excellent dignity of the person of Christ, he describeth his office and function, to wit, that he is that same to the Church, that the head is to the body, that is to say, the prince and governor of it, and the very beginning of true life, as who rising first from death, he is the Author of eternal life, so that he is above all, in whom only there is most plentiful abundance of all good things, which is poured out upon the Church.

Who so rose again that he shall die no more, and who raiseth others from death to life by his power.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Revelation of Christ to the Church and the new creation, as the Originator of both.

he--emphatical. Not angels in opposition to the false teachers' doctrine concerning angel-worship, and the power of Oeons or (imaginary) spirit emanations from God (Col 2:10, Col 2:18).

head of the body, the church--The Church is His body by virtue of His entering into communion corporeally with human nature [NEANDER], (Eph 1:22). The same One who is the Head of all things and beings by creation, is also, by virtue of being "the first-born from the dead," and so "the first-fruits" of the new creation among men, the Head of the Church.

who is--that is, in that He is the Beginning [ALFORD]. Rather, this is the beginning of a new paragraph. As the former paragraph, which related to His originating the physical creation, began with "Who is" (Col 1:15); so this, which treats of His originating the new creation, begins with "who is"; a parenthesis preceding, which closes the former paragraph, that parenthesis (see on Col 1:16), including from "all things were created by Him," to "Head of the body, the Church." The head of kings and high priests was anointed, as the seat of the faculties, the fountain of dignity, and original of all the members (according to Hebrew etymology). So Jesus by His unction was designated as the Head of the body, the Church.

the beginning--namely, of the new creation, as of the old (Pro 8:22; Joh 1:1; compare Rev 1:8): the beginning of the Church of the first-born (Heb 12:23), as being Himself the "first-born from the dead" (Act 26:23; Co1 15:20, Co1 15:23). Christ's primogeniture is threefold: (1) From eternity the "first-begotten" of the Father (Col 1:15); (2) As the first-born of His mother (Mat 1:25); (3) As the Head of the Church, mystically begotten of the Father, as it were to a new life, on the day of His resurrection, which is His "regeneration," even as His people's coming resurrection will be their "regeneration" (that is, the resurrection which was begun in the soul, extended to the body and to the whole creation, Rom 8:21-22) (Mat 19:28; Act 13:33; Rev 1:5). Sonship and resurrection are similarly connected (Luk 20:36; Rom 1:4; Rom 8:23; Jo1 3:2). Christ by rising from the dead is the efficient cause (Co1 15:22), as having obtained the power, and the exemplary cause, as being the pattern (Mic 2:13; Rom 6:5; Phi 3:21), of our resurrection: the resurrection of "the Head" involves consequentially that of the members.

that in all things--He resumes the "all things" (Col 1:20).

he might have the pre-eminence--Greek, "He HIMSELF may (thus) become the One holding the first place," or, "take the precedency." Both ideas are included, priority in time and priority in dignity: now in the regenerated world, as before in the world of creation (Col 1:15). "Begotten before every creature, or "first-born of every creature" (Psa 89:27; Joh 3:13).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 18. He is the head of the body] What the apostle has said in the two preceding verses refers to the Divine nature of Jesus Christ; he now proceeds to speak of his human nature, and to show how highly that is exalted beyond all created things, and how, in that, he is head of the Church-the author and dispenser of light, life, and salvation, to the Christian world; or, in other words, that from him, as the man in whom the fulness of the Godhead bodily dwelt, all the mercy and salvation of the Gospel system is to be received.

The beginning, the first-born from the dead] In 1Co 15:20, Christ is called the first-fruits of them that slept; and here, the chief and first-born from the dead; he being the first that ever resumed the natural life, with the employment of all its functions, never more to enter the empire of death, after having died a natural death, and in such circumstances as precluded the possibility of deception. The αρχη, chief, head, or first, answers in this verse to the απαρχη, or first-fruits, 1Co 15:20. Jesus Christ is not only the first who rose from the dead to die no more, but he is the first-fruits of human beings; for as surely as the first-fruits were an indication and pledge of the harvest, so surely was the resurrection of Christ the proof that all mankind should have a resurrection from the dead.

That in all - he might have the pre-eminence] That he might be considered, in consequence of his mediatorial office, as possessing the first place in and being chief over all the creation of God; for is it to be wondered at that the human nature, with which the great Creator condescended to unite himself, should be set over all the works of his hands?

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

18. The head of the body. Having discoursed in a general way of Christ’s excellence, and of his sovereign dominion over all creatures, he again returns to those things which relate peculiarly to the Church. Under the term head some consider many things to be included. And, unquestionably, he makes use afterwards, as we shall find, of the same metaphor in this sense — that as in the human body it serves as a root, from which vital energy is diffused through all the members, so the life of the Church flows out from Christ, etc. (Colossians 2:19.) Here, however, in my opinion, he speaks chiefly of government. He shews, therefore, that it is Christ that alone has authority to govern the Church, that it is he to whom alone believers ought to have an eye, and on whom alone the unity of the body depends.

