Colossians 3:1-17
Paul wrote in Colossian 3:2
‘Set your minds on things that are above,
not on things that are on earth’
‘for you have died’ – he meant spiritually;
he meant to the things that the world, those around us, consider important.
This reinforces what Jesus taught in Matthew 6:
‘Do not be anxious about your life – what you will eat
or what you will drink,
nor about your body’
like what should I wear.
Life is more important than food and clothing.
We are ‘in the world’, we have to live and work and pay our bills,
and obey the law of the land,
but we are not to be ‘of the world’,
with the same outlook, aims, and values, of the unsaved.
We are to be ‘lights’ to them,
not by being pious and sanctimonious
but by being Christ-like
in what we say and do.
It is easy to be like everyone else, and this is not always bad,
but it is if we lose sight of Christ, and of God’s standards of morality and behaviour.
We can then we find ourselves in danger of being sidetracked in our Christian walk,
or going off the rails altogether.
In the 1970’s we wore jackets with wide lapels, and flared trousers,
sideburns and thick-rimmed glasses.
That was the fashion then.
Anyone who did not look or dress like that was unfashionable.
In the 50’s, families went camping, but in the 70’s Spain was the “in-place
Drivers rushed out and bought hatchback cars in the 80’s.
Kids got their parents to buy them “Game Boys”.
In the 90’s the fashion was for vegetarian and low fat foods and unleaded petrol.
In the ‘noughties’ we all had to become ‘Green’.
These things might still be part of our lives and culture for many years,
but may seem weird once they pass their “sell-by date” in just a few months’ time.
Fashion is like the weather, it keeps on changing, in contrast to David’s words in Ps 26:1
‘I have trusted in the Lord without wavering’, which is why he can say in v.2
that he has nothing to fear from God testing him and examining his heart and his mind.
One of the words that occurs many times in the Bible is ‘Chesed’,
the “steadfast or “constant” or ‘continual” love of God.
God has many attributes, and they are all positive.
He loves, He forgives, He strengthens, He guides, and the wonderful thing is
that while we do these things now and again, when they suit our mood or circumstances,
God does them all the time. His mind is always fixed on “Good”.
As Christians we should strive to be Godlike, Christ-like, and this means having a
steadiness or steadfastness of mind,
which is the result of the Holy Spirit working within us,
We know from experience that people do not like, and cannot trust,
those who keep changing their minds;
those who say one thing and do another; people who quickly lose sight of their principles;
people who are unreliable and undependable.
We use the word “mind’ quite a lot, saying things like “I’m going out of my mind
with worry”, “What’s on your mind”, and keep your mind on the job”.
What then do we mean by mind?
If we have an illness of the mind, we might be referred to a psychiatrist or psychologist.
The root of these words is “psyche”, and this is a Greek word which is also translated
as “soul”,
so “mind’, “soul” and even “heart’ are related,
for when we say “I love you with all my heart”
we don’t mean “I love you with my circulatory organ, my blood pump”,
we mean “I love you with all my mind, personality, emotions, essential being”,
and this is “psyche” or “soul”.
So, when we say our “soul” lives on after death, we mean our essence, our thoughts,
our memories, our personality, our mind, continues to exist in some way.
In James’ Letter, chap 1 v. 6, we can read the famous words “don’t be a doubter,
because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind”.
God wants us to be steady-minded I right-minded at all times, and in 1 v. 8,
“the Lord will not answer the prayers of a double-minded man who is unstable
in all he does”.
God is sure and steadfast and wants us to be like Him, like a well-anchored ship,
like a house built upon a rock.
We have to be single-minded, but not stiff-necked and hard of heart like the Pharisees.
Our minds, as one hymn says, should be “stayed upon Jehovah”,
regardless of the knocks and attacks of the world, the flesh and the devil.
The Bible has dozens of examples of people not giving their minds to God,
not being right with Him, for example:
In Genesis Eve walked with God and had the freedom to do anything,
but curiosity and pride, sins of the mind,
led her to eat the forbidden fruit and give same to Adam.
