Why Proclaiming Christ Includes Helping Believers Grow

A beginning worth caring for

A person may hear the gospel, believe in Jesus and enter the life of a congregation with real joy. There is also a life ahead: relationships to repair, truth to understand, temptations to resist and neighbours to love. Colossians treats that continuing life as part of the gospel’s purpose. Paul proclaims Christ and works for people to become mature in him. The welcome of a new believer opens a relationship of care. ¹

The opening thanksgiving recognises faith, love and hope already present among the Colossians. The appeal for growth begins with what God has graciously given them. They are addressed as people who have received the gospel, rather than people whose Christian identity must await an advanced spiritual achievement. ¹⁵

Paul describes the purpose of his proclamation in Colossians 1:28: “Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:” The sentence joins preaching, warning and teaching. Its repeated concern is every person, and its centre is Christ Jesus. A church that cares about proclamation therefore also cares about what people are learning and how they are learning to live. ¹

Teaching belongs to the mission Jesus entrusted to his followers and to the apostles’ continuing care for believers. Some people have a particular gift and responsibility for teaching. Others can share the truth they have learned without claiming that office. Growing understanding makes ordinary witness more responsible and helpful. ⁸

Christ is the content of growth

The word “Whom” in the opening verse points back to Christ, the hope of glory among the Gentiles. Paul does not begin with a scheme for producing impressive religious personalities. He makes Christ known. The mystery once hidden is now revealed to the saints. What was concealed is being announced, and people previously outside Israel are being addressed within the saving purpose of God. ¹

The letter first sets out who this Christ is. He is the image of the invisible God, the one through whom and for whom all things were created, the head of the church and the one who makes peace through the blood of his cross. Maturity cannot be separated from knowing the Lord whose grace brought the Colossians into this new life. ¹

Confessing Christ as Lord gives teaching its centre. His lordship concerns the church as well as creation, and the truths confessed about him shape thanksgiving, steadfast faith and wise witness. Christian understanding has consequences because the one being proclaimed is the Lord of our lives. ¹³

God’s gracious action, the community’s response and a believer’s personal service belong together. Paul’s own ministry is a response to Christ’s reconciling work for the good of others. Personal faith strengthens shared life, while the congregation helps people express that faith through their own truthful service. ¹⁷

Colossians 1:21 to 23 brings the large confession close to its readers. Those formerly alienated are reconciled through Christ’s death, and they are called to continue in the faith and the gospel’s hope. Teaching is therefore neither an optional interest for a few enthusiasts nor a second saving work that repairs Christ’s sacrifice. It helps believers remain grounded in the grace they have received. ¹

Maturity is a serious and gracious goal

The KJV’s “perfect” translates a word that can speak of completeness or maturity. In this sentence the form describes the person being presented in Christ. The wider letter addresses believers who already belong to him and still need instruction, encouragement and prayer. The goal is full life in Christ, not an announcement that a new believer instantly knows everything or has become incapable of sin. ^{1, 2}

The goal has both a personal and a communal horizon. Each person matters, yet their growth is connected with hearts being encouraged and joined in love. Presentation before God can give maturity a future seriousness, while the letter’s teaching and prayer describe the present work of helping believers stand faithfully in Christ. ⁴

Paul repeats “every man” three times. Warning, teaching and the goal of presentation reach the same people. The repetition gives no warrant for reserving careful instruction for the wealthy, the articulate or those who quickly become useful to a leader. Colossians 3:11 likewise refuses to make inherited social rank the measure of a person’s standing in Christ. ¹

Growth can be recognised without turning it into a competition. A believer who learns to tell the truth, forgive, serve patiently and speak graciously is responding to the letter’s actual instructions. Knowledge matters, but it finds expression in a changed life. People learn at different speeds, and the church’s concern for every person calls for care that takes those people seriously. ¹

