Colossians 1:9-20

9So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding.

10Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.

11We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy,

12always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light.

13For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son,

14who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.

15Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,

16for through him God created everything in the heavenly realms and on earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see— such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world. Everything was created through him and for him.

17He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together.

18Christ is also the head of the church, which is his body. He is the beginning, supreme over all who rise from the dead. So he is first in everything.

19For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ,

20and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.