Colossians 3:1-4, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”
…We are to seek the things above, where Christ is (which I think has to mean, “the things of Christ.” Jesus is not merely one of the “things above,” He is the fountain and wellspring of all good things). We are to seek Christ and the things of Christ. That is to say, this is to be our desire, our pursuit, our longing.
Our great goal and the object of our heart’s hungers is not to be anything here in this world–neither something tangible (a job, a wife, a family, possessions…), nor something intangible (recognition, a status, a role in the lives of others, an intellectual discovery, aesthetic experience). Our great goal, our hunger, our hope must be anchored in the “things above,” in the risen and right-this-second-living and soon-to-be-returning Jesus Christ Himself. He is to be the end of our desire, the one whom we seek.
And we are to set our minds on Christ and the things of Christ. This is so crucial….What is so often my mindset? Far too often it is set on the things of this earth (I don’t mean trees and stars and music and food and story….those are glorious things and, for some reason, I don’t seem to have trouble receiving them as expressions of the beauty of the Lord). I mean things like “what people think of me”, “what is my legacy”, “what monuments am I leaving behind?” Or “Why can’t my life be more like this?”, “Why can’t my story look like that story”, “Why can’t my situation be like that situation?” etc….envious, earthbound thinking. This is not how one who has died and risen with Christ ought to be feeding their mind. No, the mind, the thinking, the focus, the “obsession” is to be with the risen Christ and the things above…..
Then Paul grounds these commands with another truth that flows from our union to Jesus—we died with Him and our life is now hidden with Him in God. Just consider that–what an awesome reality! “Christopher Powers”—all of his glory, all of his honors, all of his achievements, all of his self-advancement, all of his recognition—died. He died with Christ on the cross. And because of that, my LIFE—all that I am, all that will remain of me beyond the dissolution of this body, all that is truly me—my LIFE is hidden in Christ. And what’s more, Paul goes on in verse 4 to say that Jesus is my life.
All my good is in Him, all my meaning is in Him, all my hope is in Him, all that I am is bound up in, hidden in, forever rooted in HIM. And what is not Him in me is loss.
“Hallelujah, all I have is Christ. Hallelujah, Jesus is my life”
