Colossians 1:9-20

9For this reason we have not stopped praying for you since the day we heard about you. We ask ⌞God⌟ to fill you with the knowledge of his will through every kind of spiritual wisdom and insight.

10We ask this so that you will live the kind of lives that prove you belong to the Lord. Then you will want to please him in every way as you grow in producing every kind of good work by this knowledge about God.

11We ask him to strengthen you by his glorious might with all the power you need to patiently endure everything with joy.

12You will also thank the Father, who has made you able to share the light, which is what God’s people inherit.

13God has rescued us from the power of darkness and has brought us into the kingdom of his Son, whom he loves.

14His Son paid the price to free us, which means that our sins are forgiven.

15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

16He created all things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. Whether they are kings or lords, rulers or powers— everything has been created through him and for him.

17He existed before everything and holds everything together.

18He is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, the first to come back to life so that he would have first place in everything.

19God was pleased to have all of himself live in Christ.

20God was also pleased to bring everything on earth and in heaven back to himself through Christ. He did this by making peace through Christ’s blood sacrificed on the cross.