Colossians 1:17

Colossians 1:17. And he (emphatic) is before all things. ‘Before' in time, preexistent to ‘all things,' not simply ‘all beings.' He did not become thus preexistent, but ‘is' prior in time.

And in him all things subsist, more literally, ‘stand together.' This is not a repetition of the first clause of Colossians 1:16: there the fact of creation is mentioned; here a more permanent relation is set forth. He keeps in organic permanence what was created in Him, through Him and unto Him; comp. Hebrews 1:3. ‘Christ is the Living Centre, to which all things in creation converge, the Divine Keystone in the arch of the universe, on which the whole fabric leans' (Chrysostom). The fulness of Paul's statement here, taken in connection with chap. Colossians 2:18-19, indicates that the Colossian Church was in danger from false teachings respecting the relation of Christ to the creation, especially to the angels. How far this seed of heresy had developed cannot be determined, nor can its connection with the later Gnostic and Ebionitic speculations be positively affirmed (comp. Introduction, §2).