Papists, with the view of supporting the tyranny of their idol, allege that the Church would be (ἀκέφαλον) without a head, if the Pope did not, as a head, exercise rule in it. Paul, however, does not allow this honor even to angels, and yet he does not maim the Church, by depriving her of her head; for as Christ claims for himself this title, so he truly exercises the office. I am also well aware of the cavil by which they attempt to escape — that the Pope is a ministerial head. The name, however, of head is too august to be rightfully transferred to any mortal man, under any pretext, especially without the command of Christ. Gregory shews greater modesty, who says (in his 92nd Epistle, 4th Book) that Peter was indeed one of the chief members of the Church, but that he and the other Apostles were members under one head.

He is the beginning. As ἀρχὴ is sometimes made use of among the Greeks to denote the end, to which all things bear a relation, we might understand it as meaning, that Christ is in this sense (ἀρχὴ) the end. I prefer, however, to explain Paul’s words thus — that he is the beginning, because he is the first-born from the dead; for in the resurrection there is a restoration of all things, and in this manner the commencement of the second and new creation, for the former had fallen to pieces in the ruin of the first man. As, then, Christ in rising again had made a commencement of the kingdom of God, he is on good grounds called the beginning; for then do we truly begin to have a being in the sight of God, when we are renewed, so as to be new creatures. He is called the first-begotten from the dead, not merely because he was the first that rose again, but because he has also restored life to others, as he is elsewhere called the first-fruits of those that rise again. (1 Corinthians 15:20.)

That he may in all things. From this he concludes, that supremacy belongs to him in all things. For if he is the Author and Restorer of all things, it is manifest that this honor is justly due to him. At the same time the phrase in omnibus (in all things) may be taken in two ways — either over all creatures, or, in everything. This, however, is of no great importance, for the simple meaning is, that all things are subjected to his sway.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(18) He is the head.—“He” is again emphatic. “He who is the image of God, He also is the Head.” (On the title itself, see Eph_1:22.)

The beginning.—Chrysostom reads here a kindred word, the first-fruits. The reading is no doubt a gloss, but an instructive one. It shows that the reference is to Christ, as being in His humanity “the first principle” of the new life to us—the “first-fruits” from the dead (1Co_15:20; 1Co_15:23), and “the bringer of life and immortality to light” (2Ti_1:10).

The firstborn from the dead.—The same title is given to Him in Rev_1:5. In his sermon at Antioch in Pisidia (Act_13:33), St. Paul quotes the passage, “Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee,” as fulfilled in that “He raised up Jesus again.” (Comp. Heb_5:5.) In Rom_1:3, he speaks of Christ as “declared” (or, defined) “to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead.” The Resurrection is (so to speak) His second birth, the beginning of that exaltation, which is contrasted with His first birth on earth in great humility, and of His entrance on the glory of His mediatorial kingdom. (See Eph_1:20-23, where the starting-point of all His exaltation is again placed in the Resurrection.)

That in all things he might . . .—Literally, That in all things He might become pre-eminent. The words “He might become,” are opposed to the “He is” above. They refer to the exaltation of His humanity, so gloriously described in Php_2:9-11. Thus absolutely in His divine nature, relatively to the mediatorial kingdom in His humanity, He is “the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last” (Rev_1:8; Rev_1:11; Rev_1:17-18).

(18-20) In these verses St. Paul returns from dwelling on the eternal nature of the Son of God to describe Him in His mediatorial office as Son of Man, becoming the “Head” of all humanity, as called into “His Body, the Church.” In this he touches on a doctrine more fully developed in the Epistle to the Ephesians. (See Eph_1:10; Eph_1:20; Eph_1:22; Eph_2:19; Eph_2:21; Eph_4:15-16.) But still, as has been already noted, there is in this Epistle more stress on the supreme dignity of the Head, as in the other more on the unity, and blessing, and glory of the Body. It should be observed that in this, His mediatorial office, there is throughout a mysterious analogy to His eternal sonship. In both He is “the Head,” first, of universal creation, next, of the new creation in His Church; He is “the beginning,” in the one case in eternity, in the other in time; He is “the firstborn,” now in Eternal Sonship, now in the Resurrection making Him the new life of mankind.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And he is the head of the body, the church,.... By "the church" is meant, not any particular congregated church, as the church at Colosse, or Corinth, or any other; but the whole election of grace, the general assembly and church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven in the Lamb's book of life; the church which Christ has given himself for, and has purchased with his blood, and builds on himself the rock, and will, at last, present to himself a glorious church without spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; this is compared to an human body, and therefore called "the body"; which is but one, consisting of many members in union with each other, set in their proper places in just symmetry and proportion to each other, and subservient to one another, and are neither more nor fewer; see Co1 12:12, &c. and of this body, the church, Christ is "the head"; he was the representative head of this body of elect men from all eternity, and in time; he is a political head of them, or in such sense an head unto them, as a king is to his subjects; he reigns in them by his Spirit and grace, and rules them by wholesome laws of his own enacting, and which he inscribes on their hearts, and he protects and defends them by his power; he is an economical head, or in such sense an head of them, as the husband is the head of the wife, and parents and masters are the heads of their families, he standing in all these relations to them; and he is to them what a natural head is to an human body; of all which See Gill on Co1 11:3. The Messiah is called one head, in Hos 1:11; which Jarchi explains by David their king, and Kimchi on the place says, this is the King Messiah:

