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ALL
ALL THINGS
40
AND
A Eph. 1:21-23. Principalities, authorities, powers, lordships.
Christ. Head of the body the church. Fulness.
B Eph. 3:10.
Principalities, authorities - The church linked with the principalities.
C Eph. 6:12.
Principalities, authorities, world rulers, spiritual things of wickedness - The believer's
conflict.
A Col. 1:16.
Principalities, authorities, thrones, lordships - Christ, Head of the body the church. Fulness.
B Col. 2:10.
Principalities, authorities - The church linked with principalities.
C Col. 2:15.
Principalities, authorities - The Saviour's triumph.
As we read these passages together it seems difficult to think that the very different references are all to the same
spiritual powers. Some we find are placed beneath the Lord's feet (Eph. 1:22), and this position is not the place of
the members of His body - to them He is Head. These same subjected powers (being guided by the parallel in
1 Corinthians 15 and the emphasis there on enemies) seem to be the antagonizing spirits of Ephesians 6:12, and the
ones over whom the Lord triumphed by reason of the cross. Others seem to be more closely associated with the
Church. Some are learning by the Church the manifold wisdom of God (Eph. 3:10), and are linked with the Church
of the One Body by having Christ as a common Head (Col. 2:10).
The believer has been delivered from the authority (exousia) of darkness by the Lord who is the image of the
invisible God, First-born of every creature. The meaning of the term `Firstborn' is defined by the reason given in
the next sentence. He is First-born of every creature because by Him were all things created. As we ponder the
creations enumerated in Colossians 1:16 and their relation to the pre-eminence of the Son of God, it becomes
manifest that we are not dealing with such creatures as are enumerated in Psalm 8:7 -
`All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever
passeth through the paths of the sea'.
- but with mighty powers and beings over whom the Lord Jesus Christ is pre-eminent. The whole enumeration has
reference to visible and invisible dominions and spiritual powers and by comparison with the other passages
referring to the principalities, it would seem that some of these mighty beings not only antagonized the Church (Eph.
6:12) and Israel (Dan. 10), but also the pre-eminence of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and it is the reconciliation of
these `all things' with which Colossians 1 is particularly concerned. Chapter 2 also shows that the opposition of
these angelic powers in reference to `holding the Head' is still prominent in the inspired writer's mind.
It will be further observed that man is not mentioned in verse 16, for man is not included in the all things
enumerated in that verse, he is treated quite separately in verse 18, as included in the Church. The reconciliation of
the all things (ta panta) looks back to those spiritual powers on earth, or in heaven, and man is introduced into the
subject of reconciliation quite separately in verse 21.
1 Peter 3:22 emphasizes the subjection of angelic and spiritual powers to the risen Lord:
`Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities (exousia) and powers
(dunamis) being made subject unto Him'.
Romans 8:38,39 includes them among the possible agencies that might be thought antagonistic to the believer:
`For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor
things to come (cf. Eph. 1:21), nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord'.
It certainly appears that those angelic dominions are ranged under two heads, some antagonistic to the Lord and
His people, and some ranged under the Lord as Head both now and in the fulness of the seasons (Eph. 1:10).
`That in the dispensation of the fulness of the seasons He might gather together under one Head the all things (ta
panta) in the Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth in Him'.
Ta panta by its recurrence and contexts seems to be a term having in most cases a specific meaning. Those who
dismiss the subject by saying of Colossians 1:16,17,18 and 20, it reads `all things' and that is enough for me, are not