Serie Colosenses -7 Mantenga despejado su sentido de orientación - Colosenses 3-1-4
Vivamos nuestra nueva vida, orientados hacia Cristo
Colosenses 3:1-4
Mantenga despejado su sentido de orientación.
Cuando el creyente sabe quién es, qué lado es arriba, y dónde está la cabeza, no será vulnerado por las atracciones del mundo y por ende no irá por el mal camino.
Esta sección los imperativos predominan y marcan el inicio hacia la sección ética de toda la carta. Al igual que el argumento en 2:20 “si habéis muerto con Cristo” – 3:1 “Si habéis resucitado con Cristo”…
BOSQUEJO:
1. Orientación: Buscar las cosas arriba… 3:1b–2
2. Fundamento: Co-resucitado con Cristo… 3:1a, 3a, 4a
3. Seguridad: Escondido con Cristo en Dios… 3:3b
4. Anticipación: Para ser revelado con Cristo… 3:4b
Two imperatives set the direction and tone of 3:1–4.
· The first: seek. Seeking has to do with the orientation of the will. As an analogy, visualize a compass needle seeking the magnetic pole. Seeking does not have to do with hunting God, because he is not lost! Instead, it has to do with aims and ambitions. It goes beyond investigating to obtaining.
· The second imperative: set your minds on. The concept is stronger than set affections on (KJV). To keep thinking about, to concentrate on, and to be disposed toward—these convey the meaning and support the overall theme of orientation.
o Paul uses the same imperative (phroneite) in Philippians 2:5 to focus on the attitude out of which right behavior springs: “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus”[1]
Orientación: Buscar las cosas arriba… 3:1b–2
Believers are to concentrate on the things that are above. Stated negatively, they are not to be oriented to things that are on earth.
Paul even defines above: where Christ is. A comma is appropriate between where Christ is and seated at the right hand of God. The two clauses, although related, have separate meanings.
The expression seated at the right hand of God is a figure of speech conveying exaltation, a position of honor, “Con quién los CO-RESUCITADOS van a estar, es EL CRISTO EXALTADO”. The interests of the exalted Christ must be the interests of believers.
La nueva orientación apela a la conducta de vida en el reino del gobierno de Dios.
· Mention of the right hand of God is an allusion to Psalm 110:1. (Psalm 110 is the OT passage most frequently cited in the NT with 33 quotations or allusions.) Other texts also speak of the ascended, exalted Lord (e.g., Eph. 1:20; 4:10; Phil. 2:9–11).
· The things that are above are the things that belong to the ascended Christ, things ultimate, transcendent, and spiritual.
· The things that are on earth (things below) are not the physical, material things. Rather, the expression speaks of the earthbound (terrenal), the unspiritual, the things of the self-life (ego-yo) (cf. Phil. 3:19).
· The terms above and on earth contrast the two orientations.
o The superstitions and rituals implied in 2:8–23 are also part of the things below.
o The point of Paul’s admonition is not to think about heaven all the time, but to let Christ and the things of his realm set the values, priorities, and direction for living in the here and now.
Fundamento: Co-resucitado con Cristo… 3:1a, 3a, 4a
Paul bases his appeal on three closely related indicatives that sets the new orientation for living.
1. En primer lugar, el llamado a ser orientados hacia Cristo, se apoya en la experiencia previa de la resurrección espiritual.
a. Most translations begin 3:1 with “if”. However, “since” (NIV) more nearly expresses a condition assumed to be true. The experience of being raised with Christ is essentially parallel with being born again. Believers are already raised, but, as we find in verse 4, they look forward to more, when Christ appears.
2. The second basis for this new orientation is that you have died (3:3).
a. Paul builds on previous declarations in 2:11–12 (where death is indicated by circumcision and burial) and in 2:20.
b. Here he again reminds the Colossian believers that in Christ they are dead to the old order, the things on earth.
c. His point is that believers have died to sin and to the world, and therefore they do not need to be oriented or responsive to them (cf. Rom. 6:1–13; Gal. 6:14).
