COLOSSIANS – Part Nine

By Michael K. Farrar, O.D.

© God’s Breath Publications

www.godsbreathpublications.com

 

Colossians was written by the Apostle Paul while he was under house arrest in Rome. Epaphras, the pastor of the church in Colossae, came to Paul to share how well the Christians were growing in faith, but also to ask for help to address the issue of false teaching that was threatening the church. Paul responded by writing this letter of encouragement that is packed full of basic doctrine concerning Christ and the Gospel. It is unclear what the exact heresy was that was attempting to creep into the church at Colossae, but it had elements of Jewish observances of the Law as well as paganism and Gnostic beliefs. It is very relevant for us today, for we are surrounded by pagan beliefs and ascetic religious concepts, while at the same time dealing with a new resurgence of Gnostic conceptual influences. Paul in the following passage covers the doctrine Paul in the following passage covers the doctrine of our new life in Christ and how we are to focus our thoughts as believers on heavenly things.

 

Colossians 3:1-4

“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

 

Paul tells the Christians at Colossae here that since they have received Christ as their personal Savior and have been raised up from their former “dead” life in sin to a “new” life in Christ, they should set their hearts on things above. This involves the principle of living the resurrected life, the life of a believer, a follower of Christ.

 

When we accept Christ as Savior we are a new creation in Him, but we still live on this earth surrounded by sin and evil. We also still live within a fleshly body that carries with it the desires of our old nature. While we have a new nature, we need a renewing of our heart and mind and this is why Paul is calling the Christians at Colossae to set their hearts on the things above. He calls them to not dwell on the earthly things and to turn from past habits and thoughts to Christ-centered thoughts and actions. Numerous scriptures speak of this calling.

 

John 18:36 “Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

 

1 John 5:4-5 “For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”

 

Ephesians 2:6-7 “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,”

 

Philippians 3:20-21 “ But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”

 

1 Peter 2:11 “Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul.”

 

Romans 12:1-2 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

 

When we travel to a new country we are strangers in that land, foreigners. Our citizenship is in our home country and we are just travelers located temporarily in a distant land. This is the same for the Christian. We are just travelers on this earth once we become a child of God. We are sojourners on the earth, but our citizenship is in heaven. When we wrap our heart, mind and soul around this thought, we begin to live differently. We make godly choices in how we live. We seek to be like Christ in how we think. We guard our words, seek to minister to others and give a gentle but firm response to those who criticize us. We do this as a Christian because we love Christ and realize we are new creatures in Christ.

 

When we remember that we are, in a spiritual sense, resurrected with Christ from the grave we can remind ourselves on a continual basis that we are called to live holy as Jesus is holy. Many scriptures talk about how we can identify with Christ in His death and burial as well as His baptism.

 

Galatians 2:20-21 “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

 

Romans 6:3 “Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?”

 

The life of a Christian is a life centered on Jesus Christ and a life full of choices to live as Jesus would. There is always a temptation to return to the former way of life we lived before we became a Christian or to respond to the sinful desires of the body that can arise within it. Paul in other passages of scripture addressed this struggle. He knew from personal experience that followers of Christ are constantly faced with the choice to serve Christ or serve the flesh.

 

Romans 6:11-19

“In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey — whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. I put this in human terms because you are weak in your natural selves. Just as you used to offer the parts of your body in slavery to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness.”

 

We can live this high calling of living like Christ as Christians because God has given us all the things we need to live it out obediently and properly, the choice is up to us.

 

2 Peter 1:3-4 “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.”

 

Paul is presenting to followers of Christ that they have a responsibility to set their “hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.” He tells them to set their “minds on things above, not on earthly things.”

 

This process of setting “your hearts” indicates continuous action. We should not be followers of Christ just on Sundays, during Bible study or at a church function. We are always a Christian and therefore should always think and behave in this godly manner. Paul is calling the Colossian Christians and us today to seek the spiritual values that characterize Christ such as tenderness, mercy, kindness, meekness, patience, wisdom, forgiveness, strength, purity and love. It is calling us to be filled with the Holy Spirit who lives within us so we might manifest the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-26).

 

Paul gives repeated instructions here in this passage on how to set our hearts and seek these things by stating, “Set your minds” Continuous action is also implied here and speaks to the fact that we need to use our thinking capacity and inner disposition to concentrate on heavenly things that relate to Christ. He is not saying to emotionally center ourselves in mystical heavenly experiences, but to think with the mind God has given us and to think of spiritual matters communicated to us in scripture. Today in the society in which we live we are surrounded by the world which is based on following what our emotions and flesh desire. Most individuals make decisions based on feeling and experience rather than on wise judgment which has its foundation on godly knowledge. Scripture teaches us not to conform to the worldly way of thinking in which we formerly walked, but to be renewed by godly instruction and thinking.

 

Romans 12:2 “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

 

Philippians 4:8 “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things.”

 

Our resource to make such decisions comes from Christ Himself and the new life we have in Him, “where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.” This is a place of honor and Christ sits in heaven on a throne and is our constant advocate. (1 John 2:1)

 

Luke 22:69 “But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God.”

 

Acts 2:32-33 “God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. Exalted to the right hand of God,”

 

The reason we are to live in such a manner is because each of us as a follower of Christ has, “died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” This phrase “you have died” is in the past tense “apothnesko” and indicates that our death took place at our salvation. Our old nature was crucified, dead and buried and we were raised in a spiritual sense with a new nature in Christ.

 

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” We have a new life that is “hidden with Christ in God.”

 

1 Corinthians 6:17 “But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with him in spirit.”

 

1 Peter 1:3-4 “He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade, kept in heaven for you,”

 

The amazing hope that is revealed in verse 4 is that when Christ returns to the earth then, “then you also will appear with him in glory.” Revelation gives us a glimpse of what we will see when we see Jesus in heaven as we then will receive our glorified bodies in heaven.

 

Revelation 19:11-14, 15-16

“I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God…Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS and LORD OF LORDS.”

 

“We need heaven gazers. That is those who look to the things above for guidance and wisdom to meet the challenges of our lives. We need to spend more time in prayer asking God to help us to develop a better “heaven view”. We give our Christian beliefs some word service and our heavenly home some thought now and again, but in the main that is not what dominates our thoughts. Let’s start practicing being more heavenly minded today. Let’s focus more on the things above than the things below.”

B. Shelley

 

In the next part we will see Paul get a little down and dirty as he shares specifically what we are to do and not do as believers. We are not just to avoid certain actions, thoughts and behaviors; we are called to behave in a way that is honoring to Christ, godly in thought and driven by the leading of the Holy Spirit in our lives.