Colossians 1:15-20 8

Colossians 1:15–20 “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”

1) Jesus is the image of the invisible God

2) Jesus is the firstborn of all creation

3) By Jesus all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities

4) All things were created through Jesus

5) All things were created for Jesus

6) Jesus is before all things

7) In Jesus all things hold together

8) Jesus is the head of the body, the church

9) Jesus is the beginning

10) Jesus is the firstborn from the dead

11) Jesus is preeminent in everything

12) In Jesus all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell

13) Through Jesus God reconciled to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven

14) Jesus makes peace by the blood of his cross

8) Jesus is the head of the body, the church

Here we see stated the church’s organic relationship with Jesus. The relationship is not just Leader/follower or King/subjects or Husband/wife or even Savior/saved. These are all real relationships the church has to Jesus, but the one emphasized here is Head/body, an organic union. Just as Christ is preeminent in the universe, so he is preeminent within the body, the church. But there is this difference: as the metaphor of body and head implies, Christ is in organic relationship to his people in a way that is not true of the creation in general.

In the context of describing Christ’s relationship to the church, the opposite of “organic” would be mechanical.

A mechanical relationship implies that something remains constant unless changed by external force, whereas an organic relationship involves living growth and development without requiring outside intervention. When applied to the church, a mechanical model would suggest that believers are like separate parts assembled together functioning according to external commands but lacking genuine internal connection or life-giving unity.

The organic metaphor in Colossians emphasizes something fundamentally different. In an organic system, the whole affects the development of its parts, not merely the parts affecting the whole as in mechanisms. This captures how Christ as the head doesn’t simply direct the church from outside through rules; rather, he supplies life, growth, and vitality from within the body itself. Believers aren’t like cogs in a machine responding to external influence, they are living members drawing sustenance and direction from their union with Christ.

Within an organism, the parts must be valued for the sake of the whole and are not independent of it. This relational interdependence, where individual believers and the church as a whole are mutually dependent on Christ and each other, represents the organic reality Paul emphasizes. A mechanical view would reduce the church to isolated individuals following rules; the organic view presents it as a living body where Christ’s headship generates authentic spiritual growth and unity.

Ephesians 1:22–23 “And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”

Colossians 2:18–19 “Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.”

1 Corinthians 12:27 “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.”

1 Corinthians 12:13 “For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.”

We can see that it is the Holy Spirit who is the bond that unifies the organic body. He is the instigator and sustainer of this union with the body itself and with the body to it’s Head. All believers are members of this body and all believers can and will know they are members by the internal witness of the Spirit. God speaks of this reality of the Spirit indwelling His people very plainly in:

Ezekiel 36:26–27 “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”

So what is the essence of God the Spirit who dwells in us; the body of Christ?

Love.

Foremost a love towards God (Mark 12:30 “And you shall (this is a command) love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’” ) that results in a sincere hunger and thirsting for holiness/ righteousness (Matthew 5:6 ““Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” , John 7:37 “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.” )

This indwelling of the Holy Spirit also manifest itself in a supernatural love for fellow believers; members of the same body. John 13:35 “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”” And is what knits all believers together in a bond of love Colossians 2:2–3 “that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”

So the bond between the body members and between the body and the Head is love worked out in real desires and in practical ways. I would suggest that the Holy Spirit is not the conduit through which this love flows or is produced but rather He IS that love personified.

This view is not new Augustine AD 354-430 was the first to articulate it based on the Apostle John and then Johnathan Edwards AD 1703-1758 building off Augustine.

Augustine’s conception presents the Father as one who loves the Son (who is the image of the Father), the Son as one who loves the Father (from whom the Son images forth), and the Holy Spirit as the love itself.

Edwards viewed the Spirit as the bond between the Father and Son, writing that God “exerts Himself towards Himself no other way than in infinitely loving and delighting in Himself, in the mutual love of the Father and the Son,” Edwards explains that the Spirit is the very love of God, the love that flows between the Father and the Son and overflows to his creatures. He describes the Trinity in terms of intratrinitarian love, claiming that between Father and Son: “there proceeds a most pure act, and an infinitely holy and sweet energy arises between the Father and Son: for their love and joy is mutual, in mutually loving and delighting in each other.” He then connects this directly to the Holy Spirit, explaining that this energy “stands forth in yet another manner of subsistence, and there proceeds the third person in the Trinity, the Holy Spirit, viz. the Deity in act.”

He also argues that while the Father and the Son are repeatedly described as loving each other and human beings, the Spirit is never said to love the Son or the Father or us, Edwards explains this strange omission by arguing that the Spirit is that very love of God.

The Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son because He is the manifestation of the love that is in and between them.

I like to think of it as an eternal dance, the Father and Son have always been completely enjoying each other in love with this dance. and that love is so perfect and great that it manifest itself as the third person, the Holy Spirit. And we (the Church) are being drawn into this dance not to make it complete- it already is- but because of the abundance of the love between Father and Son overflowing and resulting in our perfect love, joy, and delight in God which is God’s Glory manifest.

Let’s look at this idea of the Spirit as love from First John.

1 John 4:7  Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

If you do not love fellow Christians, you are not born of God (born again). The reason being that God is love and He is the one from whom this love is from.

1 John 4:12-13 ....if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 

This shows that God the Spirit abides in us and is directly linked to our loving.

1 John 4:16b  God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

Here John says again that God is love and is abiding in those who love and we saw in the verse above that it is God’s Spirit who is abiding in born again people so this shows that the Holy Spirit IS that love of God.

In what I call the Lord’s prayer in John 17 Jesus prays this beautiful prayer to the Father for us:

John 17:16–26 “They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.””

That last sentence is profound “[Father] I made known to them your name (note the idea of knowing and the name, i.e., essence), and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” Here’s what Jesus is saying: when you come to know God personally, you are drawn into the fellowship of the Trinity - the dance.

Jesus is praying for the unity and love of His Church. That is the mark of the relationship between members of the body to each other and to the Head.

Just as our bodily members are a part of us, so believers belong to Christ. And to each other. This idea is corporate. Even as a human body, although it has many members with various functions, is still one body, so it is with the church, the body of Christ (Romans 12:5 “so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” ). Paul encourages various members of Christ’s body with different gifts to serve the Lord appropriately (Romans 12:6–8 “Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching; the one who exhorts, in his exhortation; the one who contributes, in generosity; the one who leads, with zeal; the one who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.” ).

This union with Jesus as the head of His body the church made up of all His Spirit indwelt members is marked by varying Spiritual gifts that are to be used to harmonize the whole. What makes these gifts uniquely Christian is that they are permeated with love to God first and second, out of that, love to man. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit as that love is the unique mark of the body of Christ.

1 Corinthians 13:1–13 “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Union with Christ is both an individual and a communal reality. As soon as individuals are joined to Christ, they are joined to every other believer in Christ. We are not made to go it alone, we need each other in at least two ways; we are to contribute our Spiritual gifts for the good of others and we are to receive Spiritual blessings from all those who make up the rest of the body so we can love and enjoy our Head (Jesus) together forever.

We will dance.