¹³ He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son,^(A)

⁹ But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people,^[a] in order that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.^(A)

³⁰ While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent,^{(A) 31} because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”^(B)

⁴ In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing clearly the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.^{(A) 5} For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’s sake.^{(B) 6} For it is the God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.^(C)