Speaking of the earthly and the heavenly, created by the Word that became incarnate in Jesus Christ, Paul lists "thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers." What does he mean? Later Christian tradition looks at these names as names of "angelic ranks," that is, as names of certain mysterious levels of the angelic hierarchy. But this understanding of the apostle's words is connected with the development of that area of theology called angelology. Medieval theologians loved to reason about the structure of the angelic world, though their experience of contact with this world hardly surpassed what is reflected in the Bible. The authors of the biblical books, however, do not speak very much about angels.

It is different with the authors of gnostic texts, which sometimes resemble later theosophical writings. They spoke much and readily about angels and the angelic world, but in the overwhelming majority of cases their colorful and lengthy descriptions were the fruit of their own mystical and poetic imagination. Gnostic theosophy, however, was by no means close to Paul: after all, he had received a fully traditional rabbinic education from a teacher who was by no means inclined toward gnostic fantasies. And one should hardly look in Paul's letters for any "teaching" about the angelic hierarchy.

But this does not mean at all that the apostle was alien to any mention of the realities of the spiritual world. Listing "the heavenly and the earthly," he speaks of them as well. True, they have nothing to do with any "angelic hierarchy" or any gnostic constructions. By "thrones" Paul most likely has in mind that Throne of glory so vividly described in chapter 6 of the Book of Isaiah, although it is by no means mentioned only there. In the Book of Daniel there is a colorful description of how the Messiah, called in the text of the book the "Son of Man," is brought to this Throne (Dan. 7:13-14).

If we also recall that the rabbinic tradition of the Gospel era speaks of the Throne of glory as created before the creation of the world, Paul's words about "thrones" fit well into the context not only of Holy Scripture, but also of the Tradition of his age. The same can be said of "principalities," though here one has to speak more of Greek philosophy than of rabbinic tradition. By "principalities," or more precisely by what the corresponding Greek word translated this way denotes, are meant the primary causes and moving forces of the universe that make it what it is, both as a whole and in its particulars. As is evident, Paul, acquainted not only with rabbinic tradition but also with Greek philosophy, interpreted both in the light of the new Christian revelation he had received.

As for "dominions" and "powers," here the matter is most likely not heavenly, but earthly. Both words refer to realities connected with earthly authority and earthly states: in the first case the matter may concern both authority and the territory over which that authority extends, while in the second it concerns rather the source of authority that establishes a certain state order where this authority extends, such being the meaning of the corresponding Greek words. As is evident, Paul correlates the Throne of glory with earthly thrones, and the cosmic first causes and principalities with the sources of earthly power, thereby illustrating his words about the incarnate Word by whom all things were created.

It is interesting: in what sense does Paul say that everything created was created for Christ? Of course, in his words one can see a reflection of the traditional Jewish messianic ideas that speak of the Messiah as the One whom God had planned even before the creation of the world.

If we take into account that traditional Judaism looks in the same way at the people of God, who were also planned by God before the creation of the world, then it is not hard to arrive at the conclusion that the world was created and exists for the sake of the people of God and the Messiah. But the apostle brings something new into these traditional ideas, which were certainly well known to him. He says of Christ that everything created was created not only for Him, but also by Him.

Of course, the question of the Messiah's origin is not resolved unambiguously even in the prophetic tradition. Some of the Messiah's names found, for example, in Isaiah of Jerusalem, make one think of special relations between the Messiah and God, relations not only, to use philosophical language, existential, but also ontological. Yet none of the prophets speaks of the Messiah's divinity, and Judaism knows no such ideas. Paul, however, by saying directly that the world was created by Christ, evidently implies exactly this. Christ creates the world together with the Father; therefore it turns out to have been created for Him, just as it was created for the Father Himself.

But then the Messiah becomes not only God's messenger on earth, fulfilling His will. He Himself becomes a theophany, bringing into the world the same fullness of God that belongs to the Father. Figuratively speaking, after the coming of Christ there was as much of God on earth as there had always been in heaven. That is why Christians need no mediators between themselves and God, between themselves and Christ: all conceivable and inconceivable hierarchies, all the "thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers" mentioned by Paul, cannot give the world more than Christ has already given it.

It is no surprise that the Kingdom also entered the world with Christ and through Christ, for it is unthinkable apart from that fullness of God which makes it what the witnesses say it is. And then it becomes clear that the world really was created for the sake of Christ and the Kingdom. The only alternative to such a course of events would be the triumph of sin and death. That is what God does not want to allow.

Beginning his letter to the church in Colossae, Paul as it were repeats anew the fundamental truths without which there is and can be no Christianity in its original sense, connected with the experience of the life of the Kingdom. It is no surprise that the center of his witness is the image of the Messiah-Christ, without whom Christianity as the experience of the Kingdom is impossible in principle (vv. 9-17). And if, according to traditional rabbinic ideas, the Messiah was conceived by God even before the creation of the world, then for Paul the Messiah becomes the One without whom the world is unthinkable, the One on whom it rests and who constitutes its true foundation (vv. 15-17).

Such a transformation of traditional ideas is entirely logical: if the Messiah contains all the fullness of the Kingdom (v. 19), and the Kingdom is the only real, true reality through which and for the sake of which everything else exists, then the Messiah Himself quite naturally becomes the foundation on which the universe rests.

But for Christians, whose main task is participation in the life of the Kingdom and then rooting themselves in it, the most important thing is the possibility, opened by Christ's coming into the world, of complete cleansing from sin, without which one cannot enter the Kingdom (vv. 13-14). In former times God cleansed His people from sin through purifying sacrifices, but such cleansing was not complete: one could be cleansed in this way only from a sin committed involuntarily, through ignorance or under compulsion. The blood of sacrificial animals, sanctified by God's presence, was not enough for more than that. Now every seeker of the Kingdom has the possibility of being cleansed from any sin, beginning his spiritual life anew and dedicating it to the path into the Kingdom.

For the apostle the Kingdom is nothing other than the union of heaven and earth; for him the Church turns out in this respect not even to be a prefiguration, but the form of the Kingdom's existence in our world, which is being transformed but is not yet transformed (vv. 18-20). No less important for Paul is the overcoming by seekers of the Kingdom of their own sinfulness, without which one cannot enter the Kingdom (vv. 21-23). The task of the Church is twofold: on the one hand, it must become the space of the Kingdom in the world being transformed; on the other hand, it must be a community of those being saved, a community of people walking the path of the Kingdom but still far from reaching the goal. The unfolding of the fullness of the Kingdom in our transforming world is inseparable from the spiritual formation of its inhabitants, and this process will be completed only at the end of time with the return of Christ.