Colossians 1:9-23 - Prayer For Maturity Based On Christ's Preeminence
9 For this cause we also from the day we heard it have not ceased praying for you, and beseeching God that ye may be filled with the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10 that ye may walk worthy of the Lord, well pleasing him in all things, in every good work fruitful, and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with joy; 12 giving thanks to God, even the Father, who hath made us meet for a portion in the inheritance of the saints in light; 13 who hath plucked us out from the dominion of darkness, and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of his love: 14 in whom we have redemption through his blood, and forgiveness of sins.
15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the prime author of all creation: 16 for by him were all things created, celestial and terrestrial, visible or invisible, whether thrones, or dominations, or principalities, or powers, all were created by him, and for him: 17 and he is before all, and by him all things subsist. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the first begotten from the dead, that he might be in all things pre-eminent. 19 For it hath pleased the Father that in him all fulness should dwell; 20 and by him to reconcile all things to himself, making peace by the blood of his cross: by him, I say, whether they be things on earth, or things in the heavens.
21 And you who in time past were all aliens, and enemies in mind by wicked works, hath he now reconciled, 22 by the body of his flesh, through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and irreprehensible in his presence: 23 if ye abide in faith grounded and firm, and never moved aside from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which hath been preached to the whole creation which is under heaven, of which I Paul am a minister.