enduring all things with patience and long-suffering;
001:012 and give thanks to the Father who has made us fit to receive
our share of the inheritance of God's people in Light.
001:013 It is God who has delivered us out of the dominion of darkness,
and has transferred us into the Kingdom of His dearly-loved Son,
001:014 in whom we have our redemption--the forgiveness of our sins.
001:015 Christ is the visible representation of the invisible God,
the Firstborn and Lord of all creation.
001:016 For in Him was created the universe of things in heaven
and on earth, things seen and things unseen, thrones,
dominions, princedoms, powers--all were created, and exist
through and for Him.
001:017 And HE IS before all things and in and through Him the universe
is a harmonious whole.
001:018 Moreover He is the Head of His Body, the Church.
He is the Beginning, the Firstborn from among the dead, in order
that He Himself may in all things occupy the foremost place.
001:019 For it was the Father's gracious will that the whole of the divine
perfections should dwell in Him.
001:020 And God purposed through Him to reconcile the universe to Himself,
making peace through His blood, which was shed upon the Cross--
to reconcile to Himself through Him, I say, things on earth
and things in Heaven.
001:021 And you, estranged as you once were and even hostile in your minds,
amidst your evil deeds,
001:022 He has now, in His human body, reconciled to God by His death,
to bring you, holy and faultless and irreproachable,
into His presence;
001:023 if, indeed, you are still firmly holding to faith as your foundation,
without ever shifting from your hope that rests on the Good News