to God’s story and family. Through their union with Christ believers had been incorporated into God’s Christ-centered plans for the world (1:9–10, 11b) and had been included in God’s family (1:12–14). Paul and his readers had been selected to belong in God’s story and family, “since they were predestined” (προορισθέντες, causal ptc.; NET) by him. Paul returned to the word “predestine” (προορίζω; cf. v. 5), reminding readers that their selection into God’s family had been “according to (God’s) plan” (κατὰ