Charles Ellicott Commentary Colossians 1:17

"and he is before all things, and in him all things consist." — Colossians 1:17 (ASV)

He is before all things.—The words “He is” are both emphatic. He, and He only, is; all else is created. It is impossible not to refer to the “I am” of Eternal existence, as claimed by our Lord for Himself. Before Abraham was, I am (John 8:58; Compare also to John 1:15). Hence the word “before” should be taken, not of supreme dignity, but of pre-existence.

By him all things consist.—That is, hold together in unity, obeying the primeval law of their being. In this clause is attributed to our Lord, not only the creative act, but also the constant sustaining power, in which all lives and moves and has its being, and which, even less than the creative agency, can be supposed to be a derivative and finite power, such as that of the Demiurgus of Gnostic speculation.