Colossians 3:1-4

A life in Christ.

Since believers have died with Christ, they have been cut off from a crude, materialistic view of moral purity. Since believers have been raised up with Christ, heavenly realities should form the focus of their attention and exertion.

This passage works in tandem with the one that closes chapter 2. Christ is the source of our rescue from godless rebellion and the provider of freedom to live truly. Our efforts are toward Him. He fills our future with bright hope.

The irony here is thick in the face of gnostic heresy. Those false teachers were offering deep philosophical knowledge which purported to give one entrance into true spirituality.

Their focus was on the rejection of physical pleasure and harsh treatment of the body. But this focus was ultimately useless because the source of our evil is the sin which indwells us. It arises from a man’s spiritual being over which a man’s body has little influence.

Christ brings a true rescue that wells up from within our hearts, cleansing the inside and bubbling out to physically-expressed holiness.

Passing beyond our union with Christ in His death, we behold the very throne of God — a place of true spirituality with glory and holiness unimaginable. Knowing the Lord Jesus gives us ready access to that throne. As the Lord told His disciples “no one comes to the Father, but through” Him. (John 14:6)

So the false teachers aspire to deep spirituality and strand themselves in a fixation on the material world. Believers in Christ find a life of righteous living and restoration to their Creator: all at the cross of the Savior.

Paul urges the Colossians to focus their attention on the Lord and the things of heaven. They were to continue their habit of following God’s agenda for life, pursuing a life that is good by His standards. Paul elaborates in the coming paragraphs as to what this looks like in everyday life.

Here he urges a persistence, a continual intent on our Savior. What are His priorities? His agenda? What gracious blessings is He pouring out? Make it habitual to view earth’s circumstances as if you were observing them from heaven and with God’s values.

Keep firmly fixed in mind the fact that the material world is temporary. It will all burn up some day. Long before that, things will decay and turn into junk. Of the things in this world, only people and the Bible are eternal.

Paul explains the reasons for keeping this heavenly focus on Christ: our changed identity and God’s promised future for us who are believers.

We are dead, that is to say, severed from having worldly pursuits constitute the core value of life. But also, we are separated from the flesh and its pull to do wrong.

Jesus warned: “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.” (Luke 12:15)

The Lord speaks of life as the essence of what truly matters. Paul refers to life in this sense when he says ours is hidden with Christ: the sum of all the identifying and experiential elements that form the eternal reality and significance of you.

This glorious wonder of your life has three facets: it’s mostly hidden for now, it’s entirely a gift of God’s grace that reflects credit to Him rather than praise to yourself, and with firm certainty you will stand with Christ in glory. It will be amazing.

This discussion reminds me of a C.S Lewis quote that I repeat from time to time.

“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations — these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit — immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”

If you are a believer, then be intent on heavenly realities. Look at your daily endeavors and opportunities with an eternal perspective. Anticipate standing with the Savior. Recognize that the small things you do today touch eternity.

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