In the kingdom of the Son of God’s love, Christ has the first place, the preeminence, in all things; in this kingdom we experience and enjoy Christ as the preeminent One and as the all-inclusive One, for He is the reality of all the positive things for our enjoyment today. Amen!
This week we have been prayerfully considering the two vital matters of spiritual warfare to bring in the kingdom of God and living in the kingdom of the Son of God’s love.
On the negative side, we need to be aware that, for us to bring in the kingdom of God, we need to fight the spiritual warfare.
The satanic will is in contrast to the divine will, and Satan rises up against the Lord and His purpose, seeking to frustrate Him from fulfilling His economy.
God is great, and He will not deal with a creature, Satan, by Himself; He could just obliterate Satan, but He created man, a creature in His image and according to His likeness, to deal with Satan.
We as the church have been brought back to God’s original intention to both deal with God’s enemy and to express Him corporately.
On the negative side, the church stands on God’s side to fight the spiritual warfare so that the satanic will may be subdued and the enemy of God may be defeated.
We are here for the kingdom of God, and we stand on God’s side, one with the victorious Christ, to overthrow the power of Satan by the power of God!
Amen, we just offer ourselves willingly to God in the day of His warfare, in the splendour of our consecration.
We consecrate ourselves to Him and we exercise to stand one with Him on earth for His kingdom to come and His enemy to be subdued. Amen!
On the positive side, we live in the reality of the kingdom of God by living in the kingdom of the Son of God’s love.
Praise the Lord that He has both delivered us out of the authority of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love! Hallelujah!
We are now in the kingdom of God as the kingdom of the Son of the Father’s love.
We are in a realm of love, light, and life, and here we are being ruled by God with His life, by His light, and with His love.
We love the Lord, we yield to Him, we give ourselves to Him, and we allow Him to rule and reign in us.
We learn to do the will of God, for our God is a God of purpose.
The will of God is to build up the church upon Christ as the rock, so we are here for God’s building.
Furthermore, we take just one person – Christ – and one way – the cross, for Christ and the cross are the central and focal point of the universe. Amen!
Today we want to see that in the kingdom of the Son of God’s love, Christ has the first place in all things and here we enjoy the preeminent Christ as the reality of all the positive things.
In the Kingdom of the Son of God’s Love, Christ has the First Place in All Things – He is the Preeminent One
We believers in Christ are in the kingdom of God as the kingdom of the Son of God’s love, and here Christ has the first place in all things.
As seen in Col. 1:18, Christ is the Head of the Body, the church; He is the beginning, the Firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself might have the first place in all things.
The book of Colossians in particular reveals that Christ is preeminent; He is the preeminent One both in the first creation and in the new creation (vv. 15, 18).
When God created the universe, Christ had the first place in it, for He is the first One in all things.
When God brought forth the new creation through the death and resurrection of Christ, Christ again has the preeminence in the new creation, for He is the Firstborn from the dead. Hallelujah!
Christ is the first both in creation and in resurrection; He is the first in the old creation – the universe – and in the new creation – the church. Wow!
The universe exists to give Christ the preeminence and to express Him, and the church exists as the Body of Christ to express Christ in full. Hallelujah!
For God and to God, Christ is the preeminent One; whatever God does, whatever He is, and whatever He desires it is all related to Christ and focused on Christ, the preeminent One.
When Christ came to the earth, God was interested and focused not mainly on the work that Christ did for Him but on Him, the person of Christ, for Christ has the first place in all things.
What about us today, as believers in Christ? As we live in the kingdom of the Son of God’s love, we need to give Christ the first place in all things.
In our married life, in our family life, in our work life, and in our personal life, Christ must have the first place.
Christ should have the first place not only in the old creation and in the new creation but even more, in you and in me.
As we live our Christian life today, as we live a normal Christian life and church life to be in the reality of the kingdom, we need to give Christ the first place in all things.
He needs to have the preeminence in us.
When we wake up in the morning, we need to give Christ the first place; when we go to bed, we need to give Him the preeminence.
As we do things, decide things, go places, and are involved in different activities, we need to give Christ the first place in all things.
If we see the vision of the preeminence of Christ, our Christian life and our church life will be revolutionized, for we will realize that in all things Christ must be first.
In everything, He must be the first. When we are sick, we need to give Christ the first place.
When we are healthy, we still need to give Him the preeminence in all things.
