The Oldest - Colossians 1:14-18

1:14-15 - Even though the atonement might be a complicated concept to understand, how we can participate in it is easy to both understand and apply. Paul reminds his audience that God’s “dear Son: in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.” We don’t have to know HOW Christ paid for our sins with his blood to accept the fact that he did it and because of that we can repent. We can repent and use the atonement even if it is a concept so advanced for our mortal minds that we don’t know how it works. Kind of like I don’t know how cars work, but I can still drive to work in the mornings. And the more we repent and try to become Christlike, the more the Spirit reveals to us when we are ready. The IM also notes that Paul begins his description of the Savior like this “to support the superiority of Jesus Christ over all other things the Colossian Saints might be tempted to worship.” Paul describes the Son as being “the image of the invisible God, the first born of every creature.” He has described God this way before, but the IM points out that God being “invisible” just means that we don’t see Him now, not that he is incapable of being seen. It’s also a reminder of “just because you can’t see Him doesn’t mean he’s not there and not powerful.” The article on this chapter from gospeldoctrine.com says, “In his poetic way, Paul is saying the Son is visible and the Father is not. ‘Invisible, incidentally, is a very unfortunate translation since it implies that God could never appear. Unseen is better, implying the possibility that God will appear- that he is temporarily unseen but not permanently unseeable.’” The article also quotes George Q. Cannon with a very long explanation of how the world has been blinded to who God really is. Very few people within human history have actually seen God the Father while on their mortal Journey. Instead of believing that in a physical being with His own personality in whom Jesus Christ was created in the “express image,” the world now sees God as “an all-pervading God of spirit- a Being who, without any tangible existence, is everywhere in the material world- a Being ‘without body, parts, or passions,’ ‘whose center was nowhere and whose circumference was everywhere’… Thus blinded, how could mankind offer true worship to the Lord of heaven and earth?” This last sentence is a powerful perspective on why it is so easy for people to fail at making the complete, lifelong leap into new religion and why it’s so important that we treat everyone who makes different decisions than us with kindness. Verse 15 attributes to Jesus not only looking exactly like his dad, but also being “the firstborn of every creature.” In Jesus the Christ, James E. Talmage talks about Jesus statement that “before Abraham was, IAM,” which indicated to his audience that Jesus himself was Jehovah, claiming seniority over that ancient prophet. But JTC says that because Abraham lived thousands of years before Christ, this was seniority in a spiritual sense. Clearly Jesus wasn’t the first born of all creatures physically, which leaves it to mean that Jesus was the first born of all creatures spiritually. The IM notes, “Jesus was the first-born of the spirit children of our Heavenly Father, the Only Begotten of the Father in the flesh, and the first to rise from the dead in the resurrection.” 1:16-17 - Paul continues that “by (Christ) were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: and he is before all things, and by him all things consist.” That is pretty all encompassing, there’s not a lot of things can fall outside of the description or “all things.” I think it’s difficult with how processed everything is in our world today to appreciate the scope of “all things.” It’s relatively easy to look at nature and equate it with “God’s creation,” but the computer I’m using to write this didn’t fall from outer space from another universe, the car that drove me to work this morning didn’t fall out of the sky. Because nature is relegated to small, manicured, purposeful areas it’s easy to put God’s influence in our lives and in the universe to those same small spaces, but everything that we have, regardless of how far removed from its natural state, was created by Jesus. Even more so with the technology that we have because not only did the physical materials have to be processed in such a way to be used in this form but the knowledge of how to do it and how to make the technology function had to come from God as well. If we think about all the other people, places, objects, animals that the Colossians might have been tempted to worship, Paul is saying that Jesus Christ created all of them, and why would you worship something instead of worshipping the being that created that something. 1:18 - This God, this creator of all things, “is the head of the body, the church.” Paul’s telling them that this is the religious organization the God of the universe is working through. It’s easy for people to get attached to an organization’s leadership and be dedicated to them instead of to the concept. That’s why it had to be Brigham Young who led the church into Utah instead of Joseph Smith. So even though the people are familiar with Paul and some congregations clearly feel affection toward him, his isn’t Paul’s church, it is Jesus Christ’s church and Paul is just helping him get the message across. The article quotes Gordon B. Hinckley as stating, “I know that I am not the head of this church… The Lord Jesus Christ is its head. He is its living head. My mission, my chief responsibility, my greatest honor comes in bearing solemn testimony of Hid living reality.” It also quotes Howard W. Hunter as saying, “Jesus Christ is the head of his church. He leads it in word and deed. I am honored beyond expression to be called for a season to be an instrument in his hands to preside over his church. But without the knowledge that Christ is the head of the Church, neither I nor any other man could bear the weight of the colling that has come.” This is one concept that has been difficult for me especially because this church is SO structured and there are SO many leadership positions. And because of this structure we have to remember that all the leadership are just imperfect people called to do a job but that it is hard for them to sometimes do that job. Whenever a new policy comes up or something changes within the Church, sometimes I have to think, “why would Jesus cause this to be done?” Like back when the church policy came out that said children living in same sex households couldn’t be baptized until they were 18. There were many people, some even very close to me who left the church over it. But after I found out about it, I had a very tender 15 or so hours with Jesus that were very special to me where he helped me understand. I think that times like that are available for us to strengthen our testimonies and relationship with the Savior a lot more than we realize. I need to work on having more of those experiences myself, because it’s been a while.