Colossians 1:16 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

For by him were all things created, &c. The casual particle οτι, for, or because, with which this verse begins, refers to both parts of the preceding verse. The Son is the image of the invisible God, as well as the firstborn of the whole creation, because by him were all things created. See the note on John 1:3, where the creation of all things by Christ, God's eternal Word and Son, is explained at large. That are in heaven And heaven itself; but the inhabitants are named, because more noble than the house; and earth; visible The material fabric of this world, with all its inhabitants, called, (Hebrews 11:3,) τα βλεπομενα, the things which are seen, including the visible splendour of the celestial luminaries, the sun, moon, and stars, even all the hosts of these lower heavens; and invisible The different orders of angels, both those that stood and those that afterward fell; called, in the following part of the verse, thrones, dominions, &c. Because, in after times, false teachers would arise and affirm, some, that the world was made by angels; others, that it was made by an evil principle; the apostle may have been directed by the Spirit to declare, in the most express manner, that all things were created by God's beloved Son, that the sincere might be preserved from these pernicious errors. All things were created by him and for him They are the productions of his unsearchable wisdom and almighty power, and were made by him, that he might possess and govern them, and be glorified in and by them. To interpret this, as the Socinians do, of the new creation in a spiritual sense, is so unnatural, that one could hardly believe, if the evidence were not so undeniably strong, that any set of learned commentators could have imbibed such an opinion. And he is before all things In the duration, as well as in the dignity of his nature; or, as Micah expresses it, (Micah 5:2,) he is from everlasting; and by him all things consist Or subsist in that harmonious order of being which renders this universal system one beautiful whole. For the original expression, συνεστηκε, not only implies that he sustains all things in being, or, as it is expressed Hebrews 1:3, upholdeth all things by the word of his power, but that all things were, and are, compacted in him into one system, and preserved therein; and that he is the cement, as well as support, of the universe. This description of the Son, as the first Maker and continual Preserver of all creatures in earth and heaven, even of the various orders of angelic beings, was most pertinent to his purpose of showing the Colossians the folly of the false teachers who were endeavouring to seduce them from their reliance on Christ for salvation, and to persuade them to confide in and worship angels, as more powerful mediators with God than his own beloved Son, by whom these angels were all created.