Colossians 1:15–23

THE CENTRALITY OF CHRIST

¹⁵He is the image of the invisible God,

the firstborn over all creation.

¹⁶For 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.

¹⁷He is before all things,

and by him all things hold together.

¹⁸He 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.

¹⁹For God was pleased to have

all his fullness dwell in him,

²⁰and 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.

²¹Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds as expressed in your evil actions. ²²But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through his death, to present you holy, faultless, and blameless before him—²³if indeed you remain grounded and steadfast in the faith and are not shifted away from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become a servant of it.