The Path To Perfection

Lee Delbridge

Introduction

The church does many things. Three of the essential things it must do are presented in Colossians 1:28. We are to preach Christ, teach the Bible and counsel people Biblically. In our text it is really three parts of one activity — preaching, teaching and counseling. It is OK for the church to do other things, but it must make sure it never neglects to do these three things. Other activities must never replace these three!

Colossians 1:28 (New American Standard Bible)

We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ.

Colossians 1:28 (New Living Translation)

So we tell others about Christ, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all the wisdom God has given us. We want to present them to God, perfect in their relationship to Christ.

Colossians 1:28 (King James Version)

Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:

Colossians 1:28 (The Living Bible)

So everywhere we go we talk about Christ to all who will listen, warning them and teaching them as well as we know how. We want to be able to present each one to God, perfect because of what Christ has done for each of them.

Preach (Proclaim) - Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God and the only way of eternal salvation.

1. Explain what the passage means.
2. Illustrate the passage (Illustrations come from life, history, Scripture, or you make them up)
3. Apply the Scripture to life in practical ways.

Teach - explain the Bible with the goal to change a person’s:

1. Knowledge (what you know);
2. Attitude (what you feel); and/or
3. Action (what you do).

Admonish (Counsel) - The Bible has the answer to people’s problems and the answer always includes a person’s relationship with Jesus. Sin is the root cause of every problem we face. Many times our sin is the direct cause of our problem. So we use the Bible to help people overcome their problems by leading them to:

1.Recognize sin as sin;

2. Repent of that sin; and

3. Replace that sin with the Holy Spirit 

produced opposite equivalent.

Colossians 1:28

World English Bible

Bible Text in Bold—Comments in Italics

Lee Delbridge

Whom (Jesus Christ) we (Paul and other Christians) proclaim (Greek: present indicative active; continually and/or repeatedly; to declare plainly, openly, or aloud; to announce; to preach), admonishing  (Greek: noutheteo; present active participle; continually and/or repeatedly; to warn, admonish, exhort;  to counsel; to counsel by word; the opposite of leading someone astray) every man (the goal is to reach every person; see Matthew 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-16) and teaching (Greek: present active participle; teach, instruct by word of mouth; to direct or advise; to influence; influence the will of the person being taught; when you teach you try to change the student’s knowledge, attitude and/or action; you are trying to influence what they believe; what they “feel” and how they live) every man (every man repeated for emphasis; we are to reach and teach every person we possibly can) in all wisdom (wisdom, skill, expertise; practical common sense), that we may present (to cause them to stand before God) every man (every man mentioned a third time) perfect (fully mature; fully trained; having completed his or her purpose in life; having reached their goal in life;  nothing lacking in their life; II Timothy 3:16-17; God’s perfection is absolute; man’s perfection is relative; in “position” a Christian is perfect because he or she is “in Christ” and all his or her sins have been forgiven; in “practice” a Christian is never completely perfect but they can be fully mature) in Christ (anointed one; the Messiah) Jesus (name means Savior; the OT name that meant the same thing is Joshua; 

To summarize this verse: Preaching involves evangelism, winning people to Christ; teaching results in edification, people growing spiritually and admonishing involves settling problems Biblical — finding and applying Bible answers to one’s everyday problems and challenges. In the Greek teaching and admonishing were seen as a part of the proclaiming — preaching, teaching and counseling are seen as a total package rather than three separate things)

Conclusion

Three primary minsitries of the church are to (1) preach Jesus, (2) teach the Bible and (3) counsel people with Biblical answers to their problems. We must make sure the church never neglects these three ministries. This is the way to present people completely mature (KJV: perfect)to Christ at judgment. Again, these are not the only things the church does but they must be three of the priorities for the church. 

Extra Comment about being perfect:  

1. Positionally we are treated by God as being perfect because we have accepted Jesus as our Savior — Jesus took the punishment for our sins upon Himself and Jesus’ righteousness is credited to our account. Positionally we are perfect in Christ.
2. Practically every Christian should be in the process of becoming more and more like Christ. We are reaching for perfection even though we will never reach it completely in this life.

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