It was difficult to choose my fourth and final favorite passage. My difficulty wasn’t necessarily that I have so many Scriptures that are favorites, but I do have more than four that have shaped my life in inescapable ways. I am not the same after learning to enjoy the process from Ecclesiastes 2:24-26 and to embrace image-bearing from Genesis 1:26-28 and to not lose heart from 2 Corinthians 4—the whole chapter. But there is one other passage that I considered not covering because it seemed too obvious.

I have talked about/preached on this verse more than any other verse in my life. According to the TEC website it’s been the main verse in three sermons among us already, one in 2011, 2012, and 2013. It was the name of a ministry that I helped to lead for almost a decade. Every time I went to a New Members’ class I went through it, and every Promotion Sunday when we got new students I gave a brief message on it again. I tried to approach it from a different angle each time though the substance, I’m sure, stayed mainly the same.

I’ve never been tired of it, though it is tiring to pursue it. Examined in context it contains a doctrinal statement, a philosophy of ministry, and a mission statement, all of which takes less than 20 words and that is inspired, that is, it is God’s words not just a man’s. Lord willing this won’t be the last time I ever talk on it, and even if I don’t, I can’t imagine ever having different mental shelves for thinking about being a disciple/discipler and a shepherd. I’ve made many returns to field of Colossians 1:28, and every return to plow and plant has resulted in many returns on my labor. I am more mature in Christ than when I first started studying it, so here is another pass at my most important Brown Paper Passage.

Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. (Colossians 1:28)

The most important word is the first word, the pronoun that takes us back to verse 15, that takes us back to verse 13. The Him is the He who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation (1:15), the one who created all things and is before all things, and in him all things hold together (1:16-17). He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent (1:18). Who is it? It is God’s beloved Son (1:13) or “the son of His love,” the Lord Jesus Christ (1:3).

The universe was His idea and His power put it together and keeps it running; creation is by Him and through Him and for Him. The church is His body and He purchased redemption for us, reconciling us by the blood of His cross. Material and spiritual, earthly and heavenly, visible and invisible, humanity and Christianity all depend on Him.

Him we proclaim , we make Him known in public, in all the places that belong to Him and that He has interest in. No place is Off Limits to talk about Him. We proclaim that He is the Word, the life and the light, the glory of God in flesh, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

We’re in His kingdom. History hinges on Him. Eternity points toward Him. Everything revolves around this Son. In Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (2:3). All is vanity and striving after wind without Him.

So our message is not entertainment, or behavior modification, or lowest common denomidoctrine, or positive thinking. Our message is Him, His infinite excellencies and loving sacrifice and sovereign authority.

To depend on anything more than Him or to lower our estimation of Him requires warning and teaching . Paul is doing that in this letter to the Colossians. There are worldly philosophies and empty lies, there are human traditions and mystic visions, there are dietary restrictions and sinful passions that all threaten our holding fast to the Head. And if we are not holding fast to the head then we’ll miss the whole body (being) nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments and we won’t grow with a growth that is from God (2:19).

Sometimes warning is required, to counsel about avoiding or stopping a course of conduct that isn’t proper or could be harmful. Teaching complements warning, giving instruction whether formal or informal about what to think and to do. Paul also weaves in teaching through the letter as he has done to make the word of God fully known (1:25). Paul taught them about Christ’s preeminence, about putting on Christ, about honoring Christ in their household relationships and their conduct and conversation with those outside Christ’s kingdom.

There is another piece to Paul’s method that I did not appreciate, in fact I argued against it when I heard others talk about it. Paul’s work was incarnational. That is, Paul proclaimed Christ and he patterned his life after Christ in a way that modeled the gospel. I understand that the gospel is news to be told. It is also a story to be reenacted.

At the start of the paragraph Paul said, Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, the church (verse 24). Paul is not saying that his suffering saved anyone or that Christ’s death wasn’t sufficient to make peace between sinners and God. Paul already affirmed Christ’s work in chapter 1 and will do it again in chapter 2. But those who represent Christ will incarnate the message that death brings life.

Paul stated it clearly in 2 Corinthians 4:7-12.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. (2 Corinthians 4:7–12)

What we say, teaching and warning, is crucial. So is how we sacrifice for others.

