Paul begins the section saying that Jesus is the image of God and the firstborn of creation (Col 1:15). Is he deliberately confronting the false teachers? Perhaps he thought it was just a good time to share the "stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you" (Eph 3:2). After all, it had been "revealed to His holy apostles" (:5) and he stated "that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery" (:2). He had received "the surpassing greatness of the revelations" (2Co 12:7). He therefore continued saying, "For by Him all things are created" (Col 1:16). "For" denotes a conclusion as if he had said "because." "All things" are specified which designates supremacy which counters the Gnostic's arguments that heirarchys have restrictions of authority. "All things" is repeated seven times to reinforce importance. These revelations had to be to the "prophets in the Spirit" (Eph 2:5) because no man could personally figure this out on his own. "The world was made through Him" (Jn 1:10) and "all things came into being through Him" (:3). The Gnostics might have been able to rationalize this somehow. However, Paul's revelation is all-incompassing explaining "there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him" (1Co 8:6). Also, there is "Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him" (:6). Maybe determining when this happened is the key. Paul points out that "He is before all things" (Col 1:17) which speaks of his preexistence. "He was in the begining with God" (Jn 1:2) and had "equality with God" (Php 2:6). He prayed, "'Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was'" (Jn 17:5). "'You loved Me before the foundation of the world'" (:24).
Here Paul focuses on Jesus as evidenced by the pronouns "He", "Him" and "Himself" occurring fifteen times in six verses. Paul concludes that the purpose is "so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything" (Col 1:18). He sums it up saying "for Him and through Him and to Him are all things" (Ro 11:36). This parallels the verse "by Him all things were created . . . [and] all things have been created through Him and for Him" (Col 1:16). It is obvious that Jesus is not just an aeon as the Gnostics hypothesized. One interpreter explains "by Him" as literally "in Him" which connotes systematically planning the endeavor. "It was the Father's good pleasure for all the fulness to dwell in Him" (:19). The phrase "through Him" appears three times in verses 16 and 20. It means that he is the agent of creation because he has the power and ability to carry it out as it is he "through whom are all things" (Heb 2:10). Finally, everything has been created "for Him" (Col 1:16), or literally, "unto Him." It is he "for whom are all things" (Heb 2:10). It was God's purpose "through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross" (Col 1:20). It was prophesied, "'Behold I come'" (Ps 40:7) because "'I delight to do Thy will, O my God'" (:8). Then "every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord" (Php 2:11). It was prophesied, "Thou dost make him to rule over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast put all things under his feet" (Ps 8:6). Finally, "the Son Himself also will be subjected to the One who subjected all things to Him, that God may be all in all" (1Co 15:28).