Colossians 1: 15 – Firstborn of every creature

Who is the image of the invisible God, firstborn of every creature…

The first glory of “the Son of God’s love” that Paul displays here is that He is “the image of God, the invisible one”. God, who is invisible himself, makes himself visible through his Son.

The apostle then gives the Son the honorary title “firstborn of every creature.” Regardless of the question of what exactly ‘first’ means in this term, we can determine in advance that since the Son of every creature is the first, He is therefore counted among “every creature”. Because to be first (or last or highest or best) in a series one must be part of that series. If the Son were not a creature, then He could not be the first of every creature. Just as the “first of all commandments” (Mk. 12:28) is necessarily a commandment, and the “first of months” (Ex. 12:2) is by definition a month.

The word ‘firstborn’ means from Greek (prototokos): ‘first produced’. However, anyone familiar with Biblical history knows that the best-known ‘firstborns’ were rarely born first. Just think of Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and Ephraim. The term ‘firstborn’ does not (necessarily) refer to order in birth, but to order in birth. The firstborn is the highest in position!

Delen: