The Image and the Firstborn
Colossians 1:15-20, the firstborn of all creation, as the early church read it
This is the other great Arian proof-text alongside John 1 and Philippians 2, because the Arians seized on one word: if Christ is "the firstborn of all creation," they said, then He is part of creation, a creature. The early church answered carefully. Chrysostom points out that Paul wrote "firstborn," not "first created," that a creature could not be "the image of the Creator," and that the very next line, "for in him were all things created", makes Him the Maker, not a thing made. The Father in his own words below, with a plain restatement.
The Father's words are verbatim and attributed (Chrysostom, Homilies on Colossians, NPNF, public domain; selected from the running prose, footnote apparatus omitted). The box marked "In plain terms" is our own restatement, never the Father's words.
Colossians 1:15 · KJVWho is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
"'Who is the Image of the invisible God.' Whose image then wilt thou have Him be? God's?… if as God and God's Son, God's image, he shows the exact likeness… The Image of the Invisible is itself also invisible, and invisible in like manner, for otherwise it would not be an image… But if a creature: how is He the Image of the Creator? For neither is a horse the image of a man."
St. John ChrysostomAn image, to be a true image, must be the exact likeness of its original. So "the image of the invisible God" is itself invisible and equal in nature, the Son shows God exactly. And that already answers the Arian: a creature cannot be the image of the Creator any more than a horse is the image of a man. To be God's true image is to share God's nature.
Colossians 1:15-16 · KJV…the firstborn of every creature: for by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible… all things were created by him, and for him:
"'The Firstborn of all creation.' 'What then,' saith one, 'Lo, He is a creature.' Whence? tell me. 'Because he said Firstborn.' However, he said not 'first created,' but 'firstborn.'… otherwise the firstborn is of the same essence with those of whom he is firstborn. Therefore he will be the firstborn son of all things, for it said 'of every creature'; therefore of stones also… is God the Word firstborn. But again… 'firstborn from the dead'… not that He first rose… but that He is the Firstfruits of the Resurrection."
St. John Chrysostom"'For in Him,' he saith, 'were all things created.'… And He is before all things. This is befitting God."
St. John ChrysostomTwo clean strokes. First, Paul wrote "firstborn," not "first created", different words. If "firstborn of every creature" meant He was produced among the creatures, He would be "firstborn of stones" too, which is absurd; and "firstborn from the dead" plainly does not mean He died first but that He is the firstfruits, the head. So "firstborn" means preeminence and priority, not being made. Second, and decisively, "in him were all things created", the Creator is not one of the creatures, "and he is before all things," which, Chrysostom says, "is befitting God."
Colossians 1:17-20 · KJVAnd he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church… that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
Paul gathers it up: before all things, holding all things together, the head of the church, having in everything the preeminence (the very thing "firstborn" was pointing to), and in Him "all fulness" of God dwelling. This is not the language anyone uses of a creature; it is the language of God the Son, through whom and for whom everything exists, now also reconciling everything to Himself by the blood of His cross.
Where this stands among the traditions
This is shared, Nicene ground. Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant confess together what Chrysostom argues here: Christ is the true image and the Creator of all, "before all things," not a creature, and the Arian reading of "firstborn" as "first-made" is the error the whole early church rejected (it is the heresy this very passage was used to refute at Nicaea). "Firstborn" denotes His preeminence and priority over creation, not membership in it. The drift it warns against is the ancient one of Arius, recurring whenever Christ is treated as the highest creature rather than as God the Son, through whom all creatures were made.
Patristic text from Chrysostom's Homilies on Colossians (NPNF, public domain), selected from the running prose with footnote apparatus omitted; nothing added or paraphrased within the quotation marks. Scripture in the King James Version; the plain-language lines are our own restatement. See also The Word Was God, Before Abraham Was, I AM, and He Emptied Himself; this passage in the Study Bible; Colossians 1 at BibleHub.