who is the beginning; which either denotes the eternity of Christ, who was not only in the beginning, and was set up from the beginning, from everlasting, but is also the beginning and the end; and who is, indeed, without beginning of days, or end of life: or his dominion; he is the principality, as the word may be rendered; he is the principality of principalities, the head of all principality and power, the angels; he is the Prince of the kings of the earth; he is King of saints; the kingdom of nature and providence is his, and the government of his people in a special manner is on his shoulders: or this may design his being the first cause of all things; he is the beginning of the creation of God; the efficient cause of all created beings; he is the beginning of the church, of which he is the head; as Eve was from Adam, so is the church from Christ; it is a body of his preparing, and a temple of his building, and where he sits as a priest on his throne, and has the government of it: the second number, wisdom, in the cabalistic tree of the Jews, is called "the beginning" (n), as is the Logos, or Word, by Philo the Jew (o):

the firstborn from the dead; the first that rose from the dead by his own power, and to an immortal life; for, though others were raised before him, and by him, yet not to a state of immortality; the path of life, to an immortal life, was first shown to him as man; and who also is the firstfruits of them that sleep, and so the pledge and earnest of the future resurrection of the saints; and is both the efficient and exemplary cause of it; the resurrection of the dead will be by him as God, and according to his own, as man:

that in all things he might have the pre-eminence; or might be the first and chief over all persons, angels, and men; having a superior nature, name, and place, than the former, and being the firstborn among many brethren designed by the latter: and in all things he is the first, and has the precedence and primacy; in sonship, no one is a Son in the sense he is; in election, he was chosen first, and his people in him; in the covenant, he is the surety, Mediator, and messenger of it, he is that itself; in his human nature, he is fairer than the children of men; in redemption, he was alone, and wrought it out himself; in life, he exceeded all others in purity, in doctrine, and miracles; and in dying he conquered death, and rose first from it; in short, he died, revived, and rose again, that he might be Lord both of dead and living; and he ought to have the pre-eminence and first place in the affections of our hearts, in the contemplations of our minds, in the desires of our souls, and in the highest praises of our lips,

(n) Cabala denudata, par. 2. p. 7. & Lex. Cabal. p. 679, 681. (o) Philo de Conf. ling. p. 341.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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 might have the preeminence.

Ver. 18. And he is the head] See the note on Eph 1:22. Angels are under Christ as a head of government, of influence, of confirmation, not of redemption, as we. (Elton.)

The firstborn from the dead] sc. of those that rise to eternal life. Others rose, but to die again, and by virtue of his resurrection; as the firstborn among the Jews communicated his good things to his brethren.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And he is the head of the body, the church - Notes Eph 1:22; Eph 5:23, note.

Who is the beginning - In all things - alike in the work of creation and in the church. He is the fountain of authority and power, and commences everything that is designed to uphold the order of the universe, and to save the world.

The first-born from the dead - At the head of those who rise from their graves. This does not mean literally that he was the first who rose from the dead for he himself raised up Lazarus and others, and the bodies of saints arose at his crucifixion; but it means that he had the pre-eminence among them all; he was the most illustrious of those who will be raised from the dead, and is the head over them all. Especially, he had this pre-eminence in the resurrection in this respect, that he was the first who rose from death to immortality. Others who were raised undoubtedly died again. Christ rose to die no more; see the notes at 1Co 15:20.

That in all things - Margin, “among all.” The Greek will bear either construction, and either will accord with the scope of the apostle’s remarks. If the former, it means that he is at the head of all things - the universe; if the latter, that he is chief among those who rose from the dead. Each of these is true, but the scope of the passage seems rather to require us to understand this of everything, and to mean that all the arrangements respecting him were such as to give him supremacy over the universe.