The goal of it all is to present everyone mature in Christ , “complete” (NAS) or “perfect” (NIV). It is the Greek adjective τέλειος, a word familiar to readers of Plato and Aristotle and other philosophers. It described things that attain to a certain end or purpose, things that meet the highest standard, in particular, that are fully grown, fully developed.

It is okay to be immature but not to stay immature, certainly not to defend willing immaturity. Sanctification is a process, often a long and challenging one. But it is required. We are to “grow up in every way into him who is the head, in Christ” (Ephesians 4:15).

We live in a minimalizing, reductionistic (and lazy) culture. Large pieces of the evangelical church pie work hard to not work hard, happy in their lack of depth and development.

We ought to be thankful for the progress we’ve made in Christlikeness—be content, and we also ought to think often about ways we need to increase in Christlikeness—be discontent. Sometimes this requires repentance. Sometimes it requires research. Often it requires patience. Always it requires effort by the Spirit.

As a church we may not be great at the beginning stages. There are other ministries that appear to have more fruit with conversions. But while being thankful for conversions, conversions are not the goal. Christ’s commission is about disciples who obey all that He commanded, and we haven’t gotten to the end until Christ is formed in all of us.

For shepherds it requires judgment in love with wisdom. It is not judgment and mockery against someone for being so behind, but it is evaluating weakness or sin and then dealing with them. Of course it is possible for us to be judgmental, but making judgments is part of the shepherding job. Humility does not keep us from evaluating others, it keeps us from being jerks, and from holding others to standards of growth that we aren’t pursuing.

In order to present men complete in Christ, we need to know Christ and we need to know men. That is, we must identify how men are and are not like Christ so that we can help them grow in Christlikeness. Studying the Bible and obeying the Bible requires us to study something in addition to the Bible.

Note the threefold repetition of everyone or “every man.” We’re not presenting sermons or sentences to God, we’re presenting saints. Jesus said that the Sabbath was made for Man, not man for the Sabbath. So also preaching is made for people, not people for preaching.

The vision of this work is comprehensive, and overwhelming. Some don’t take advantage of the opportunities to grow, otters resist, even if for a short time, pursuit or admonishing.

All of this takes work. So verse 29, which finishes the sentence in Greek (though made into a separate sentence in the ESV), finishes Paul’s thought. For this I toil , a word often used in the context of complete exhaustion. It could describe someone who was beat. And struggling is a form of ἀγωνίζομαι. But it is a supernatural energy required for this commitment, struggling with all of his energy that he powerfully works within me . The overwhelming aim and nature of the task would crush clay pots if it weren’t for God’s provision.

A church is a hot bed of change, a greenhouse for growth. It’s impossible to twist a bunch of live wires together without sparks. The paint on each one of us is still wet and, when a bunch of canvases are stacked together, we’re likely to drip on each other. It’s okay because that’s one of the ways God chooses to get the right colors on us.

Conclusion

My understanding of my vocation has expanded in at least two ways since starting to study and apply this favorite passage. I’ve already mentioned that the incarnational piece changed. And my understanding of what τέλειον ἐν Χριστῷ means has also changed.

I used to think that Christlikeness involved morality and ministry. Live in obedience and holiness, and also make disciples like He commanded and modeled. Christ was perfectly righteous, so a person who was perfectly reflecting Christ would not lie to his parents, cheat on her schoolwork, cheat a client or the government, break a vow, offer half-hearted worship, and so forth. Christ also took on flesh, lived among men, and poured His life into their lives so that they would make more disciples. Christlike character and work, then, make a Christlike Christian.

Those are included, but the Kuyperian view of Christ’s lordship has caused me to realize that Christlikeness includes our interest in all that Christ is interested in, which is everything good in creation and the cultural mandate.

Manhood and womanhood and family, education for the next generations, yard maintenance, brewing beer, reading good fiction, all of these and every other lawful thing are sustained by Christ so that we will say, “Whoa! He is powerful!” and also so that we will say, “Whoa! I can do something with this!” How grateful we can be that He is breaking down our dualism.

Christ is the focal point of the universe in two ways. We focus on Him like the peak of a mountain range and like the business end of a telescope; through Him we see a whole lot more, not less.

We have all kinds of reasons to be thankful. And we have all kinds, almost limitless, work still to do.