Colossians Chapter 3:1-4
1 If ye then be risen in Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on earth.
3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear , then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
Christmas time is a time of joy, knowing Christ is the reason for the season, understanding that Christ is the real reason for us celebrating Christmas. For we are celebrating the fact that Christ came to earth to give us a more fulfilling life and more importantly he absorbed our sins, with his voluntary death on the cross, that gave us an everlasting home to go to after this physical life is over. First of all to qualify for this we have to believe that Christ is the Son of God. First there is the promise of the a more fulfilling life Christ and give then there is the greater promise of phenominal proportions that we have an everlasting eternal home of unimaginable beauty to go. Well because of this we celebrate the birth of CHRIST which is Christmas and celebrate the death of CHRIST which is Easter. Well after the celebrating comes the responsibilty of living a life that coincides with this glorious honor. Which sometimes may be hard because we are use to handling situations based on our knowledge of how the world deals with them.
Here Paul is giving the Colossians and us as well, a direction so we we may not be so frustrated on this Christian journey. First of all he starts at in the first verse saying, "If we be risen with Christ " if we claim to rise with a new life in Christ. then we are to"seek those things which are above" these things that are above are heavenly pleasures, heavenly thinking, Godly wisdom
things like:
A. that overwhelming love that we will feel when we get to heaven,
B. that everlasting peace,
C. safety,
D.comfort,
E.Joy
F.Heavenly justice
These are just a few of the beautiful things of heaven, these things are so overwhelming, they couldn’t help but keep you peace, the bible says in
Isaiah 3:26
that if you keep your mind stayed on him he’ll keep you in perfect peace .
Keep your mind on God and heavenly things and it will give you not just peace but perfect peace .When you are in perfect peace you handle situations with greater patience, you can explore that situation with greater clarity, more understanding, therefore bringing about a better solution, because your deciscion was not based on anxiety, haste , fear or because of loss popularity.
So many of us make bad deciscions because we want to be popular, like these political partites Bush and Gore both know what the best things to do the most moral as well as financial solution to most of America’s problems but they want to stay popular with their supporters so they make the best deciscion possible to cater to special interest groups, I tell you right now when you stick with God he will guide you when you keep your mind on heavenly thinking you have already set in motion the steps that will give you the greater victory everytime, , When you prayed about it studied the bible, participated in discussions with Pastor Blackburn and you participated in christian fellowship, and developed a wholesome christian attitude everytime you make a deciscion based on what you feel God wanted you to do, even if you are not successful by earthly standards you get the greater victory, think about the fact that how by earthly standards somethings through our understanding seem unsuccessful, like a church that may have 15 members, we may say "Oh that Pastor don’t know what he is doing, but you never know what God’s program is over there, those individuals may need a small church because they need such personal attention, one Pastor once told me that, God told them don’t let the church grow to over 70 members, when the church get about a 100 members train one of your associate ministers to take some and pastor over them, so you can still fully shepard over the rest , now who I am I to judge If they believe truly in their heart God led them that way, who are we to say they are wrong, they were willing to sacrifice material gain to do the will of God . I tell you right now that, if they were truly led this way then they already have the victory, and when God tell you to do something he won’t forsake you, he will take care of you . Paul wants us to handle earthly affairs with heavenly understanding. He says "Set your affections on things above not on things of the earth" He says we should set our affections on things above, to have an affection for something is to be fond, to love something , to have a longing for something, to actually to be willing surrender part of yourself over to something that means alot to you.
He says do not meditate on earthly things.
A.social status
B.financial level
C.honor among peers
D.earthly possessions
E.superficial emotions
F.Physical sin
G.Filthy conversations
H.Revenge
I.Proud
J.Carnal pleasures
K.Idolatry
L.evil desire
Among other things, these things don’t glorify God or enhance our relationship with him. Therefore we have to minimize them if not elimate them completely.
He goes on to say in verse 3 "ye are dead",he means as far as the world is concerned we are dead and are new creatures in Christ, we have new lives in Christ Our old selves no longer exist . We no longer should be centered around earthly pleasures. We have a new life in Christ our new life began soon as we accepted Christ in our hearts. Now he says that our new life is "hid" in Christ with God.
I pondered what he meant by hid in Christ, I read some commentaries on this and the general consensus is that hid means safe, protected from the world, as well as uncomprehensable by man other men cannot understand your life with God nor can they interfere with your relationship with him, no one can harm, invade, or upset your relationship with Christ.It say in John 10:28-30
10:28
And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
10:29
My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.
10:30
I and my Father are one.