He might have the pre-eminence - Greek, “might be first” - πρωτεύων prōteuōn. That is, might be first in rank, dignity, honor, power. He has the pre-eminence:

(1)As over the universe which he has formed - as its Creator and Proprietor;

(2)As chief among those who shall rise from the dead - since he first rose to die no more, and their resurrection depends on him;

(3)As head of the church - all synods, councils, and governments being subject to him, and he alone having a right to give law to his people; and,

(4)In the affections of his friends - being in their affections and confidence superior to all others.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

He is the head of the body, the church. He now speaks of what applies to Christ as man. --- The first-born from the dead; i.e. the first that rose to an immortal life. (Witham)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

And he is the head of the body, the church: having spoken of Christ in reference to the creatures in general, or old creation, showing how he is the Creator, Preserver, and Governor thereof, the apostle doth here speak of him with a special reference to his church, or the new creation, whereof he shows here, (as elsewhere: See Poole on "Eph 1:22,23", with Eph 4:15, and Eph 5:23), that he is the Head and Governor, his chosen and called being the proper subjects of his special kingdom, the choice body, unto which he doth more peculiarly relate, Col 1:24, for the guiding and governing of it, he being that to it which the head is to the natural body, and more especially in the two former respects:

1. Of their union to God, which was chiefly designed and expressed in those words, who is the beginning, i.e. the first foundation or principle of their union to God, whereupon the first corner-stone of the church’s happiness is laid, he being the beginning of the second creation, as of the first, Rev 3:14. And:

2. Of their restoration from sin and death, being brought into that first-designed happiness, which is the great intention of that union, as appears from the following expression, the firstborn from the dead, in a special distinction from the dead, here too of the creature, Col 1:15.

The apostle doth not tautologize, but what he spoke of Christ there with respect to the creature, he doth here speak of him with respect to his church, as 1Co 15:20,23; Re 1:5. By the particle from is implied not only that he was before the dead, but that he was numbered amongst the dead in respect of that nature wherein he was once dead; from which he was demonstrated to be first-born; his resurrection with a glorious body {Phi 3:21} being a kind of new birth, whereby upon the reunion of his holy soul and body he was born from the womb of the grave, the Head in regard of the members: resurrection is called a regeneration, Mat 19:28; and as there is a gracious resurrection of the soul upon effectual calling in conversion, so there is a glorious regeneration of the body in the resurrection, Luk 20:36, in contradistinction to Luk 20:34. Christ is the first-born of these, in reference to God, Act 26:23; 1Co 15:20,23; as the first-fruits, or first ear of this blessed harvest, that was carried up into the sanctuary, and offered in due season to the eternal Father, until the rest do become ripe: and in reference to the dead, i.e. in the Lord, 1Co 15:18; 1Th 4:14; Rev 14:13; from whom he first rose in regard of time fully and perfectly; and of whom, in regard of dignity and dominion, Psa 89:27; Gal 4:1, he is chief, and Lord, (hath the pre-eminence, as it follows), and is first in regard of causality of those dead in him, standing in relation to him their Head, Rom 11:15, with 1Co 15:20, who shall be perfectly raised by virtue of his resurrection. And however it be said, both in the Old and New Testament, some were before raised; yet he was the cause of his own resurrection, as none others were, or can be. He properly rose, and that by his own power, Psa 110:7; Joh 10:17,18; others were and will be raised by his. In regard of the sort and kind of resurrection, he it was first which was not imperfect, as others, or Lazarus, who was raised but to return to his former state of mortality; but perfect, Christ rose to die no more, Rom 6:9; Heb 9:28. He was the first that rose as a public person, Head of his Church, the Second Adam, representing all his members, 1Co 15:21,22, who are raised together with him spiritually, virtually, and representatively, Eph 2:6 1Pe 3:21; those actually raised before in another sort were like singular ears of corn, by occasion more timely gathered for a special instance of Divine power, but Christ was the first that ever rose in the nature and quality of the first-fruits duly gathered, to sanctify and consecrate the whole harvest of the dead in him, who shall one day be raised to a conformity unto him, Phi 3:21. The Socinians, from this metaphorical expression of Christ’s being the first-born from the dead, and fetching in that passage where it is said: Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee, Act 13:33, do oppose Christ’s natural and eternal Sonship, but very inconsequently and absurdly; for:

1. Christ was properly the Son of God before his resurrection from the dead, he did not then receive that relation by it, as other texts clearly prove, Psa 2:7; Pro 30:4; Mic 5:2; Joh 1:1; 17:5.

2. If his resurrection had been a begetting of him, then would he have begotten himself, so been Father and Son to himself, because he raised himself.

As to that other text they allege, things are sometimes said to be done then, when only manifested and doclared to be done: then was Christ the first of all the dead that was born, and raised again in incorruption, declared to be the Son of God with power, Rom 1:4, according to the prophecy: q.d. This day I have manifested thee by raising of thyself to be my natural Son, whom I begat from everlasting. Be sure he hath the primacy and pre-eminence, as it follows. That in all things he might have the pre-eminence; which some expound as the end and intention of Christ the agent, that he might obtain the primacy, Rom 14:9; 2Co 5:15, or hold the first place in all things; whether more generally, according with the common scope of the apostle in the precedent verses, compared with Col 2:10; Joh 5:25,29; Eph 1:22; or more specially, amongst his brethren and all the members of his mystical body, Rom 8:29, with 2Co 5:17,18; but this is not material, because all things are brought under his empire. Others, because the primacy doth belong to him by undoubted right, and that he, being Head of his church, did ultimalely design to save it, and so to glorify his Father, do expound it rather as the event, consequent, and conclusion from the antecedent, which is the end of the work, so as that, or in such a sort as, he actually is declared to be the first, or he holds the primacy in the old and new creation. According to the agreement with his Father, he is such a one as not only hath all manner of privileges, that any in this or the other world do, or may be supposed to, excel in; but also with a pre-eminence, a primacy in all, above what any one hath in any thing he may glory of.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

