he is the priority

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Colossians 1:15-23 (JDV)

Colossians 1:15 He is the image of the unseen God, the firstborn over all creation.

Colossians 1:16 You see, everything was created by him, in the sky and on the land, [1] what can be seen and what cannot be seen, whether thrones or dominions or priorities [2] or authorities – all things have been created through him and for him.

Colossians 1:17 He is before all things, and by him all things hold together.

Colossians 1:18 He is also the head of the body, the congregation; [3] he is the priority, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything.

Colossians 1:19 You see, God was delighted to have all his fullness dwell in him,

Colossians 1:20 and through him to reconcile everything to himself, whether things on the land or things in the sky, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

Colossians 1:21 Once you were alienated and hostile in your minds expressed in your evil achievements.

Colossians 1:22 But now he has reconciled you by his physical body through his death, to present you devoted, faultless, and blameless before him –

Colossians 1:23 if 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 the sky, and I, Paul, have become an assistant of it.

he is the priority

Life really does feel like a constant act of juggling. We move from task to task, relationship to relationship, moment to moment, trying to keep the things we value in the air without letting any of them fall. Some of those things feel urgent, some feel important, and some simply feel loud. And because we are human, we naturally gravitate toward people who share our sense of what matters. We listen to the voices that affirm our priorities, and we quietly tune out the ones that don’t. That’s not unusual; it’s simply how people navigate the world.

But the New Testament keeps pulling us back to a deeper center. It keeps insisting that the true priority—the one that orders all the others—is Jesus himself. Not a principle, not a program, not a cause, not even a ministry. A person. The Lord who calls us, claims us, and reshapes our sense of what matters. That was the reminder Paul needed to give the Colossians. They weren’t abandoning the faith; they were simply letting other concerns drift into the center. Other teachings, other pressures, other voices were beginning to compete with the simplicity of Christ. And Paul knew how subtle that drift can be.

Churches are not immune to this. In fact, churches may be especially vulnerable. A congregation can become so focused on its traditions, its programs, its controversies, or its internal debates that Jesus quietly moves from the center to the margins. Not denied, not rejected—just displaced. That is why Paul’s words still matter. He wasn’t scolding the Colossians; he was re‑anchoring them. He was reminding them that everything else—every good work, every spiritual practice, every act of service—only makes sense when Christ is the first priority, the gravitational center around which everything else orbits.

When Jesus is first, the juggling changes. The urgent things lose some of their tyranny. The loud things lose some of their power. The important things find their proper place. And the church becomes what it was meant to be: a community shaped by the covenant Jesus established, guided by the commands he gave, and propelled by the commission he entrusted to us.

Lord, ground us in yourself as our first priority. Teach us to keep your covenant, to walk in your commands, and to carry your good news into the world with clarity and courage.

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1 γῆ = land. Colossians 1:16, 20; 3:2, 5.
2 ἀρχή = priority. Colossians 1:16, 18; 2:10, 15.
3 ἐκκλησία = congregation. Colossians 1:18, 24; 4:15-16.