Preeminence
Preeminence means being the highest in rank or being first. It is like saying the One preeminence is the One with the most significant importance.
That is the place of Jesus, not us.
When Paul wrote to the Colossian church, he said the following:
Colossians 1:3 We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, 4 since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; 5 because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel, 6 which has come to you, as it has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth; 7 as you also learned from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on your behalf, 8 who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.
So far, the opening of the letter sounds really great. He makes these believers sound as though they have it all together and probably would not need anything. They are already believers in Jesus, so surely they wouldn't need any encouragement in the gospel. But he keeps going.
Colossians 1:9 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
Paul has been and will continue to pray for these believers. He believes they need to be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. Why?
That they may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in their knowledge of God.
Paul's language quickly shifts from focusing on the believers at Colossae to emphasizing Jesus. Why is this? Could it be that the New Covenant Gospel is not all about us so much as it is about Jesus?
We need a gospel that makes Jesus preeminent in our thinking and adoration. A gospel where He is so glorious and so wonderful that we think less of ourselves and more of Him.
A gospel where Jesus is Lord and we desire to know His will as opposed to making Him aware of our own. Jesus has the preeminence in the true Gospel, not man. We consider ourselves blessed and privileged to be included in the inheritance of the saints, and our valuation of Jesus soars when we grasp this gospel truth correctly.