![But I have [one thing] against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore where you have fallen from and repent and do the first works; but if not, I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place, unless you repent. Rev. 2:4-5](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/But-I-have-one-thing-against-you-that-you-have-left-your-first-love-3.jpg?resize=400%2C500&ssl=1 "But I have [one thing] against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore where you have fallen from and repent and do the first works; but if not, I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place, unless you repent. Rev. 2:4-5")
To give the Lord the first place in all things is to love Him with the first love, the best love (Rev. 2:4).
When we love the Lord with the first love, we spontaneously give Him the first place in all things, giving Him the preeminence in us.
In order for us to give Christ the preeminence, we must be willing to be adjusted, to be broken, and to be made nothing so that He can have a way in us, through us, and among us for the building up of His organic Body. Amen!
The more we love the Lord, the more we give Him the preeminence in all things.
The more we give Christ the first place, the more we are willing to allow Him to adjust us and break us, even to make us nothing.
When we become nothing, when we realize we are nothing, the Lord will have a way in us and through us.
When Moses got to the end of his human resources, when he realized he could not do it, God could come in and do it in him and through him.
We are nothing, but Christ is everything. We open our vessel, and He comes in to fill us and do all things in us.
May we be willing to give Him preeminence so that He may have a way among us for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ.
Lord Jesus, we love You! We give You the first place in our being. We give You the first place in our work and life. You are the preeminent One in us. You are our Head and we are Your Body. You are the beginning, the Firstborn from the dead, so that You might have the first place in all things. Amen, Lord Jesus, we love You and we give You the first place in all things by faith. Grant us to love You with the first love, the best love. Oh Lord, may we be willing to be adjusted, to be broken, and to be made nothing so that You may have a way in us, through us and among us for the building up of the church! Amen, Lord, have a way in us today. We are nothing, Lord, but You are everything. We empty ourselves and we want to be freshly filled with You! We give You the preeminence in all things. We want to check with You concerning all things and take Your feeling and decision concerning all things. Have the first place in our being and in all things related to us. Oh Lord Jesus, we love You!
In the Kingdom of the Son of God’s Love we Experience and Enjoy Christ in His All-inclusiveness
In the kingdom of the Son of God’s love, we believers in Christ enjoy and experience Christ in His all-inclusiveness.
This kingdom is Christ Himself; it is the growth of Christ, the spreading of Christ, the enlargement of Christ.
Col. 1:19 says that in Christ all the fullness was pleased to dwell.
What is this fullness? In a sense, it refers to God, but in another sense, there’s something in this universe called the fullness, and this fullness was pleased to dwell in Christ.
The fullness denotes the expression of the riches of all that God is; the fullness of the Godhead with the expression of all that God is was pleased to dwell in Christ. What a Christ we have!
The church is filled with this Christ, who is the expression of God’s riches.
This is a pleasant Christ, a Christ that is so rich, so bountiful and so wonderful.
The expression of God, even God Himself, is pleased to dwell in Christ.
He is preeminent One, and we give Him the first place in all things. In the kingdom of the Son of God’s love, we experience and enjoy Christ in His all-inclusiveness.
Christ is all-inclusive and extensive, and He is the content of the kingdom of God.
He is the reality of all the positive things in the universe.
If we read the Bible and have the glasses of God’s economy on, we will realize that Christ is the reality of the heavens, the earth, the sun, life, the star, trees, flowers, water, air, and food.
Everything that is positive around us is a type of Christ; Christ is the reality of all the positive things.
Even more, Christ is the reality of all the divine attributes of God. Christ is the reality of power, holiness, righteousness, kindness, and love.
Christ is the reality of humility and patience, and He is the reality of all the human virtues.
God gives us only Christ, and this Christ is all-inclusive and extensive.
He is the embodiment of the fullness of the Godhead, and He is the reality of all the positive things in the universe.
He is the reality of the sunshine and the rain, and He is the reality of the food and drink that we eat and take in.
Christ is the reality of God and man, and He is the church and every member of the church.
Christ in you and Christ in me is the church; He is the reality of the church, and without Him, there is no church.
The reason that there are so many so-called churches today that do not express Christ nor do they manifest God is that Christ is not in them, so they are not the church but just empty shells, religious entities, and social circles devoid of Christ. Oh, Lord!
Christ is the reality of the church, and He is in all and even is all. Christ is all and in all (Col. 3:10-11).