Teaching and correction serve the same care

Warning and teaching are both present in Paul’s description of proclamation. Teaching makes the truth known; warning addresses the danger of being drawn away from it. Neither is detached from Christ or from the desire to present people mature in him. The work is more searching than passing on isolated facts, because beliefs and desires can shape a person’s conduct. ¹

Correction can be offered as relational care rather than as a display of superiority. An early Christian reading of this passage connected admonition with a parent’s concern and noticed how encouragement prepares the way for serious instruction. That reception highlights the importance of wanting another person’s willing, understanding response. ¹²

No amount of learning makes someone too important to remain teachable. Wisdom is directed towards maturity in Christ, and those entrusted with instruction also depend on God’s strengthening. Continuing openness to the truth belongs to Christian growth at every stage, including among people who have become experienced teachers. ²¹

Receiving Christ as Lord and continuing to walk in him are connected movements. The instruction in Colossians 2:6 to 7 carries the beginning of faith into daily life. Growth develops the relationship already received, rather than replacing Jesus with a later source of spiritual security or a supposedly superior allegiance. ¹⁴

The passage asks for wisdom, not mere force of personality. Colossians 2:1 to 3 describes Paul’s concern for encouraged hearts, love and understanding. Its warnings are aimed at preserving that life. Christian teachers can explain reasons, hear what a person has misunderstood and bring the conversation back to Christ. A demand for personal loyalty to the teacher would change the centre of the passage. ¹

Costly service does not complete Christ’s sacrifice

The maturity sentence follows Paul’s account of suffering for the church. Colossians 1:24 speaks of filling up what is behind of Christ’s afflictions in his flesh, a difficult statement within an account of ministry. The same letter has already proclaimed reconciliation through Christ’s death and later speaks of forgiveness and the cross. Paul’s suffering must be read within that confession, rather than made into another payment for sin. ¹

Interpretations differ over how Paul’s afflictions relate to Christ: personal participation, apostolic service and expectations about suffering have all been proposed. The disagreement concerns the character of Paul’s ministry and its relation to Christ. A responsible reading keeps the verse’s service to the church in view while acknowledging that its precise formulation remains disputed. ⁶

One reading places what remains incomplete within Paul’s own experience of Christ’s pattern of suffering. On that interpretation, he continues to endure affliction as an apostle for the church’s benefit. The suggestion is different from saying that Christ’s saving death was deficient, and it should be presented as an interpretation. ⁵

Imprisonment and affliction do not make a suffering apostle a contradiction. Paul continues to serve the gospel through circumstances that constrain him. His concern for the spiritual welfare of believers gives those hardships a relation to his calling, while the effectiveness of Christ’s saving death remains intact. ⁷

This matters for our Pentecostal life. We expect God to heal and we pray with confidence in his power, while continuing to honour people who are still suffering. Their circumstances do not automatically expose defective faith. Expectation of the gifts and compassionate care can remain together without adding shame to someone’s burden. ⁹

The letter’s practical point is that ministry can be costly and still be faithful. Paul does not withdraw his concern for the Colossians because teaching requires effort or because he is in bonds. His service is directed towards their good. That example encourages patient Christian care; it does not authorise a leader to prescribe another person’s suffering or demand endurance of harm as proof of maturity. ¹

Divine power strengthens patient work

Colossians 1:29 joins strenuous service with divine working: “Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily.” Paul labours and strives, yet the power sustaining the work is not simply his own determination. Dependence on God and responsible effort meet in the same sentence. The language describes active ministry upheld by God, not a choice between prayer and doing the work. ¹

The opening prayer already asks for knowledge that leads to a worthy walk, fruitful good works, endurance and patience. Prayer participates in the growth being sought. Divine strength is expressed in sustained faithfulness as well as in insight, and thanksgiving remembers the grace that has already brought believers into the Son’s kingdom. ¹⁶