And - From the whole he now descends to the most eminent part, the church. He is the head of the church - Universal; the supreme and only head both of influence and of government to the whole body of believers. Who is - The repetition of the expression { Colossians i, 15} points out the entrance on a new paragraph. The beginning - Absolutely, the Eternal. The first begotten from the dead - From whose resurrection flows all the life, spiritual and eternal, of all his brethren. That in all things - Whether of nature or grace. He might have the preeminence - Who can sound this depth?

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Our apostle having, in the former verses, described what Christ is in himself, comes next to describe him with relation to his church; shewing,

1. That he is her Head, he is the Head of the body, the church; as the head and the members make one body, so Christ and his people constitute one church; he is of the same nature (as man) with his church, he poureth forth the same Spirit upon his church, he is both an Head of authority, and a Head of influence to his church, he sympathizes with her in all her sufferings on earth, and longs for the full fruition and final enjoyment of her in heaven.

2. He is the beginning of the Christian church, the root, the fountain and foundation of it, the active beginning, or the first principle and author of it, and of all those influences of grace and spiritual life which do animate and enlive it.

3. He is called the first-born from the dead.

1. Because he was the first that arose to an immortal life, never to die more; all others that were raised to life, besides him, died again, but death had no more dominion over him.

Again, 2. Because he was the principal and efficient cause of their resurrection; all that were raised before him, were raised by him, by a power derived from him:

And, 3. Because he is the pattern and exemplary cause of the resurrection; his members are not only raised by him, but like unto him. Fashioned like unto his glorious body Php 3:21.

Was his body raised sustantially the same? So shall ours be.

Was his body wonderfully improved by the resurrection? So shall ours, in point of purity and spirituality, in point of power and activity, in point of immortality and incorruptibility.

Was his holy body raised to be eternally glorified? So shall ours.

How fitly then is our Lord here called the first-born from the dead? Even herein he had the pre-eminence.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18–20. In verses 15–17, Paul portrays Christ as the center and source of the creation. In this section he shows that he is the Head of the new creation. He is the head of the body, the church. In the church he is pre-eminent. It is his spiritual body, and he is the supreme head. Compare 1 Cor. 11:3; Eph. 1:10, 22. The beginning. The new creation began from him and in him. He is first of all in time. The first-born from the dead. He first conquered death, and not for himself alone, but the great company of those found in him who have been born from the dead.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

He is the head

"Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the head"

He is the head of the body, the church

Paul speaks of Jesus' position over the church as if he were the head on the human body. As the head rules the body, so does Jesus rule the church. (See: Metaphor)

the beginning

"the originating authority." He is the first chief or founder.

firstborn from among the dead

Jesus is the first person to die and come back to life, never to die again.

Son

This is an important title for Jesus, the Son of God. (See: Translating Son and Father)

through the blood of his cross

"by means of the blood Jesus shed on the cross"

the blood of his cross

Here "blood" stands for the death of Christ on the cross. (See: Metonymy)

translationWords

head

church

firstborn

die

God

reconcile

Son of God

peace

blood

cross

heaven

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

18-20.] Relation of Christ to the Church (see above on ver. 15): And He (emphatic; not any angels nor created beings: the whole following passage has a controversial bearing on the errors of the Colossian teachers) is the Head of the body the church (not ‘the body of the church:’ the genitive is much more naturally taken as one of apposition, inasmuch as in St. Paul, it is the church which is, not which possesses, the body, see reff.): who (q.d. ‘in that He is:’ the relative has an argumentative force: see Matthiæ, Gr. § 477: in which case it is more commonly found with a particle, ὃς μέν, or ὅς γε) is the beginning (of the Church of the First-born, being Himself πρωτότ. ἐκ τ. νεκρ.: cf. ἀπαρχὴ χριστός, 1Co 15:23, and reff., especially the last. But the word evidently has, standing as it does here alone, a wider and more glorious reference than that of mere temporal precedence: cf. ref. Rev. and note: He is the Beginning, in that in Him is begun and conditioned the Church, vv. 19, 20), the First-born from (among) the dead (i.e. the first who arose from among the dead: but the term πρωτότοκος (see above) being predicated of Christ in both references, he uses it here, regarding the resurrection as a kind of birth. On that which is implied in πρωτότ., see above on ver. 15), that He (emphatic, again: see above) may become (not, as Est., ‘ex quibus efficitur, Christum … tenere:’ but the aim and purpose of this his priority over creation and in resurrection) in all things (reff. Beza, (and so Kypke) argues, that because the Apostle is speaking of the Church, πᾶσιν must be masculine, allowing however that the neuter has some support from the τὰ πάντα which follows. In fact this decides the question: the τὰ πάντα there are a resumption of the πᾶσιν here. The ἐν then is not ‘inter,’ but of the reference:—‘in all matters:’ πανταχοῦ, as Chrys.: because the πάντα which follows applies not only to things concrete, but also to their combinations and attributes) pre-eminent (first in rank: the word is a transitional one, from priority in time to priority in dignity, and shews incontestably that the two ideas have been before the Apostle’s mind throughout. Add to reff., from Wetst., πρωτεύειν ἐν ἅπασι κράτιστον, Demosth. 1416. 25: and Plut. de puer. educ. p. 9 b, τοὺς παῖδας ἐν πᾶσι τάχιον πρωτεῦσαι).