In the kingdom of the Son of God’s love,e we enjoy and experience Christ in His all-inclusiveness.
We just enjoy and experience Him in all the details of our daily life, taking Him as the reality of all the positive things, as the One who can meet all our needs, as the reality of the divine attributes, and as the reality of all the human virtues.
What a Christ we have! Some, however, may twist such words and falsely accuse us of teaching or promoting pantheism, which is the satanic belief that identifies God with the universe.
Such a concept or belief is devilish, and we repudiate it without reservation.
We believe that Christ has the first place in all things and He is the preeminent One, and we take Him as the reality of all the positive things in the universe.
However, we do not say that the bread we eat is God, nor do we believe that the church is God; rather, we believe that Christ is the reality of all the positive things.
Christ is the real food (John 6:55), but this doesn’t mean that the physical food we eat is God; such a concept is both absurd and satanic.
Oh, how good it is to return to the divine revelation in God’s word and enjoy Christ as our everything!
He is both the centrality and the universality of God.
In God’s economy, Christ is the center and the circumference; He is everything. In the kingdom of the Son of God’s love, we experience and enjoy Christ in His all-inclusiveness (Col. 1:12, 27; 2:9, 16-17; 3:1, 4, 11).
Christ is the embodiment of the Triune God, the One in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily (2:9).
Christ is our allotted portion, our good land—the divine inheritance for our enjoyment (1:12).
Christ is the reality of every positive thing in the universe (2:16-17).
Christ is the One sitting at the right hand of God (3:1). Christ dwells in us as our hope of glory (1:27). Christ is our life (3:4).
Christ is the constituent of the one new man (vv. 10-11).
Hallelujah, in the kingdom of the Son of God’s love we enjoy and experience Christ in His all-inclusiveness! Praise the Lord, our Christ is all-inclusive and extensive, and we can enjoy and experience Him today! Wow, Lord, You are the embodiment of the Triune God, the One in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells! We come to You, Lord, and we enjoy You as our allotted portion, our divine inheritance for our enjoyment. You are the reality of all the positive things in the universe, and everything that is positive points to You as the reality! Amen, Lord, You are the reality of all the divine attributes and human virtues, and You are in us as the all-inclusive One! You are the reality of the church and You are the reality of every member of the church! Hallelujah, Christ is all and in all in the church as the one new man! We love You, Lord, and we enjoy You as the One sitting at the right hand of God and at the same time dwells in us as our hope of glory! Amen, Lord, we take You as our life and we want to live because of You today!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ron Kangas in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Colossians, msg. 5, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Living in the Reality of the Kingdom of God (2024 October ITERO), week 7, Spiritual Warfare to Bring In the Kingdom of God and Living in the Kingdom of the Son of God’s Love.
- Similar articles on this topic:
– By applying the death of Christ, a portion from, The All-inclusive Christ, Chapter 14.
– 12 ways to give Christ the first place in the new year, via, Holding to Truth in Love.
– What is the All-inclusive Christ? Read more via, The hearing of faith.
– Colossians (Program #5) – Christ-The Preeminent and All-Inclusive One, The Centrality and Universality Of God, via, Bible study radio.
– Knowing, Experiencing, and Living the all-inclusive Christ for the Genuine Church Life, outline via, Strumien.
– Allowing Christ the Preeminence for the Advance of God’s Move Today, via, Living to Him.
– The all-inclusive Christ in 1 Corinthians, article by Ed Marks in, Affirmation and Critique.
– Christ Himself as the All-inclusive Life-giving Spirit Being the Reality and Content of the New Covenant Ministry and the Constitution of the New Covenant Ministers, video message via, Heavenly Foods.
– May Christ Have First Place in All Things in Us, via, New Jerusalem blog.
– Christ becoming the all-inclusive Spirit, a portion from, The Subjective Experience of the Indwelling Christ, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee.
– The all-inclusive Christ in the New Testament, via, Conversant Faith.
– Our Need to Labor on the All-Inclusive Christ (R.K.), message via, Joseph’s Storehouses.
– Christ has the First Place in New Jerusalem, via, New Jerusalem blog.
