Colossians 1:28
28 Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:
“Whom We Preach”
Verses 25-28 deal with the ministry of the Word, A minister must rightly divide the “mystery” of the gospel dispensation, seeing the scripture in light of the New Testament. A minister must realize that Jesus Christ is the main theme of our preaching, to sinners and saints alike, the riches he would make manifest to us is “Christ in us.” Lastly our verses today tell us by what means these truths are administered to the world and the Church, by preaching. Preaching is God’s ordained way of administering the truths of the Gospel to his body the church and the world, of course, that doesn’t mean that preachers are the final authority or to be trusted blindly, but so long as they are preaching the rightly divided word and lifting up Jesus as the hope of sinners and the help of saints then, and only then are they to be reverenced as A minister of the Word. Jesus must be the focus and force of our preaching, that is why Paul said “Whom we preach” and not “What we preach.” Preaching is the divine method God has chosen for the proclamation of his Word:
Titus 1:3 3 But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour;
Mark 16:15 15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
Romans 10:14 14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?
“Warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom”
This is the process of preaching, Warning, and teaching in all wisdom. If a preacher fails to warn his people of the severity of God he has failed to rightly preach, if a minister fails to teach his people of the goodness of God he has failed. The day we live in we have many teachers of the word but could hardly be called a preacher because they have left off the ministry of warning people. Even the bible tells us in the last days men shall heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears. Men only want to hear what is pleasant to them and sadly in this hour there are man hirelings that are willing to forsake the ministry of warning this world and their congregations of the realities of Hell and judgment and sin, and some even despise the name preacher! Rightly so I guess, we would hate to wrongly label them, because preachers they are not. On the other side of this coin, we have those who never teach the word, their congregations are ignorant of even the simple truths of the Bible and church is more of a social gathering than anything else, or even worse a platform for a puffed-up man to exhort his pride and arrogance over the flock. These sorts of ministers have left off teaching anything to their people. The people struggle through their Christian walk, they live worldly, some of these churches you would not be able to tell apart from a Kiwanis meeting, or a talent show where man’s pride is on full display.
“In all Wisdom”
This is the Presentation of preaching. We must warn and we must teach and there is a third aspect of our preaching that is totally necessary as well, “In all wisdom.” Wisdom is something spoken of already in this book and we determined that wisdom is obedience to the revealed will of God. Wisdom is more closely associated with action than knowledge. I believe what is being said here is that we must practice what we preach, we must live what we teach, and take heed to the warning we give in our preaching. If we teach and warn and preach rightly but we aren’t living what we are preaching, then we are hypocrites. We have become like the Pharisees, masters of the word but never mastered by the word. Paul lived this instruction he is giving, which is the point. Notice what he said to the Thessalonians concerning this same issue:
1 Thessalonians 1:5-6 5 For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. 6 And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord…
I believe that one of the reasons the word came in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance is rooted in the statements, “as ye know what manner of men we were among you” and “Ye became followers of us, and of the Lord.” They lived such a life, that if you were to follow them you would in turn be following Jesus. Can we say this of the life we live? Are we warning and teaching in all wisdom? If we want the witness of the Holy Ghost on our preaching, we will have to be preaching the truth, the Holy Ghost will not bear false witness, and that is exactly what hypocritical preaching is; a lie. You are saying one thing and doing another, but when you stand and preach on a given subject, and you have first practiced what you preached the Holy Ghost has no issue bearing witness to the truth you are preaching because it has been the truth you are living! Dear Lord help, us to warn and take heed, help us to teach and be a student, help us to preach in all wisdom!
“That we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.”
Then we have the profit of such preaching, “That we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.” The word that we can’t look over here is “may.” We know every man will not be presented as perfect in Christ Jesus, there will be forsakers, fakes, and flakes. Even Paul had a Demas, who departed loving this present world. We preach so that the opportunity is there so that if they do depart it will be in spite of our preaching and not because of our preaching. Neither does this mean that by our preaching men will become totally perfected in this life, but rather that they will become more and more perfect. That is the profit of rightly divided, Jesus exalting, shoe leather preaching. Men become more like Christ by the ministry of preaching, remember what Paul said of Pastors in Ephesians 4:11-12, ”And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:” Being made a minister of the word is so that by its ministry, first in your own life, you can in turn minister to others by it. It is for the perfecting of the saints, this is why we must have more preachers of this sort, and less of the lesser sort.
“Everyman” “Everyman” “Everyman”
Lastly, we see the people of preaching. If ever there arises the question, whom do we warn? Every man. Whom do we teach? Every man. Whom do we want to have the opportunity of being perfected? Everyman. There is a revival of the Calvinist doctrine that restricts the gospel from every man. While by profession they would tell you every man is to be preached to, it is not God’s will for that man to be saved. That is contrary to the clear will of God:
2 Peter 3:9 9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
1 Timothy 2:3-4 3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; 4 Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
1 Timothy 2:6 6 Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.
Jesus died for everyman, He would that everyman would come to repentance. We know they won’t but that does not change the heart of God in the matter. If they perish it will be against his will. He loves all, he died for all, and he would have every man come to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. Just because that does not happen, does not negate his sovereignty. He is still totally in control of all things but everything that happens is not his will, that is foolishness. To Go on, Every man that comes to Jesus on the terms laid out in the scripture will be saved. God is not tricking people into thinking they are saved, so that one day he can throw them into hell, we have just described the work of Satan, not God! Ministers of the word are to go to “Every man” because God extended his love to “Every man”[John 3:16 “for God so loved the world] and Jesus died for “Every man” [1 John 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.] and he would have us preach to “Every man” [Mark 15:16 Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.] We are to go to every man so that some may be saved, some may be taught and some may be perfected.