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18-20. Transition to Christ’s relation to the Church. ἀπὸ τῆς θεολογὶας εἰς τὴν οἰκονομίαν, Theodoret. Here also He is first, the firstborn from the dead, and the Head of the Church, all the fulness of God dwelling in Him. So that even the angelic powers are included in the work of reconciliation which has been wrought through Him

18. καὶ αὐτός, and He and none other, “ipse in quo omnia consistunt est caput.

ἡ κεφαλὴ τοῦ σώματος, τῆς ἐκκλησίας. τῆς ἐκκλησίας in apposition with σώματος; compare ver. 24, ὅ ἐστιν ἡ ἐκκλησία, and Eph 1:23, τῇ ἐκκλ. ἥτις ἐστὶ τὸ σῶμα αὐτοῦ. σώματος is added in order to define more precisely the meaning of the figure, κεφαλή τῆς ἐκκλησίας. It shows that the writer is not using κεφαλή vaguely, but with the definite figure of the relation of head to body in his thoughts.

ὅς ἐστιν ἀρχή = “in that He is.” In classical Greek γε would probably be added. ἀρχή has special but not exclusive reference to the following words, which express the aspect in which ἀρχή is here viewed. πρωτότοκος implies that other νεκροί follow; ἀρχή, that He it was who made possible that others should follow. He was the Principle and the first example, ἀρχή, φησίν, ἐστι τῆς ἀναστάσεως, πρὸ πάντων ἀναστάς, Theoph. Thus He was the ἀπαρχή, 1Co 15:20, 1Co 15:23; and the ἀρχηγὸς τῆς ζωῆς, Act 3:14. His resurrection is His title to the headship of the Church: cf. Rom 1:4.

ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν. Not “amongst,” which would be πρ. τωσν νεκρ. as in Rev 1:5, but “from among.” That others were raised before Him is not regarded as an objection to this. Theophylact observes: εἰ γὰρ καὶ ἄλλοι πρὸ τούτου ἀνέστησαν, ἀλλὰ πάλιν ἀπέθανον· αὐτὸς δὲ τὴν τελείαν ἀνάστασιν ἀνέστη.

ἵνα γένηται. “That He may become,” not “be,” as Vulg. As ἐστί is used to express what He is, so γένηται of what as a consequence He is to become, viz. ἐν πᾶσιν, κ.τ.λ. “Himself in all things pre-eminent.” πᾶσιν is not masculine, “inter omnes,” as Beza and others take it, but neuter, as the following τὰ πάντα makes certain. πρωτεύειν does not occur elsewhere in the N.T., but is found in classical writers and in the Sept. Thus in a connexion similar to the present, Plutarch (Mor. p. 9), σπεύδοντες τοὺς παῖδας ἐν πᾶσι τὰχιον πρωτεύειν. Demosthenes also has πρωτεύειν ἐν ἄπασι, but with ἅπασι, masc. (p. 1416). Chrysostom’s explanation here is: πανταχοῦ πρῶτος· ἄνω πρῶτος, ἐν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ πρῶτος, ἐν τῇ ἀναστάσει πρῶτος. This πρωτεύειν is the final result of the state to which the πρωτότοκον εἶναι ἐκ τῶν νεκρῷν was the introduction, but is not involved in the word πρωτότοκος itself.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And He. Emphatic. The same who is before all things and in whom all things consist.

The head of the body, the Church. The Church is described as a body, Rom 12:4 sq.; 1Co 12:12 - 27; 1Co 10:17, by way of illustrating the functions of the members. Here the image is used to emphasize the position and power of Christ as the head. Compare ch. 2 19; Eph 1:22, 23; Eph 4:4, 12, 15, 16; Eph 5:23, 30.