With our life hidden in Christ Jesus we have a resposibility to live a life abided in Jesus, if our life is hidden in Christ we are apart of him and being apart of Christ we have duty to Christ not to associate him with our sins, not to mention our duty as representatives of Jesus, we who call ourselves Christian are bound to show the world our heavenly light, so that they may be won over by our good deeds. Our lives are hidden in Christ from the rest of the world, the natural man cannot see why we love Christ, why we make the sacrifices we do, like tithing, fasting, slow to anger,praying before each meal, they don’t understand. Also think about this as Christian we are all we have down here we should support one another, congradulate each other, build each other up not tear each other down, the world already doesn’t understand us, and they try to draw us in to their thinking, people on the job,people who don’t believe in our own family, not to mention the enemy who so cunning, constantly throwing things at us. We need each other we are suppose to develop heavenly mindedness not just for ourselves but we should have it so we can save others, as well as fellowship with each other to keep us strong, as a tight christian unit.The U.S Military branches Navy, Army, Airforce and the Marines are all taught to be devoted to each other, protect the weak, be unquestionably devoted to the United States, follow the orders of the leader, and make the best desicions possible for the their country and people around them, not to think selfishly and are suppose to give their own life if it will save others and if you do a good job, when you are discharged they say you served your country well . How much more should Christians be equipped than that, we who serve a much higher authority and purpose. what about God’s Military branches the Baptist,Church of God in Christ, Methodist and the other branches we are also taught to be devoted to each other, bare the infirmaties of the weak, be unquestionably devoted to Our Heavenly God, follow the orders of the leader our pastor , and make the best desicions possible for the people around us, not to think selfishly and Jesus already gave his life to save save others.Will Good say well done you served me well? Have most of us even made this our goal to hear this when we are done, do we even know what it takes to receive this honor being said to us ,do we know that this is the highest honor we could ever achieve is to hear that being said to us. Keep your mind on heavenly things and you are already on the right road. I know I don’t have to quote this verse because we are a strong bible studying church but I will point this just to remind us
Matthew 18: 4-6
4 Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. 6 But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
You see with our lives hidden in Christ we are apart of Christ and therefore we have protection, think about some stories you have read in the bible , or stories about someone who tried to hurt God’s people, and ended suffering horrible punishments, long illnesses, finacial problems, loss of position, extreme public shame even early death, what about your own testimonies how you overcame a situation by giving it over to God, ask me in private I have some stories of people who have tried to destroy christians and the Lord made that person come to them for help financially as well as for their illnesses. You see you do not have to get revenge, God has a greater justice, and guess what, make sure you don’t try to destroy somebody you might just run into a Christian, and end up on the wrong side of God’s wrath.
Then it says here in verse 4 "When Christ, who is our life" When Christ (our savior,our lord,our hero,our role model, our leader, who is greater than any man or angel) "Who is our life", just like it said in verse 3,. Let’s shed some light on that,Paul says "Christ who is our life"
our real life abides with Christ, our true existence is with Christ, Christ makes us valid, everything we are about is in Christ there is no true inner self without Christ, this is the reality of our relationship with Christ, as Christians we are in a royal position, we must conduct ourselves like true Christian royalty, we must not let people take us out of our royal positions, nor should we defile ourselves or bring shame on Christ by acting out of concordance with what God has given ue especially when we did not deserve this position in the first place, look we didn’t deserve to be saved, we don’t deserve to be healthy, don’t deserve his love, his grace, his mercy, his favor, our eternal home, our daily blessings, yet we go around here acting ignorant of the fact that we are actually desecrating Jesus with our behaviors, others can’t be saved because of the behaviors we display, people don’t want to get saved, don’t want come to church, because how we act ,how we talk to each other, let alone how we talk to them , people say "I get better treated on the street or by strangers they say white people do me better than Christians I might as well stay where I am at, people don’t want to trust the preachers because of what people say about us ,which some things they say is true. So think about how some us of act like we no nothing about Christ, what he said in the bible or the punishments others have suffered in the bible for things they did, open the bible sometimes and read about some of the things people were put to death for doing in the bible, by God and by man. Thing we steadily do and God continuously forgives for. We all deserve to die and rot in hell forever in everlasting torment but no Jesus came down and suffered a horrible death of intense physical pain for sins he did not commit to save sin sick sinners like us , and yet we continously taint that sacrifice by acting like heathens and grieve his spirit.Our lives are hidden in Christ, well like I mentioned before, being hid in Christ we are apart of Christ and must represent him honorably right,
Finally he says here "When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." The covenant is already signed,book of life is sealed, we are delivered, and salvation is yours. When Christ who is our life,where our soul is, where our true existence is, is revealed to the world, we will share in his glory, when this race is finally done, and everyone will finally see that God was real and stand in awe of his awesome power, people will believe,
Romans 14:11
For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.
look people will be so overcome during the rapture ,that every tongue shall confess that he is Lord and that is without a doubt that he is real, then people who scorned you will understand why you sacrificed, had faith, why you held your peace, why you faught against injustice, why you were so obedient to an unseen God. Those billion or more poor souls, already billions that have died without accepting, we should not be quick to snap back at poor lost souls or be quick to seek revenge, we should not be angry with them, for they know not what they do, we should pray that they see the light, and ask God to give us the proper way to introduce it to them.
Conclusion: When we as God’s people keep our minds, on his elysian
goodness, praising him, staying with the word, praying and meditating over what we read, so that will enlighten us, constantly ask for guidance and forgiveness, and handle situations like we belong to Jesus we have the victory. We have to keep our minds on the heavenly kingdom
, we have to keep our minds on ,inheritance of the saints in light
the promised land.
