Sermon Tone Analysis

In the final two chapters of Colossians, Paul moved into the practical application of the doctrines he had been teaching.

After all, it does little good if Christians declare and defend the truth, but fail to demonstrate it in their lives.

There are some Christians who will defend the truth at the drop of a hat, but their personal lives deny the doctrines they profess to love.

“They profess that they know God, but in works they deny Him” ().

We must keep in mind that the pagan religions of Paul’s day said little or nothing about personal morality.

A worshiper could bow before an idol, put his offering on the altar, and go back to live the same old life of sin.

What a person believed had no direct relationship with how he behaved, and no one would condemn a person for his behavior.

But the Christian faith brought a whole new concept into pagan society: what we believe has a very definite connection with how we behave!

After all, faith in Christ means being united to Christ; and if we share His life, we must follow His example.

He cannot live in us by His Spirit and permit us to live in sin.

Paul connected doctrine with duty in this section by giving his readers three instructions.

Seek the Heavenly ()

The emphasis is on the believer’s relationship with Christ.

We died with Christ (v.

3a).

The fullest explanation of this wonderful truth is found in .

Christ not only died for us (substitution), but we died with Him (identification).

Christ not only died for sin, bearing its penalty; but He died unto sin, breaking its power.

Because we are “in Christ” through the work of the Holy Spirit (), we died with Christ.

This means that we can have victory over the old sin nature that wants to control us.

“How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” ()

We live in Christ (v. 4a).

Christ is our life.

Eternal life is not some heavenly substance that God imparts when we, as sinners, trust the Saviour.

Eternal life is Jesus Christ Himself.

“He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” ().

We are dead and alive at the same time—dead to sin and alive in Christ.

Someone has said, “Life is what you are alive to.”

A child may come alive when you talk about a baseball game or an ice-cream cone.

A teenager may come alive when you mention cars or dates.

Paul wrote, “For to me to live is Christ” ().

Christ was Paul’s life and he was alive to anything that related to Christ.

So should it be with every believer.

Years ago I heard a story about two sisters who enjoyed attending dances and wild parties.

Then they were converted and found new life in Christ.

They received an invitation to a party and sent their RSVP in these words: “We regret that we cannot attend because we recently died.”

We are raised with Christ (v. 1a).

It is possible to be alive and still live in the grave.

During World War II, several Jewish refugees hid in a cemetery, and a baby was actually born in one of the graves.

However, when Jesus gave us His life, He lifted us out of the grave and set us on the throne in heaven!

Christ is seated at the right hand of God, and we are seated there “in Christ.”

The word if does not suggest that Paul’s readers might not have been “risen with Christ”; for all of us, as believers, are identified with Christ in death, burial, resurrection, and ascension.

The word since gives the truer meaning of the word.

Our exalted position in Christ is not a hypothetical thing, or a goal for which we strive.

It is an accomplished fact.

We are hidden in Christ (v.

3b).

We no longer belong to the world, but to Christ; and the sources of life that we enjoy come only from Him. “Hidden in Christ” means security and satisfaction.

The eminent Greek scholar, Dr. A.T. Robertson, comments on this: “So here we are in Christ who is in God, and no burglar, not even Satan himself, can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus ()” (Paul and the Intellectuals, Broadman, p. 98).

The Christian life is a “hidden life” as far as the world is concerned, because the world does not know Christ (see ).

Our sphere of life is not this earth, but heaven; and the things that attract us and excite us belong to heaven, not to earth.

This does not mean that we should ignore our earthly responsibilities.

Rather it means that our motives and our strength come from heaven, not earth.

We are glorified in Christ (v. 4b).

Christ is now seated at the Father’s right hand, but one day He will come to take His people home ().

When He does, we shall enter into eternal glory with Christ.

When He is revealed in His glory, we shall also be revealed in glory.

According to the Apostle Paul, we have already been glorified!

() This glory simply has not yet been revealed.

Christ has already given us His glory (), but the full revelation of the glory awaits the return of the Saviour ().

Now, in view of our wonderful identification with Christ, we have a great responsibility: “Seek those things which are above” ().

Through Christ’s death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, we have been separated from the old life of this world, and we now belong to a new heavenly life.

But how do we “seek those things which are above”?

The secret is found in : “Habitually set your mind—your attention—on things above, not on things on the earth” (literal translation).

Our feet must be on earth, but our minds must be in heaven.

This is not to suggest that (as D.L. Moody used to say) we become “so heavenly minded that we are no earthly good.”

It means that the practical everyday affairs of life get their direction from Christ in heaven.

It means further that we look at earth from heaven’s point of view.

While attending a convention in Washington, D.C., I watched a Senate committee hearing over television.

I believe they were considering a new ambassador to the United Nations.

The late Senator Hubert Humphrey was making a comment as I turned on the television set: “You must remember that in politics, how you stand depends on where you sit.”

He was referring, of course, to the political party seating arrangement in the Senate, but I immediately applied it to my position in Christ.

How I stand—and walk—depends on where I sit; and I am seated with Christ in the heavenlies!

When the nation of Israel came to the border of the Promised Land, they refused to enter; and, because of their stubborn unbelief, they had to wander in the wilderness for forty years (see ).

That whole generation, starting with the twenty-year-olds, died in the wilderness, except for Caleb and Joshua, the only two spies who believed God.

How were Caleb and Joshua able to “get the victory” during those forty difficult years in the wilderness?

Their minds and hearts were in Canaan!

They knew they had an inheritance coming, and they lived in the light of that inheritance.

The Queen of England exercises certain powers and privileges because she sits on the throne.

The President of the United States has privileges and powers because he sits behind the desk in the oval office of the White House.

The believer is seated on the throne with Christ.

We must constantly keep our affection and our attention fixed on the things of heaven, through the Word and prayer, as well as through worship and service.

We can enjoy “days of heaven upon the earth” () if we will keep our hearts and minds in the heavenlies.

Slay the Earthly ()

We turn now from the positive to the negative.

There are some people who do not like the negative.

“Give us positive doctrines!”

they say.

“Forget about negative warnings and admonitions!”

But the negative warnings and commands grow out of the positive truths of Christian doctrine.

This is why Paul wrote, “Mortify therefore.”

No amount of positive talk about health will cure a ruptured appendix.

The doctor will have to “get negative” and take out the appendix.

No amount of lecturing on beauty will produce a garden.

The gardener has to pull weeds!

The positive and the negative go together, and one without the other leads to imbalance.

The word mortify means “put to death.”

Because we have died with Christ (), we have the spiritual power to slay the earthly, fleshly desires that want to control us.

Paul called this “reckoning” ourselves to be dead to sin but alive in Christ ().

Our Lord used the same idea when He said, “And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out” ().