But this may be saying too little. The verb “hold together” (synistemi) can imply that they have their existence in him. Christ is more than the force that preserves the orderly arrangement of the cosmos; he is its rationale, its rhyme and reason. Wink interprets it to mean that Christ is “the System of the systems.”31 He is the basic operating principle controlling existence.32 The universe is not self-sufficient (as in the deistic model), nor are individuals, no matter how much they may deceive