Colossians 1:26-(28-29) “Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus: 29 Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.”
Paul emphasized the gravity of preaching and teaching the True Gospel of “Christ Jesus”. He was “warning every man”; that is, he warned Jews and Gentiles alike of the peril of professing and living under false doctrines. Furthermore, he was “teaching every man in all wisdom”; that is, as God had gifted him with the ability, he used his God-given “wisdom” to clearly teach and explain, for all to understand, the Gospel of “Christ Jesus”. The purpose of his “warning” and “teaching” was to “present every man perfect in Christ Jesus”; that is, that they would be able to “worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him” (John 4:23). In this context, to be “perfect in Christ Jesus” is to have sufficient understanding of the “truth” of “Christ Jesus” that they might be able to “worship” Him in the manner that He has Commanded, with the focus upon Who He Is and what He has done and what He is doing and what He surely promised He will do. This “warning” and “teaching” is so vitally important that Paul said, “Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.”! We imperil ourselves when we “have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge” (Romans 10:2). The peril is not that any Child of God could lose their Eternal Salvation, but that “the Lord of Sabaoth” (Romans 9:29) would execute His Holy Wrath against false “teachings” the way He did against “Sodoma” and “Gomorrha” (Romans 9:29) and against Israel when He sent the Babylonians to utterly destroy Jerusalem (II Chronicles 36:11-21) and when the Romans so totally destroyed Jerusalem that there was “not … left one stone upon another” of all the buildings (Mark 13:2; Matthew 24:1-28). This “warning” and “teaching” was to save them from such destruction. Paul exhorts them and us this way; “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.” (Romans 10:9) and “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:13); that is, “saved” from such destruction. Our Lord Himself warns us, “many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many” (Matthew 24:11-24). And He makes it very clear that “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him MUST worship him in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:24). Paul warns us to “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners.” (I Corinthians 15:33); that is, bad doctrine leads to bad behavior. So, let us be as the Bereans who “received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so” (Acts 17:11). And, let us “be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord” (I Corinthians 15:58). Thus, in his Apostolic authority, Paul Commands the preachers to exclusively “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.” (II Timothy 4:2).