BY GREG CRUM
“And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.” Colossians 1:17-18
These are a couple of my all-time favorite Scriptures from God’s Word. It’s not that I’ve always understood the magnitude of the meaning communicated, or still completely do, but they’re verses that when I read them, I know they contain revolutionary truth for my life. I remember many years ago now, reading over these verses and thinking there’s more than you’re seeing in that. Here lately I’ve been drawn back to these verses and I think I’m beginning to get a glimpse of what God is trying to say here about Jesus and how important he is to our very existence.
I know this: the more I think about this passage, the more I realize how awesome Jesus is and how much we should honor him in our lives!
To that point, think about how verse 18 ends. There, speaking of Jesus, it reads that “in all things he might have the preeminence.” Now that word “preeminence” is a pretty fancy word, one not used much in everyday language, so it would be understandable if some weren’t quite sure what it means. If you look for a dictionary definition and apply it to that verse it would come out to mean something along the lines of in all things and above all things Jesus should be “first in rank and influence.” This makes perfect sense with what many of us have heard of Jesus growing up in church, even on a superficial level.
You know what though? It makes even more sense when you dig a little deeper in thought about its meaning. Think about it for a moment. Of all the entities in Creation, known and unknown, of all the precious commodities, things essential to our existence and things desired by the eyes, above the beauty and majesty of mountains high and oceans deep, above the glory of celestial bodies near and far—Jesus should be honored above them all. How important must he be that God decrees this about him! How honored he should be in our minds and hearts!
Sadly, you know as well as I do we live in an age of increasing anti-Christ sentiment. The devil despises Christ, the anointed one and his anointing. The devil’s system, the world, in turn reviles the Messiah and his message of peace and reconciliation with God. This we understand, this we expect, but dishonor to Christ hasn’t been satisfied to dwell in the tents of the wicked.
In our day we have seen many “Christian” groups water down the Gospel so much that Jesus only shows up in their conversations at Christmas and Easter, if that. That’s bad, and it’s easy to pile on blame to these organizations and their leaders, but things like that are only able to occur when “we the people” in the pews allow it. Churches have dethroned Christ because Jesus isn’t on the throne of the hearts of many believers! You want to know the real reason why our country and our world are in the shape they’re in? Yeah, there’s your answer.
So, what’s the solution? Is there one at this point? I believe so, if we will purposely start giving Jesus his seat back. If we give him back the place in our hearts and lives that is rightly his. If we quit asking him to scoot over a bit for our kids, our jobs, our sports and our social media presence. If we wake up and realize once and for all that the first seat is his seat alone!
Brothers and sisters, it’s time we begin to get reacquainted with the King of all kings and the Savior of our souls. If we will do this and begin to personally and deeply understand who he is, we’ll have no problem wanting him to be first place in our lives!
Greg Crum is the pastor of Calvary Temple in Lovely.