Raised Together with Christ

Seeking the Things Above

The Lexham English Bible Chapter 2

20 If you have died with Christ to the elemental spirits of the world, why do you submit to them as if living in the world? 21 “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch,” 22 which things are all meant for destruction by consuming according to human commandments and teachings, 23 which things ⌊although they have⌋,* to be sure, an appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and humility and unsparing treatment of the body, ⌊do not have any value⌋ against the indulgence of the flesh.

Have you set your minds to the things above? Paul talks to us (The Colossians) to remind them of the risen Lord. To remind them that they are made new by the act of love displayed by the risen Lord.

Seek the Things Above

The Lexham English Bible Chapter 3

3 Therefore, if you have been raised together with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Have we had it too good? Do we need to have things stripped away? Does it frighten you to think of such things? Think for a moment about the exiles from the Old Testament. God allowed the people to be taken from their homes and moved to a foreign land where they often spent a generation in captivity. These were attempts to draw them back.

THE RISEN LIFE

The Letters to Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians The Risen Life (Colossians 3:1–4)

In baptism, Christians die and rise again. As the water closes over them, it is as if they were buried in death; as they emerge from the water, it is like being resurrected to a new life. Now, if that is so, Christians must rise from baptism as different men and women. Wherein is the difference? It lies in the fact that now their thoughts must be set on the things which are above. They can no longer be concerned with the trivial passing things of earth; they must be totally concerned with the eternal truths of heaven.

The Lexham English Bible Chapter 3

3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

The Letters to Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians The Risen Life (Colossians 3:1–4)

(1) We have seen repeatedly that the early Christians regarded baptism as a dying and a rising again. When someone was dead and buried, the Greeks very commonly spoke of that person as being hidden in the earth; but Christians had died a spiritual death in baptism, and they are not hidden in the earth but hidden in Christ. It was the experience of the early Christians that the very act of baptism wrapped them round with Christ.

The Letters to Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians (Christ Our Life (Colossians 3:1–4 Contd))

Christ is the most important thing in life; more, he is life.

Now we might say, she lives for her music, or he lives for his work. For Christians, Christ is their life.

The Letters to Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians Christ Our Life (Colossians 3:1–4 Contd)

And here we come back to where this passage started—that is precisely why Christians set their minds and hearts on the things which are above and not on the things of this world. They judge everything in the light of the cross and in the light of the love which gave itself for them. In the light of that cross, the world’s wealth and ambitions and activities are seen at their true value—and Christians are enabled to set their hearts on the things which are above.