l also found useful in understanding this passage in context the commentary by William Barclay on Col 1 . He explains that Paul was writing this letter to the Colossian church at a time when Gnostics were trying to stamp their beliefs on the Gospel . Gnostics taught that all matter was evil and so God couldn't touch it , so He created a series of angels each one further away from Him until there was enough space between Him and evil matter for one of those angels to work on creation . They believed that Jesus was just one of these angels , so a bit like WT teaching .
A knock on effect of that was that the body was considered evil so Jesus as the revelation of God could not have had a flesh and blood body . "So Paul speaks of Jesus reconciling man to God in his body of flesh , he says that the fullness of the godhead dwelt in him bodily . In opposition the the Gnostics , Paul insisted on the flesh and blood manhood of Jesus " Barclay's words .
So regarding the reconciliation of all things Barclay says
"There is no doubt that Paul was thinking of the Gnostics . We will remember that they , regarding matter as essentially evil , therefore regarded the world as evil , but as Paul sees it the world is not evil . It is God's world and shares in the universal reconciliation . "
For me understanding the context of the letter helps with understanding what Paul is saying , in the light of the Gnostic invasion of the Colossian church .
Jan