Ever feel like your life is just going in circles? The same old things days after day and week after week. The drudgery of the same old routines can make life seem like you are going in circles and stuck in the mud. With an earthbound perspective, life really is little more than going in circles and the same pattern. The repetitive cycles of infancy, adolescence, and old age; work, rest, and more work; marriage, children, and grandchildren; diapers and dishes; progress and regress can seem awfully ordinary and terribly tedious.
God, however, does not want us simply to endure the mundane and tediousness. Our ordinary activities can be infused with spiritual significance. Paul calls us to a bigger picture, a higher perspective in Colossians 3. He calls us to look up and focus on Him to gain perspective for our earthly endeavors.
Throughout chapter 3, we will see that knowing the truth about Christian living invites us to live an ordinary life in an extraordinary way. Paul’s exhortations in chapter 3 are practical applications of the doctrine he has presented in chapter 2. A brief overview of chapter 3 is: believers are to seek spiritual values (3:1–4), put off the sins of the old life (3:5–11), and put on the virtues of the new life (3:12–17). This in turn should affect their relationships with other members of their families and society (3:18–4:1).
Today, we will look at verses 1-4 so it will be shorter. Verses 5-11 really go better together as a unit, so it would not be great to break that up. Also, verses 1–4 are seen as a hinge between the primarily doctrinal section of chapters 1–2 and the primarily practical section of chapters 3–4. These verses conclude the polemic against the false teachers with a further exaltation of the supremacy of Jesus, and they provide the starting point for the alternative to the false teaching with an exhortation to make Christ central in all areas of life.
1 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. (NASB)
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
- Genuine spiritual experience begins with understanding our identification with Christ.
- Believers are dead to sin, which means we are no longer under the influence of sin’s dominating power.
- For the believer, life is not merely activities, details, acquisition, or accomplishments. Life is Christ. He is the focus of our aspirations, the focus of our hearts and mind in the good and bad times, the reason for our existence, and hope of our future.
CLOSER LOOK:
Verse 1: Since believers have not only died with Christ but also “have been raised up with Christ,” they should seek (i.e. set their hearts) on the things above where Christ is. Namely, believers’ lives should be dominated by the pattern of heaven, bringing heavenly direction to their earthly duties. Paul sets the stage for his ethical teaching in verse 5 to the doctrine of the resurrection that was discussed in 2:12-13. Fixing our attention decisively toward “things above” involves centering our lives on the ascended, glorified Christ, who is seated at the right hand of God.[1] This is His seat of divine authority because He has defeated the forces of evil and death (Heb. 2:14–15). The believer eagerly anticipates the future bodily resurrection mentioned in Romans 8:11 and 1 Corinthians 15:22–23, 50–55. This is not, however, what Paul has in mind here. This reference to resurrection refers to a past event: we have been raised. The reference is to our identification with Jesus in His death, burial, and resurrection. Paul referred to this earlier in 2:12–13 and in Romans 6:1–10. He means that because of our identification with Jesus we have been granted new life which gives us the capacity to live a new kind of life.
Verse 2: Also, “Set your minds on things above, not on the things that are on the earth,” means to concentrate your concern on the eternal, not the temporal. The false teachers were instructing the Colossians to concentrate on temporal observances; in contrast, Paul instructs them to concentrate on the eternal realities of heaven “Set” (zēteite) means “to seek or strive for earnestly” (cf. Rev. 9:6; 1 Cor. 7:27). The Greek verb for “set” emphasizes an ongoing decision. Christians must continually discipline themselves to focus on eternal realities, instead of the temporal realities of this earth. This is similar to Paul’s writing in 2 Corinthians 4:18, “look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal” (NASB). The similarity of the two commands in verses 1 and 2 reinforces their impact. “Set your hearts on things above” is ta anō zēteite[2], and “Set your minds on things above” is ta anō phroneite.[3] The first suggests striving; the second suggests concentrating.
