who was formerly useless to you, but is now useful to you ¹  and me.

Just as you were formerly disobedient to God, but have now received mercy due to their disobedience,

Formerly when you did not know God, you were enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods at all. ¹ 

even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor, and an arrogant ¹  man. But I was treated with mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief,

in which ¹  you formerly lived ²  according to this world’s present path, ³  according to the ruler of the kingdom ⁴  of the air, the ruler of ⁵  the spirit ⁶  that is now energizing ⁷  the sons of disobedience, ⁸ 

among whom ¹  all of us ²  also ³  formerly lived out our lives in the cravings of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath ⁴  even as the rest… ⁵ 

Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh – who are called “uncircumcision” by the so-called “circumcision” that is performed on the body ¹  by human hands –