He is before all things, and in him all things hold together (Colossians 1:17 NIV).
What if the greatest danger to your faith wasn’t that someone would convince you to stop following Jesus?
What if it was the quieter temptation to believe that Jesus is important—but not quite enough?
That was the struggle facing the church in Colossae.
Paul wrote this letter to the Colossians from a Roman prison where he was confined for proclaiming that Jesus—not Caesar—is Lord. Unlike many of his other letters, Colossians wasn’t written to a church he planted. In fact, Paul never met the believers there. The church had been started by his coworker Epaphras, who later visited Paul in prison with encouraging news. The Colossians were growing in their faith and loving one another well. But they were also feeling the pull of the culture around them.
Some voices encouraged them to add Jesus to the many mythological gods they already worshipped. Others insisted that faith in Christ needed to be completed by following the Jewish ceremonial laws.
Neither group rejected Jesus. They simply treated Him as though He wasn’t enough.
We face the same temptation today. We may not worship Roman gods or debate circumcision, but we’re constantly invited to build our identity around something other than Jesus. Jesus just becomes one more piece of life instead of the One who holds life together.
Paul writes Colossians to remind the reader who Jesus really is.
The Center of Everything
Near the beginning of the letter, Paul includes one of the most breathtaking descriptions of Christ in Scripture (Colossians 1:15–20). Many scholars believe these verses were part of an early Christian hymn. Everything Paul will write depends on them.
Jesus is “the image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15).
If you’ve ever wondered what God is really like, look at Jesus.
Watch Him touch the untouchable. See Him welcome children. Listen as He forgives sinners and offers mercy to the broken. Jesus doesn’t merely tell us about God—He reveals Him.
Paul also calls Jesus “the firstborn over all creation.” In the Old Testament, firstborn described position and authority rather than birth order. Christ reigns over creation because everything was made through Him, for Him, and is held together by Him.
That truth matters when life feels as though it’s unraveling. Jesus has never lost His grip.
When Suffering Becomes Ministry
Paul saw the prison cell as another place where Jesus could be made known. Paul doesn’t glorify suffering, but neither does he waste it. Because Christ brought life through the cross, Paul trusts that God will also bring purpose through his chains.
Jesus Is Enough
“See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit… rather than Christ” (2:8).
Competing spiritual voices bombarded the Colossians. Some claimed Jesus needed to be worshiped alongside other spiritual powers. Others insisted Christians needed Jewish laws and ceremonies to be complete. Paul rejected both. Jesus had already defeated every spiritual power and fulfilled everything the Law required.
Like the Colossians, we’re surrounded by voices adding burdens to the gospel of grace. They shift our focus from Jesus to our performance—church attendance, serving, Bible study, prayer, or adopting their way of thinking. Paul warns us not to add anything to Christ. Spiritual disciplines are the fruit of our faith, not its foundation. We don’t read Scripture, pray, worship, or serve to prove ourselves enough. We do these things because He already is. His work is complete.
Living Like the Resurrection Really Happened
Paul then shifts from theology to practice.
“Set your minds on things above,” he writes (Colossians 3:1).
He isn’t telling believers that our hope is in escaping the world. Paul invites them to see life from the perspective of the risen King.
Because Christ lives, His people are called to live differently. The old patterns of anger, dishonesty, selfish ambition, and destructive speech no longer define us. Instead, Paul describes a life marked by compassion, kindness, humility, patience, forgiveness, and love.
These aren’t personality traits. They are evidence that Jesus is transforming us from the inside out. This new life also reshapes the way we see one another. Ethnicity, social status, and religious background no longer determine a person’s value because Christ is creating one new family.
Love Interrupts Our Man-Made Rules
Paul applies this vision to the Roman household; a place built on hierarchy and power. Rather than endorsing that system, he quietly transforms it by placing everyone under the authority of Jesus as the Head.
Husbands and wives are called to sacrificial love. Parents nurture rather than provoke. Even ancient masters are reminded that their servants belong to Christ.
The letter closes with a living example.
Tychicus delivers Paul’s letter to the Colossians alongside Onesimus, a servant of one of the believers in Colossae. Roman law saw Onesimus as a runaway slave. Paul introduces him as “a faithful and beloved brother.” In his companion letter to Philemon, he urges Onesimus’ former master to receive him “no longer as a slave… but as a beloved brother.”
That’s what happens wherever Jesus is truly Lord. People aren’t their labels. They are family.
The Invitation of Colossians
The message of Colossians is both simple and searching.
Jesus is not one part of life. He is the center.
His resurrection didn’t simply secure our future. It transformed our present. Every act of forgiveness, choice to love, refusal to compromise becomes evidence that His kingdom had come.
The believers in Colossae lived in a world filled with competing voices, uncertain futures, and constant pressure to compromise. So do we. Paul reminds us that our hope has never rested in our ability to hold life together. It rests in the One who holds us.
The world will always offer something to add to Jesus, but Colossians calls us back to the One who created all things, holds all things together, is making all things new—and is more than enough.
Author Info
Stacy Sanchez
Stacy Sanchez and her husband John, have 5 children: yours, mine, ours, and adopted, as well as 9 grandcherubs, and are currently raising a grandson. Her writings have been featured in multiple anthology books, devotions, and magazine articles. She received the 2024 Advanced Writers and Speakers Association’s Leading Hearts Magazine Article of the Year, and the Arise Daily Devotional Writer of the Year awards. Stacy is a pastor, author, speaker, and advocate for the 2.7 million grandparents who are raising their grandchildren. She started the “Parenting, Again?!” ministry to support and encourage Grandfamilies.
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