Who is the beginning [ος εστιν αρχη] . Who is, equivalent to seeing He is. Beginning, with reference to the Church; not the beginning of the Church, but of the new life which subsists in the body - the Church. The first - born from the dead [πρωτοτοκος εκ των νεκρων] . Defining how Christ is the beginning of the new spiritual life : by His resurrection. Compare 1Co 14:20, 23, and Prince of life, Act 3:15 (note) See on Rev 1:5, where the phrase is slightly different, "first - born of the dead." He comes forth from among the dead as the first - born issues from the womb. Compare Act 2:4, "having loosed the pains of death," where the Greek is wjdinav birth - throes. 188 There is a parallelism between first - born of the creation and first - born from the dead as regards the relation of headship in which Christ stands to creation and to the Church alike; but the parallelism is not complete. "He is the first - born from the dead as having been Himself one of the dead. He is not the first - born of all creation as being himself created" [δωιγητ] .

In all things. The universe and the Church.

Might have the preeminence [γενηται πρωτευων] . Lit., might become being first. Prwteuw to be first only here in the New Testament. Genhtai become states a relation into which Christ came in the course of time : ejstin is (the first - born of all creation) states a relation of Christ 's absolute being. He became head of the Church through His incarnation and passion, as He is head of the universe in virtue of His absolute and eternal being. Compare Phi 2:6, "being [υπαρχων] in the form of God - was made [γενομενος] obedient unto death." This sense is lost in the rendering might have the preeminence.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

συνέστηκεν] ‘hold together, cohere.’ He is the principle of cohesion in the universe. He impresses upon creation that unity and solidarity which makes it a cosmos instead of a chaos. Thus (to take one instance) the action of gravitation, which keeps in their places things fixed and regulates the motions of things moving, is an expression of His mind. Similarly in Heb. i. 3 Christ the Logos is described as φέρων τὰ πάντα (sustaining the universe) τῷ ῥήματι τῆς δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ. Here again the Christian Apostles accept the language of Alexandrian Judaism, which describes the Logos as the δεσμὸς of the Universe; e.g. Philo de Profug. 20 (I. p. 562) ὅ τε γὰρ τοῦ ὄντος λόγος δεσμὸς ὢν τῶν ἁπάντων ... καὶ σύνεχει τὰ μέρη πάντα καὶ σφίγγει καὶ κωλύει αὐτὰ διαλύεσθαι καὶ διαρτᾶσθαι, de Plant. 2 (I. p. 331) συνάγων τὰ μέρη πάντα καὶ σφίγγων· δεσμὸν γὰρ αὐτὸν ἄρρηκτον τοῦ παντὸς ὁ γεννήσας ἐποίει πατήρ, Quis rer. div. her. 38 (I. p. 507) λόγῳ σφίγγεται θείῳ· κόλλα γάρ ἐστι καὶ δεσμὸς οὗτος τὰ πάντα τῆς οὐσίας ἐκπεπληρωκώς: and for the word itself see Quis rer. div. her. 12 (I. p. 481) συνέστηκε καὶ ζωπυρεῖται προνοίᾳ Θεοῦ, Clem. Rom. 27 ἐν λόγῳ τῆς μεγαλωσύνης αὐτοῦ συνεστήσατο τὰ πάντα. In the same connexion σύγκειται is used, Ecclus. xliii. 26. The indices to Plato and Aristotle amply illustrate this use of συνέστηκεν. This mode of expression was common also with the Stoics.

18. ‘And not only does He hold this position of absolute priority and sovereignty over the Universe—the natural creation. He stands also in the same relation to the Church—the new spiritual creation. He is its head, and it is His body. This is His prerogative, because He is the source and the beginning of its life, being the First-born from the dead. Thus in all things—in the spiritual order as in the natural—in the Church as in the World—He is found to have the pre-eminence.’

The elevating influence of this teaching on the choicest spirits of the subapostolic age will be seen from a noble passage in the noblest of early Christian writings, Epist. ad Diogn. § 7 τὸν λόγον τὸν ἅγιον ... ἀνθρώποις ἐνίδρυσε ... οὐ, καθάπερ ἄν τις εἰκάσειεν, ἀνθρώποις ὑπηρέτην τινὰ πέμψας ἢ ἄγγελον ἢ ἄρχοντα ἤ τινα τῶν διεπόντων τὰ ἐπίγεια ἤ τινα τῶν πεπιστευμένων τὰς ἐν οὐρανοῖς διοκήσεις, ἀλλ’ αὐτὸν τὸν τεχνίτην καὶ δημιουργὸν τῶν ὅλων ... ᾧ πάντα διατέτακται καὶ διώρισται καὶ ὑποτέτακται, οὐρανοὶ καὶ τὰ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς, γῆ καὶ τὰ ἐν τῇ γῇ κ.τ.λ. See the whole context.

καὶ αὐτὸς] ‘and He,’ repeated from the preceding verse, to emphasize the identity of the Person who unites in Himself these prerogatives: see on ver. 17, and comp. ver. 18 αὐτός, ver. 19 δι’ αὐτοῦ. The Creator of the World is also the Head of the Church. There is no blind ignorance, no imperfect sympathy, no latent conflict, in the relation of the demiurgic power to the Gospel dispensation, as the heretical teachers were disposed consciously or unconsciously to assume (see above, p. 101 sq., p. 110 sq.), but an absolute unity of origin.

