¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.

            Pau identifies Christ as “the head of the body, the church.” David Lipscomb wrote the following,

            “The plain statement is that the church is the body of Christ. Everyone therefore who belongs to Christ necessarily belongs to the church. To be out of the church is to be out of Christ. To be in Christ is to be in the church.”

            The church is His spiritual creation, His body, which is His holy people that He obtained with His blood (Acts 20:28; cf. 1 Peter 1:18-19) and ordained with His blessing (Matt. 16:18; 28:18-20).

            He is Sovereign Over the Church (Col. 1:18). As the head, He is its governing faculty, the leader of the church. We have the phrase, “the firstborn from the dead.” Concerning this, David Lipscomb wrote the following,

            “The same title is given him by the apostle John. (Rev. 1:5.)  He was the first raised from the dead to die no more. Some had been restored to fleshly life.”

            Matthew Allen, in his workbook on Colossians, wrote the following,

            “Not that He was the first person ever to be resurrected, as the Bible records many who have been brought back to life. But all those individuals died again. Jesus is the firstborn from the dead in that He is the first to be truly resurrected. Romans 6:1-11 attests Jesus did not die again and that is why Paul use the firstborn imagery.”

            Christ Must Be First in Our Work.  What should our response be to Jesus as the head of the church? Submission. Obedience. Service. Scott Pace and Daniel Akin write the following in Exalting Jesus in Colossians,

            “As the Lord’s people, we must relinquish control and submit to His authority and His agenda. Jesus, as head of the church, must be given ultimate authority and leadership in the local church. Active involvement in the local body is essential to our existence and function as individual members of the spiritual body of Christ (Rom. 12:4-5; c. Eph. 4:15-16).”

            Paul wrote in Col. 3:7, “And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” In our labor and with His love, Jesus, as head of the church, must have first place in our work!