9 For this reason also, asince the day we heard of it, bwe have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the 1cknowledge of His will in all spiritual dwisdom and understanding,

10 so that you will awalk in a manner worthy of the Lord, 1bto please Him in all respects, cbearing fruit in every good work and 2increasing in the 3knowledge of God;

11 astrengthened with all power, according to 1His glorious might, 2for the attaining of all steadfastness and 3patience; bjoyously

12 giving thanks to athe Father, who has qualified us 1to share in bthe inheritance of the 2saints in cLight.

The Incomparable Christ

13 1For He rescued us from the 2adomain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of 3bHis beloved Son,

14 ain whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

15 1He is the aimage of the binvisible God, the cfirstborn of all creation.

16 For 1aby Him all things were created, aboth in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether bthrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—call things have been created through Him and for Him.

17 He 1ais before all things, and in Him all things 2hold together.

18 He is also ahead of bthe body, the church; and He is cthe beginning, dthe firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.

19 For 1it was athe Father’s good pleasure for all bthe 2fullness to dwell in Him,

20 and through Him to areconcile all things to Himself, having made bpeace through cthe blood of His cross; through Him, I say, dwhether things on earth or things in 1heaven.

21 And although you were aformerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds,

22 yet He has now areconciled you in His fleshly bbody through death, in order to cpresent you before Him dholy and blameless and beyond reproach—