Colossians 1:18

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, isalso, 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. 1 Corinthians 11:3; Ephesians 1:22; Ephesians 4:15; Ephesians 5:23; and below, Colossians 2:10; Colossians 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. Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 10:17; 1 Corinthians 12:21.

the body Cp. Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 10:17; 1 Corinthians 12:27; Ephesians 1:23; Ephesians 2:16; Ephesians 4:4; Ephesians 4:12; Ephesians 4:16; Ephesians 5:23; Ephesians 5:30; below, Colossians 1:24; Colossians 2:19; Colossians 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 Colossians 1:24 below, and Ephesians 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 ecclêsiaimplies) from the fallen world into vital union with the glorified Christ as Head. It occurs again Colossians 1:24, and nine times in Eph. (Ephesians 1:23; Ephesians 3:10; Ephesians 3:21; Ephesians 5:23-25; Ephesians 5:27; Ephesians 5:29; Ephesians 5:32), always with the same reference. See also Hebrews 12:23; and cp. Act 20:28; 1 Corinthians 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. Revelation 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 governingprimacy, supreme above all possible angelic "Governments." But this would be a secondary reference.

the firstborn from the dead Not merely "ofthe dead," but "fromthem;" passing in a supreme and unique sense "from death unto life;" rising in "the power of an indissoluble life" (Hebrews 7:16), a life-originating life (cp. 1 John 5:11-12). The word "Firstborn" here echoes Colossians 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 risenHe 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" (Romans 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. Revelation 1:5.

in allthings] 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. (Colossians 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.