ἡ κεφαλή] ‘the head,’ the inspiring, ruling, guiding, combining, sustaining power, the mainspring of its activity, the centre of its unity, and the seat of its life. In his earlier epistles the relations of the Church to Christ are described under the same image (1 Cor. xii. 12–27; comp. vi. 15, x. 17, Rom. xii. 4 sq.); but the Apostle there takes as his starting-point the various functions of the members, and not, as in these later epistles, the originating and controlling power of the Head. Comp. i. 24, ii. 19, Eph. i. 22 sq., ii. 16, iv. 4, 12, 15 sq., v. 23, 30.

τῆς ἐκκλησίας] in apposition with τοῦ σώματος: comp. i. 24 τοῦ σώματος αὐτοῦ, ὅ ἐστιν ἡ ἐκκλησία, Eph. i. 23.

ἀρχή] ‘the origin, the beginning.’ The term is here applied to the Incarnate Christ in relation to the Church, because it is applicable to the Eternal Word in relation to the Universe, Rev. iii. 14 ἡ ἀρχὴ τῆς κτίσεως τοῦ Θεοῦ. The parallelism of the two relations is kept in view throughout. The word ἀρχή here involves two ideas: (1) Priority in time; Christ was the first-fruits of the dead, ἀπαρχή (1 Cor. xv. 20, 23): (2) Originating power; Christ was also the source of life, Acts iii. 14 ὁ ἀρχηγὸς τῆς ζωῆς; comp. Acts v. 31, Heb. ii. 10. He is not merely the principium principiatum but the principium principians (see Trench Epistles to the Seven Churches p. 183 sq.). He rose first from the dead, that others might rise through Him.

The word ἀρχή, like πρῶτος (see the note on Phil. i. 5), being absolute in itself, does not require the definite article. Indeed the article is most commonly omitted where ἀρχή occurs as a predicate, as will appear from several examples to be gathered from the extracts in Plut. Mor. p. 875 sq., Stob. Ecl. Phys. i. 10. 12 sq. Comp. also Aristot. Met. x. 7, p. 1064, τὸ θεῖον ... ἂν εἴη πρώτη καὶ κυριωτάτη ἀρχή, Onatas in Stob. Ecl. Phys. i. 2. 39 αὐτὸς γὰρ [θεὸς] ἀρχὰ καὶ πρᾶτον, Tatian. ad Græc. 4 Θεὸς ... μόνος ἄναρχος ὢν καὶ αὐτὸς ὑπάρχων τῶν ὅλων ἀρχή, Clem. Alex. Strom. iv. 25, p. 638, ὁ Θεὸς δὲ ἄναρχος, ἀρχὴ τῶν ὅλων παντελής, ἀρχῆς ποιητικός, Method. de Creat. 3 (p. 100, ed. Jahn) πάσης ἀρετῆς ἀρχὴν καὶ πηγὴν ... ἡγῇ τὸν Θεόν, pseudo-Dionys. de Div. Nom. v. § 6 ἀρχὴ γάρ ἐστι τῶν ὄντων, § 10 πάντων οὖν ἀρχὴ καὶ τελευτὴ τῶν ὄντων ὁ προών.

The text is read with the definite article, ἡ ἀρχή, in one or two excellent authorities at least; but the obvious motive which would lead a scribe to aim at greater distinctness renders the reading suspicious.

πρωτότοκος] Comp. Rev. i. 5 ὁ πρωτότοκος τῶν νεκρῶν καὶ ὁ ἄρχων τῶν βασιλέων τῆς γῆς. His resurrection from the dead is His title to the headship of the Church; for ‘the power of His resurrection’ (Phil. iii. 10) is the life of the Church. Such passages as Gen. xlix. 3, Deut. xxi. 17, where the πρωτότοκος is called ἀρχὴ τέκνων and superior privileges are claimed for him as such, must necessarily be only very faint and partial illustrations of the connexion between ἀρχὴ and πρωτότοκος here, where the subject-matter and the whole context point to a fuller meaning of the words. The words πρωτότοκος ἐκ τῶν νεκρῶν here correspond to πρωτότοκος πάσης κτίσεως ver. 15, so that the parallelism between Christ’s relations to the Universe and to the Church is thus emphasized.

J. B. Lightfoot, St Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon: a revised text with introductions, notes and dissertations (London: Macmillan, 1875) — public domain. Electronic text from Project Gutenberg (ebook #50857). Covers Colossians and Philemon only (the verse-by-verse notes; introductions and dissertations are omitted); Lightfoot's companion Galatians and Philippians volumes are not included, as the available public-domain scans carry garbled Greek that cannot be faithfully reproduced.