What Christ’s Supremacy Means for My Life

A Few Thoughts to Consider

Have you ever thought about what Christ’s supremacy means for your life?

This is the central theme of the Book of Colossians. As Peter O’Brien notes, Colossae was situated on a key route connecting Ephesus and Sardis to the Euphrates, making it notable in the accounts of military campaigns by King Xerxes and Cyrus the Younger. However, by Roman times, two generations before Paul, the city had significantly declined in prominence, with Strabo describing it as a mere “small town.” Its importance had been overshadowed by Laodicea, located ten miles west, and Hierapolis, twelve miles northwest, both in the Lycus Valley.^[1]

By the time Paul addressed the Christians in Colossae, the town’s commercial and social relevance was already diminished, though the impact of this decline on the townspeople and local believers is uncertain. One thing is certain: the believers needed to be reminded of the supremacy and wonder of Christ. In Colossians 1 and 2, Paul paints a vivid picture of who Christ is and what this means for those who follow him. In Colossians 1:15-20, Paul says,

¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. ¹⁶ For everything was created by him, in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through him and for him. ¹⁷ He is before all things, and by him all things hold together. ¹⁸ He is also the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. ¹⁹ For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile everything to himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.