Samson was a godly man, the result of much prayer by godly parents,
who dedicated their baby son to God, but when he grew up, Samson lusted after Delilah,
and sinned, not only with his dirty mind, but also with his body.
King David was a man who knew God, but his mind was not totally devoted to the Lord,
and when he saw Bathsheba bathing, he allowed sinful thoughts to enter his mind,
and these led to Bathsheba's husband Uriah being sent into the front line of battle
against the Philistines, where he was killed, so David could marry his widow.
Judas Iscariot was a disciple and close companion of Jesus for at least 3 years,
but he allowed Satan to enter his mind and cause him to betray the Messiah
for 30 pieces of silver, and then, his mind full of remorse and self-loathing,
he killed himself.
Christianity is concerned with “Right mindfulness”, but this means having a “right mind”
towards God, rather than wanting to appear “right” in the minds of those
who do not know God.
Many Scriptures contain references to the “mind”, such as:
Psalm 19:14 - “May my words and my thoughts (my “mind”) be acceptable to You,
0 Lord, my refuge and redeemers.
Romans 12:1&2 - “So then, my brothers and sisters, because of God’s great mercy to us,
I appeal to you:
offer yourselves as living sacrifices to God, dedicated to His service, and pleasing to Him.
Do not conform yourselves to the standards of this world, but let God transform you
inwardly by a complete change of your mind.
Then you will be able to know the will of God
what is good and is pleasing to Him and is perfect”.
Remember what Jesus said in Matt 5 about the things that cause us to sin,
“if your right eye causes you to look sinfully at a woman and commit adultery, pluck it out;
if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off” -but it’s not the eye or the hand that sins,
so much as the mind that controls it, and in Jeremiah it says “the human heart
is full of deceit”.
He did not mean the ‘blood pump’ in our chest, but our minds.
So what the Word of God is saying is that we need to guard the doors of our minds,
because our thoughts and attitudes determine our behaviour patterns,
and ultimately where we will spend eternity.
We should meditate on and practice scriptures such as Philippians 4:8 –
‘Fill your minds with those things that are good and deserve praise;
things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely and honourable”.
A “dirty mind” fed on pornography, will lead to “dirty actions” that will harm us,
and possibly others.
Conversely, a godly mind will lead to good actions that help us and others.
How do we transform our behaviour? - by the renewing of our minds.
How do we renew our minds?
by doing what Paul talked about in Colossians 3:
With the help of the Holy Spirit, selling our minds on the things above,
not on earthly things;
by getting rid of anger, impurity, lust, malice, slander and bad language;
by putting on compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience;
by trying to be like Jesus, by daring to be different
Right-mindedness and right living should never dependent upon the opinions of others.
If a million people do the wrong thing, that doesn’t make it right I
In Daniel chap 3 we learn that everyone in Babylon was falling down
and worshipping the golden image that the king had set up,
but neither peer pressure nor threats of death
could move three Hebrew men to do the same.
They said “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace,
but even if He doesn’t, 0 king, know that we will not serve thy gods”.
That’s not stubbornness, it’s integrity, that’s right-mindedness.
Not budging from what we know is right.
Martin Luther, the first Protestant was told:
“The whole world is against you I”, to which he replied “Then the whole world is wrong I”.
Like Shadrach, Meshech and Abednego, like Luther,
like Jesus we need to be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.
To finish, someone said in Heaven the saved sat at tables
where there were bowls of lovely food, and each well-fed person had a long spoon,
and in Hell the damned sat at tables where there were bowls of lovely food,
and each starving person also had a long spoon. What was the difference?
The saved used the spoons to feed each other.
The damned were so selfish they did not think of anyone else, so everyone starved.
Ifs all in the mind.
I pray that we will all have minds devoted to God, stayed upon Jehovah,
for only in this way will we have peace and joy both in this life and for all eternity.
Amen.