Paul was not enjoining an other-world asceticism; he had just condemned that (2:20–23). He was saying that life in this world will be better if it is lived by a power beyond this world, the power of the resurrected, ascended, glorified Christ.[4] The “earthly things” (ta epi tēs gēs, literally “things upon the earth,” 3:2; the same Greek words are used in verse 5 translated as “earthly body”) to be avoided are moral, not physical (cf. immorality, impurity, passion [lust], evil desire, and greed in v. 5). Paul was not encouraging a kind of Gnostic disdain for material things. Every physical thing God created, including the body and sex, is good (cf. Gen. 1:27–30; 1 Tim. 4:1–4). However, since having a physical body does give occasion for the works of the flesh (cf. Rom. 7:4–6), Paul warned against setting one’s affections in this area and perverting God’s purpose for them.[5]
This does not mean that believers are to live in a kind of haphazard fog or neglect the affairs of the earth with endless contemplation of eternity. This means that believers are not to be concerned only with the trivialities of the temporal. We are to be preoccupied with the things of heaven. Heavenly values are to capture our imaginations, emotions, thoughts, feelings, ideas, and actions. The believer is to see everything, including earthly things, against the backdrop of eternity. With a new (resurrection) perspective on life, the eternal is to impact the temporal.[6]
Verses 3–4: Paul now provides the basis for his preceding exhortations. The exhortations are based in a past reality, a present truth, and a future expectation. Paul starts with the past. He tells believers, you died. Believers have “died to sin” (Rom. 6:2), which means that the believer is no longer under the influence of sin’s dominating power. At the moment of their salvation, a Christian “died” to the evil of the “flesh,” the sin nature (Rom. 6:3–8; Col. 2:11), and their “life is hidden with Christ in God.” A Christian’s life is no longer dictated by this world but is “hidden with Christ.” “Hidden” implies both concealment and safety; both invisibility and security; safety and secrecy.[7] The word indicates that God has accomplished this in the past so that it is a present reality. The believer is not yet glorified, but they are safe and secure in Christ. In fact, Christ “is our life.” Christ said He was going where “the world will not see Me anymore” (John 14:19).
Paul’s focus in verse 4 now shifts to the future. When He will appear at the Rapture (1 Thess 4:16–18), believers “will be revealed with Him” and will be glorified. What has been hidden will be revealed. The secret will be out. As John put it, “We know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (i.e., believers will be glorified as He is glorified; 1 John 3:2; cf. 1 Cor. 13:12; Col. 1:27). So Paul added a new direction to the believers’ focus of attention: they should look upward to Christ’s reign over them in heaven and also forward to His return for them in the clouds.[8]
Four times in four verses, Paul mentioned Christ. Jesus is central and supreme. Paul does not want them to forget that (and consequently us as well). Jesus is seated above in the position of honor. Believers are identified with him. With this solid foundation, the lives of believers can be transformed.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Ps. 110:1; Luke 22:69; John 17:5; Acts 2:33; 5:31; Rom. 8:34; 1 Cor 7:27;Eph. 1:20; 4:20; Heb. 1:3, 13; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2; 1 Peter 3:22
[2] ζητέω (zēteō) – Str 2212; TDNT 2.892. BDAG – “try to find something, seek, look for in order to find”
[3] φρονέω (phroneō): Str 5426; TDNT 9.220. BDAG – “to give careful consideration to something, set one’s mind on, be intent on”
[4] Norman L. Geisler, “Colossians,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, eds. John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1985), 680.
[5] Norman L. Geisler, “Colossians,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, eds. John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1985), 680.
[6] Max Anders, “Colossians,” in Holman New Testament Commentary: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians & Colossians (Nashville, B&H Publishers, 1999), n.p.
[7] κρύπτω (kryptō) – hide in a safe place
[8] Norman L. Geisler, “Colossians,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, eds. John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton: Victor Books, 1985), 680.