“Preeminence” is a powerful word in any context. It is the word used to describe something or someone that is at the very top, the greatest in authority, importance, power, influence, or value. In Colossians 1:18, Paul said that Jesus is preeminent. The Greek word he used, proteuo, occurs in no other place in Scripture. It is a very fitting way to speak of Jesus in His all-encompassing greatness. The full section in Paul’s epistle is an awesome statement about Jesus’ preeminence.
15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him. 17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. 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. 19 For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross.
21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 He has now reconciled in His body of flesh by His death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before Him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.
In this section of chapter 1, Paul was describing to the believers in Colossae that preeminence of Jesus in rather extravagant images. In some ways, the way Paul presents Jesus sounds like the account of the dazzling glory of Jesus revealed on the Mount of Transfiguration. That, along with Isaiah 6 and Revelation 1, convicts us that our view of Jesus falls far short of the glory that is inherently His. In Colossians 1:15-23, we have what many have suggested is an early Christian hymn, a hymn about the preeminence of Christ.