– The all-inclusive Christ in Revelation, article by John Campbell in, Affirmation and Critique. - Hymns on this topic:
– In new heaven and new earth / Center of all things He’ll be, / For the Godhead and for man / Throughout all eternity. / God intends in everything / Christ should have preeminence, / And that such a Christ of all / We should now experience. (Hymns #495 stanzas 8-9)
– Christ as my Person must possess my heart / And be preeminent in every part. / The former owner died but haunts it still. / O Lord, move in; my mind, emotion, will / Now welcome Thee. / In spirit mingled, we are one, O Lord, / The human and divine in one accord; / Yet Thou must have a proper faculty / That all Thy glorious personality / May be expressed. (Hymns #1179 stanzas 3-4)
– My Christ, the all-inclusive One, / My Christ what shall I call? / He is the first, He is the last, / My Christ is All in all. / Since such a treasure I possess, / My heart doth sing for joy; / And I must sing, and sing again; / Oh, what a Christ have I! (Hymns #510 stanzas 14-15)
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Life-study of Colossians, pp. 41-43, by Witness Lee
Dear brother, in the kingdom of the Son of God’s love, Christ has the first place, the preeminence, in all things.
Both in the old and in the new creation, in the universe and in the church, Christ is the first and occupies the place of preeminence. He is both the reality of all positive things and the first in all things.
May we love Him with the first love and give Him the preeminence in our being.
Christ who is the image of the God, the Firstborn of all creation, the One in whom, through whom and unto whom all things were created, the One who is before all things, and all things cohere in Him, the Head of the Body, the Firstborn from the dead is the preeminent One who has the first place in all things.
This One is all-inclusive, the embodiment of the Triune God, the One in whom all the fullness of the Godhead dwells, the reality of every positive thing in the universe, the universality and centrality of God. This One is our allotted portion, our divine inheritance for our enjoyment. He dwells in us to be our life today and as our hope of glory in the future.
Amen, Lord Jesus, He is the expression of the riches of God and all positive things.
He is the first in both the universe and the church, the all-inclusive one.
Amen. Christ is all and in all. Christ is the reality of all the positive things.
When we look to improve or be better Christian we should realise that in ourselves we can do nothing, there is only death in us.
But if we take Christ as our head and put him in the first place, we would realise that everything we need is in Him, and everything we lack is in Him.
We do not need to struggle in ourselves but we just need to put the all-inclusive Christ in the first place.
Amen, Lord Jesus! Gain the first place in everything through us today!
Dear brother, Christ (the image of the invisible God proving that He is God) is both the Firstborn of all creation and through resurrection, He is also the Firstborn in the new creation.
We need a vision to see that this Christ is the pre-eminent one in the Kingdom of the Son of God’s love and in our Christian life and church life, He must occupy the first place in all things.
Praise the Lord that He is the ‘beginning’!
Col. 1:18…..He is the beginning.
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1)
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1)
Hallelujah He is the ‘Firstborn of all creation’
(Col 1:15…..)
In our being, there should be room only for Christ.
He is the expression of all the riches of the Triune God, the first in creation & resurrection. He is also the hub and the rim of all positive things in the universe.
Truly, He must be the preeminent One in us and over us.
Living in the kingdom means that Jesus has to always be our first love.
Listen to the audio version of this article via,
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“Christ is the reality of every positive thing in the universe.” I am considering this truth; enjoying as I consider this truth. Here is the question: What are positive things?
This has to be more than an opinion, mine or yours. Because I may agree with something or like something, does not make it positive. So, what is a positive thing? What makes it positive?
I think maybe it is Grace. Nothing less than God’s own presence and fingerprint. Without Him nothing is positive. Without Him the best you can hope for is neutrality, and neutrality is, frankly, nothing. So yes, Christ is the reality of every positive thing because He is what makes it positive.
If you look at something and see His handiwork, His loveliness, His purpose revealed, in even the smallest things, this is His reality revealed.
Amazing. May we appreciate His reality more and more, by seeking Him out in “every positive thing.” Love you saints.
The word fullness has no modifier, indicating that this fullness is the unique fullness. It denotes not the riches of what God is but the expression of those riches. The full expression of the rich being of God, in both creation and the church, dwells in Christ. All creation and the whole church are filled with Christ as the expression of God’s riches. Such a fullness is pleased with this. This is pleasant to Christ.
The fullness in this verse refers to the image of God in v. 15, who is Christ, a living person. Such a fullness is pleased to dwell in the expression of God and to reconcile all things to the expression of God.
Col. 1:19 footnote 2 on, fullness, Recovery Version Bible