The Preeminence of Christ

Col 1:15-23.  

 (Now] He is the exact likeness of the unseen God [the visible representation of the invisible]; 

He is the Firstborn of all creation.

For it was in Him that all things were created, in heaven and on earth, things seen and things unseen, whether thrones, dominions, rulers, or authorities; all things were created and exist through Him 

[by His service, intervention] and in and for Him.

And He Himself existed before all things, and in Him all things consist (cohere, are held together). [Pro 8:22-31]

(Pro 8:22 The Lord formed and brought me [Wisdom] forth at the beginning of His way, before His acts of old.

Pro 8:23 I [Wisdom] was inaugurated and ordained from everlasting, from the beginning, before ever the earth existed. [Joh 1:1; 1Co 1:24]

Pro 8:26 While as yet He had not made the land or the fields or the first of the dust of the earth.

Pro 8:27 When He prepared the heavens, I [Wisdom] was there; when He drew a circle upon the face of the deep and stretched out the firmament over it,

Pro 8:28 When He made firm the skies above, when He established the fountains of the deep,

Pro 8:29 When He gave to the sea its limit and His decree that the waters should not transgress [across the boundaries set by] His command, when He appointed the foundations of the earth--[Job 38:10-11; Psa 104:6-9; Jer 5:22]

Pro 8:30 Then I [Wisdom] was beside Him as a master and director of the work; and I was daily His delight, rejoicing before Him always, [Mat 3:17; Joh 1:2, Joh 1:18]

Pro 8:31 Rejoicing in His inhabited earth and delighting in the sons of men. [Psa 16:3] )

He also is the Head of [His] body;

 (THE CHURCH ).

seeing He is the Beginning, the Firstborn from among the dead, so that He alone in everything and in every respect might occupy the chief place 

[stand first and be preeminent].

For it has pleased [the Father] that all the divine fullness (the sum total of the divine perfection, powers, and attributes) should dwell in Him permanently.

And God purposed that through (by the service, the intervention of) Him;

 “THE SON” 

all things should be completely reconciled back to Himself, whether on earth or in heaven, as through Him, [the Father] made peace by means of the blood of His cross.

And although you at one time were estranged and alienated from Him and were of hostile attitude of mind in your wicked activities,

Yet now has [Christ, the Messiah] reconciled [you to God] in the body of His flesh through death, in order to present you holy and faultless and irreproachable in His [the Father's] presence.

(And this He will do] provided that you continue to stay with and in the faith [in Christ], well-grounded and settled and steadfast, not shifting or moving away from the hope [which rests on and is inspired by] the glad tidings (the Gospel), which you heard and which has been preached [as being designed for and offered without restrictions] to every person under heaven, and of which [Gospel]

 I, Paul, became a minister.