9. Then, too, from the day when we first heard it, we have not ceased praying for you and requesting that you be filled with the knowledge of his will, with all wisdom and spiritual understanding,
10. so that you may walk in a manner worthy of God, being pleasing in all things, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God,
11. being strengthened in every virtue, in accord with the power of his glory, with all patience and longsuffering, with joy,
12. giving thanks to God the Father, who has made us worthy to have a share in the portion of the saints, in the light.
13. For he has rescued us from the power of darkness, and he has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of his love,
14. in whom we have redemption through his blood, the remission of sins.
15. He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature.
16. For in him was created everything in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominations, or principalities, or powers. All things were created through him and in him.
17. And he is before all, and in him all things continue.
18. And he is the head of his body, the Church. He is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, so that in all things he may hold primacy.
19. For the Father is well-pleased that all fullness reside in him,
20. and that, through him, all things be reconciled to himself, making peace through the blood of his cross, for the things that are on earth, as well as the things that are in heaven.
21. And you, though you had been, in times past, understood to be foreigners and enemies, with works of evil,
22. yet now he has reconciled you, by his body of flesh, through death, so as to offer you, holy and immaculate and blameless, before him.
23. So then, continue in the faith: well-founded and steadfast and immovable, by the hope of the Gospel that you have heard, which has been preached throughout all creation under heaven, the Gospel of which I, Paul, have become a minister.
24. For now I rejoice in my passion on your behalf, and I complete in my flesh the things that are lacking in the Passion of Christ, for the sake of his body, which is the Church.
25. For I have become a minister of the Church, according to the dispensation of God that has been given to me among you, so that I may fulfill the Word of God,