Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
Whom we preach, warning every man - This does not mean warning of danger, but "admonishing all of the claims of the gospel to attention." Our word warn is commonly used in the sense of cautioning against danger. The Greek word here means to put in mind; to admonish; to exhort. The idea of the apostle is, that he made it his great business to bring the offers of the gospel fairly before the mind of every man. As it had the same claims on all; as it might be freely offered to all, and as it furnished the only hope of glory, he made it the object of his life to apprize every man of it, as far as he could.
And teaching every man - Paul made it his business to instruct men, as well as to exhort them. Exhortation and warning are of little use where there is not sound instruction and a careful inculcation of the truth. It is one of the duties of the ministry to instruct men in those truths of which they were before ignorant; see Matthew 28:19; II Timothy 2:25.
In all wisdom - Compare the Matthew 10:16 note; Colossians 1:9 note. The meaning is, that he and his fellow-laborers endeavored to manifest true wisdom in the method in which they instructed others.
That we may present every man - When we come to appear before God; Notes, II Corinthians 11:2. Paul was anxious that no one to whom this gospel was preached should be lost. He believed it to be adapted to save every man; and as he expected to meet all his hearers at the bar of God, his aim was to present them made perfect by means of that gospel which he preached.
Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Colossians 1:28:
Colossians 1:29
1 Thessalonians 5:12
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