3. A third basis for the new orientation for living: Christ who is your life.
a. To say that Christ is life for believers includes the sense that he is the source, the meaning, the purpose, the identity, and the destiny of life, both individually and corporately. Thus the exhortation to live in this orientation.
b. Here, “life” refers both to what is to be received in the age to come and to what believers already experience in Christ.
Seguridad: Escondido con Cristo en Dios… 3:3b
Our life is hidden away with Christ. This statement that the believer died with Christ in the past (aorist tense in Greek) and continues to live with Christ in the present (perfect tense) suggests some thoughts:
A. Our life is one with Christ who is in the bosom of the Father.
B. So, it is better to take the expression as a statement of security, as in this paraphrase: Your life in Christ is securely tucked away.
a. The tense of the verb (perfect passive) means that your life has been hidden and stays that way. Ephesians 2:6 has a similar thought: “[God] raised us up with [Christ] and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
“Hid” (gr. Kekruptai) era un vocablo comúnmente usado por los falsos maestros del valle del rio Lico (donde se encontraba Colosas). Con este vocablo designaban el lugar en donde se hallaban “escondido” el tesoro de a sabiduría, ese lugar era: “Sus libros secretos”.
Ø For the false teachers, the treasures of wisdom were hidden(Gr. apokryphoi) in their secret books.
o But for believers Christ is the treasury of wisdom, and our life is hidden (Gr. kekryptai) in Him.
o Barclay brings out this probable reference by proposing that Paul’s meaning was something like this:
§ Para los falsos maestros el tesoro de la sabiduría está escondido en sus libros secretos; pero para nosotros, los creyentes, Cristo es nuestro secreto de la sabiduría y nosotros estamos escondidos (seguros) en ÉL.
Ø The end of verse 3 has an unusual combination of words. The phrase with Christ is a favorite with Paul. The phrase in God occurs only two other places (in the opening verses of 1 and 2 Thess.). Putting the two together as they are here doubles the note of security: with Christ in God.
o As has been said, “No hellish burglar can break that combination.”
o John Newton’s hymn “Rejoice, Believer, in the Lord” affirms that “Your life is hid with Christ in God / Beyond the reach of harm.”
Anticipación: Para ser revelado con Cristo… 3:4b
Verse 4 has the only reference in Colossians to Christ’s second coming. The certainty of the event is emphasized. The only variable in the declaration is when.
Three words are used in the NT for the anticipated return or second coming of Christ:
1. coming (parousia),
2. revelation (apokalupsis),
3. appearing/manifestation (epiphaneia).
Here a closely related verb form of the latter is used: phanēroō, translated as revealed. The only other NT uses of this verb to refer to Christ’s future coming are:
1 Pet. 5:4;
Ø Y cuando aparezca el Príncipe de los pastores, vosotros recibiréis la corona incorruptible de gloria.
1 John 2:28
Ø Y ahora, hijitos, permaneced en él, para que cuando se manifieste, tengamos confianza, para que en su venida no nos alejemos de él avergonzados.
1 John 3:2
Ø Amados, ahora somos hijos de Dios, y aún no se ha manifestado lo que hemos de ser; pero sabemos que cuando él se manifieste, seremos semejantes a él, porque le veremos tal como él es.
The three words for Christ’s coming again are sometimes used interchangeably.
Paul’s teaching moves from the certainty of Christ’s being revealed to the equal certainty of believers being revealed.
· The believers’ destiny is expressed as being in glory. (Cf. earlier references to glory in Col. 1:11 and 1:27.)
· On a number of occasions, Jesus spoke of the glory associated with his coming (e.g., Matt. 19:28; 24:30; 25:31; Mark 8:38).
CONCLUSION.
De acuerdo con el énfasis sobre CRISTO en Colosenses, encontramos el nombre de Cristo 4 veces en estos 4 versículos. (3:1-4), más una referencia adicional “con ÉL” (v.4).
Claramente el punto central de esta nueva orientación, búsqueda y meditación no es una “reflexión interior” sino una “alineación vertical hacia arriba”. Así que un estilo de vida moral y ético se fundamenta enteramente en una vida orientada solamente hacia Cristo.
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[1]Martin, E. D. (1993). Colossians, Philemon. Spine title: Colossians & Philemon. Believers church Bible commentary (134). Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press.