Colossians 1:9-20

9For this reason we also, from the day we heard about you, have not ceased praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

10so that you may live worthily of the Lord and please him in all respects – bearing fruit in every good deed, growing in the knowledge of God,

11being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might for the display of all patience and steadfastness, joyfully

12giving thanks to the Father who has qualified you to share in the saints’ inheritance in the light.

13He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son he loves,

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

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

16for all things in heaven and on earth were created by him – all things, whether visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions, whether principalities or powers – all things were created through him and for him.

17He himself is before all things and all things are held together in him.

18He is the head of the body, the church, as well as the beginning, the firstborn from among the dead, so that he himself may become first in all things.

19For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in the Son

20and through him to reconcile all things to himself by making peace through the blood of his cross – through him, whether things on earth or things in heaven.