NOTES for Col 1:15-20

Today's passage from the Letter to the Colossians is the very heart of the apostle Paul's preaching about Christ. Let us try to listen to what he says, setting aside the familiar notions that arise from our belief or unbelief. The subject is undoubtedly Jesus, since the Cross and Resurrection mentioned here are facts of His earthly life. His primacy in all things and His headship of the body of the Church are marks of the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Christ, the Savior promised in the Old Testament. But Paul also affirms that the divine Sonship of Jesus Christ means His eternal begetting and preexistent existence; that the whole world was created through Him and for Him; that in Him the entire fullness of God's self-revelation to the world has been manifested; and that in Him and through Him the divine world and the created world, God and humanity, are reconciled and united. And now a brief question that each of us must answer: “Do I believe all this?”