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He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,
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in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
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He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
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For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.
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And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
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And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
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For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell,
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and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
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And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled
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in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight--
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if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.