THE BOOK OF
COLOSSIANS
Set Your Heart on
Heavenly Things
Colossians 3:1-4 SCC
4/22/12
3:1
Therefore if you
Paul has just explained
the deception, frustration and futility of trying to live the "spiritual
life" or the "higher life" in reliance on the fallen flesh and
legalistic, ascetic or mystic guidance. It cannot work. It won't work. It did
not work before we were saved and it will not work after we are saved. Paul
once again reminds them of their resurrection with Christ which he had just
mentioned in Col
2:12 which conveys a new (resurrection) power by which one can live the true
spiritual life, the genuine higher life. With this therefore, Paul concludes that since the ways of legalism,
asceticism and mysticism were unable to give us victory over "fleshy
indulgence" the believer is to shift his or her focus from horizontal to
vertical.
Notice that in Colossians 3:1 the fact that we have been raised precedes
the command ‘to keep seeking’.
The former (indicative) describes the reality a believer's life, a truth that
should motivate the keeping of the command (imperative). Right belief is always a firm foundation for right (righteous) behavior. The tense here indicates our resurrection
with Christ is in the past and is a
completed action, which was reckoned true in our life the moment we by
grace through faith received Christ Jesus as Savior and Lord.
Have been raised
up with Christ
Not only have we died
with Christ but we have also been raised with Christ. This is also in the passive
voice, which signifies the power to bring about our resurrection was from
outside of us, specifically from God. Can you see the implications if our life
is intimately bound with Christ? Clearly His infinite, inexhaustible
resurrection power is available to all believers!
Keep
Seeking the Things Above
We are to set our
hearts on these things now. In the Greek this phrase is placed first in the sentence for emphasis
(and to contrast with the earthly things the false teachers were propagating).
In addition Paul repeats this phrase the
things above in the next verse (Col 3:2). Clearly, he
wants believers to view all of life from a heavenly perspective rather than
earthly perspective. The direction of our life is now to be heavenward. Keep seeking means to seek after and strive for earnestly, to
strive to find something, to devote serious effort to realize one’s desire or
objective, to aim at, to try to obtain some state or condition. Practically to
seek the things above involves giving your attention to Jesus, giving Him first
place in everything, giving Him priority, desiring Him above anything on earth,
continually making a deliberate choice to follow Him, to obey Him, to think
about Him, to meditate on His life giving Word, in order to find Him. The three-part
test involves your checkbook,
your calendar and your home.
Where Christ is
seated at the right hand of God
Both verbs "is" and "seated" are present
tense, indicating that this is Christ's continual position, the position of
supreme privilege and authority. Christ is at God's right hand, the place of honor and eventually judgment (Rev 5
formal ceremony of Christ taking the scroll).
3:2
Set your mind
Set refers to the basic
orientation, bent, and thought patterns of the mind, rather than to the
intellect per se, and thus it refers more to one's inner impulse or
disposition, while keep seeking
(Col
3:1)
marks a practical pursuit or striving after. Both are to be upward focused.
Indeed, a sure safeguard to impede seeking
the things below is a continual setting
of our mind upon the things above!
On
the things Above
Setting one's minds on
things above involves an act of one's will (active voice) and is something we
must choose to do (a command, not optional) continually (present
tense = habitual). The best Christian lives come from minds
that are fixed on heaven. We have no affection for anything else. In short, the
number one way to believers can
"look up" is to fix
their minds on the special revelation of God in His Word.
Not
on the Things on the Earth
The expression, "things on the earth," takes in a
wide scope. It includes every dimension of human existence. So what is the
outcome of this perspective? THE FOLLY OF SETTING OUR AFFECTIONS ON THINGS ON THE EARTH
1. They destroy while they please.
2. They are unsatisfactory. A good way to
begin is to discover what our eternal God values. A heart set upon heaven is an
evidence of your sincerity.
3:3
For
you have Died
Note "died" is first in Greek sentence
to emphasize this life-changing event. For introduces and explains
the reason "living in the heavenlies"
(seeking and thinking the things above) is to be the norm for each believer
even though we are still on terra firma--earth. Having died to the world system
(Gal
6:14) through faith we have an intimate union with Christ in His death and
resurrection. The tense of died
speaks of a past completed action. Believers died with Christ the moment they placed their faith in His death.
This same truth is taught elsewhere by Paul especially in Romans 6.
The mood of have died is the mood of reality
indicating that our death with Christ was a real event even though we cannot
fully comprehend the nature of this supernatural transaction. The practical truth
is that when we died with Christ in the
past, we died to the power, rule, mastery, and enslavement to the old taskmaster
of sin. It has now been
rendered inoperative. This stresses again
Christ’s total sufficiency.
And you life is
Hidden with Christ in God
Hidden is a tense, which indicates that it was
hidden at some point in time. That is the day of your salvation and remains
hidden or concealed which conveys the ideas of permanency and irrevocability.
The death (aorist tense) is
over, but the results of the hiding (perfect tense) of the
life in Him abide. Three thoughts are
suggested by the verb ‘hidden’.
(1) Safety or security: Believers are
permanently hidden, securely locked together with Christ.
(2) Identity: Believers are now intimately linked "together with" Christ in God.
(3). Secrecy: Thus, his bent of life is to be directed
toward its source and away from the visible and carnal (above not earth).
With conveys the picture of intimate union,
bringing out the truth that we are now in (new) relationship with Him and our
oneness and identity is with Christ. Believers now share a common life with the
Father and Son.
3:4
When Christ Who is our life is Revealed
The hidden life is not
hidden forever. There will be a glorious consummation at the manifestation of
the Son. Revealed means to cause to become visible, to make appear, to
cause to be seen, uncover, lay bare, reveal. The point is that one-day we will
be seen externally as we really are and the lost world will see who we are in
Christ for when we see Christ we shall be like Him. The literal reading of Christ our life is even better! Christ
does not merely give life; He is life. He Himself is in the believer. The life
that is in Christ is in the believer.
In a sense the
fulfillment of this verse in Colossians is an answer to Jesus' prayer...Father, I desire that they also, whom Thou hast
given Me, be with Me where I am, in order that they may behold My glory, which Thou hast given Me; for
Thou didst love Me before the foundation of the world. (John 17:24).
Then you also…revealed with Him in glory
When it is said—Christ our life shall appear, the meaning is, that He shall appear in the character of our life. To appear as our life, implies our relation to Him as His living ones. Life with Christ is an endless hope. Without Him a hopeless end. All that we long to become will find fulfillment when we see Jesus. Even though Jesus spoke the truth in a powerful, irrefutable way, and even though His works spoke for themselves, He did not receive the recognition He deserved. Yet someday everyone will bow before Him and give Him the honor due His name. Even though our beginnings may seem insignificant, we can look forward to a glorious, happy ending.