<p>1:16 <i>For in him were all things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible and things invisible</i>- See on :15. The theme of the believers being &quot;in Christ&quot; is so major in Colossians and Paul generally that we should have no problem in seeing here a reference to the new creation. But all this has meaning in practice- we who are in Christ are to have Him and not mere abstract ideas as the whole basis of our existence.</p><p><i>Whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things have been created on account of him and for him</i>- &ldquo;Thrones&hellip; powers&rdquo; is a Jewish rabbinic term which expressed their idea of &ldquo;the various gradations of angelic spirits&rdquo;. But it&rsquo;s doubtful he believed in this himself. Paul at times quotes from or alludes to popular Jewish ideas with which he may not have necessarily agreed. The lack of quotation marks in New Testament Greek means that it&rsquo;s hard for us at this distance to discern when he does this &ndash; but it seems to me that it&rsquo;s going on a lot in his writings. Thus he uses the phrase &ldquo;your whole spirit, soul and body&rdquo; (1 Thess. 5:23), a popular Jewish expression for &lsquo;the whole person&rsquo; &ndash; but it&rsquo;s clear from the rest of Paul&rsquo;s writings that he didn&rsquo;t see the body and soul as so separate.</p>