Our Pentecostal reading welcomes the Holy Ghost’s present gifts and empowerment for witness and service. Acts 1 and 2 distinguish that promised enabling from merely having heard instruction, and 1 Corinthians 12 to 14 directs gifts towards the good of the body. We therefore seek God’s help in teaching and receive his gifts without treating an experience as a substitute for continuing truth, love and responsible conduct. ¹

Teaching can be practised with prayerful awareness that God is present and active among his people. Acquired skills have value, while dependence on the Spirit keeps ministry open to his guidance and gifts. Christian instruction concerns relationship with God and faithful response, as well as the communication of information. ¹¹

Colossians itself names the believers’ love in the Spirit in 1:8. It also describes powerful divine working in Paul’s service and faithful prayer by Epaphras. These statements contribute to our reading of Christian growth. They do not turn every occurrence of the word spirit into a reference to Spirit baptism, or make maturity, new birth and empowerment interchangeable names for the same event. ¹

Growth takes shape in shared conduct

The letter’s concern with knowledge continues into Colossians 3. Renewal involves learning to live in accord with Christ. Knowledge informs faithful action, and acting on that knowledge contributes to further growth. This is a continuing relationship between understanding and conduct, rather than repeatedly discarding the gospel first received in favour of an entirely new message. ¹⁰

The rooted and built up images describe a life firmly related to Christ. They offer more than one picture of that relationship: living growth and a secure foundation. Together they support ongoing faithfulness. They need not be turned into a precise timetable through which every believer must pass in the same sequence. ¹⁸

Colossians 3:5 to 9 names conduct to put away, including covetousness, anger, malice and lying. Verses 12 to 17 then describe compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness, love, peace and thanksgiving. The letter does not leave maturity as an abstract label. It gives the church concrete language for a life being renewed. ¹

These virtues are actions within the community, not private possessions to admire in ourselves. They follow God’s gracious calling and forgiveness. A congregation embodies the gospel it proclaims when its shared life expresses compassion, patient forbearance and love, with gratitude for the grace that makes such life possible. ²⁰

Peace in the body does not require avoiding every difficult conversation. The word of Christ dwelling richly among believers equips them to teach and correct one another wisely. That correction can serve reconciliation, while songs of thanksgiving also communicate and help form the community’s understanding of the gospel. ¹⁹

Colossians 3:16 extends teaching and admonition into the congregation’s shared life. Verse 17 carries the same allegiance into whatever is said or done in the name of the Lord Jesus. The goal is larger than a meeting or an impressive answer. Truth learned together should shape speech, service and the relationships in which believers spend their days. ¹

The household instructions that follow address an ancient social world, including slavery. Their presence calls for careful contextual reading, rather than importing that world as a present church programme. For this article’s question, their place in the letter reinforces something clear: confessed allegiance to Christ concerns concrete relationships and responsibilities, not only religious vocabulary. ¹

Prayer and companions keep the concern alive

Epaphras appears near both ends of the letter. The Colossians learned the gospel from this faithful minister, who reported their love in the Spirit. In the closing chapter he is still concerned for them. His work has not ended with delivering an initial message, and his prayer expresses the same maturity goal that shapes Paul’s teaching. ¹

Colossians 4:12 says: “Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God.” Epaphras labours in prayer for their faithful standing in God’s will. The verse gives growth a setting of intercession and care, rather than presenting it as a solitary achievement. ¹

The closing network of messengers, coworkers and neighbouring congregations makes that care tangible. Tychicus and Onesimus bring news and comfort; the letter is to be read among related churches; Archippus is reminded to fulfil his ministry. People support one another through communication, prayer and continuing service. The concern is for believers to stand and live in Christ, not for Paul to possess a collection of impressive beginnings. ¹

Proclaiming Jesus and helping believers grow are therefore joined by a common hope. The church announces his saving grace, welcomes people and remains alongside them as they learn to live in him. Truth, correction, prayer, gifts, patient care and practical love all find their centre in Christ. The maturity sought is the life of people increasingly grounded in the Lord they have received. ¹