March through Colossians - 3:1-4

What a great paragraph of Scripture this is! Such rich truth and such motivating exhortation. The main thought Paul is conveying to the Colossians is something like, “You have died with Christ and you have been raised with Christ; therefore seek and set your minds on things that are above.”

We could spend a thousand lifetimes exploring the depths of what it means for us to have died with Christ and to have risen with Christ. Or what it means to seek and set our minds on things that are above. But the one thing I want to point out today is the relationship between these 2 elements of the paragraph. Paul’s exhortation to the Colossians is grounded in what he says is true about the Colossians in Christ. This is a clear example of something you find all over Scripture: statements of what is true about believers in Christ always precede statements about how believers should live in Christ. The indicative precedes the imperative (actually, this isn’t always the case in the order of the text itself, but this is always the case logically and theologically; in other words, sometimes a passage will say “Do this” and then it will say “And do it because of who you are through God’s grace,” like in Phil 2:12-13; but many times it will say “This is who you are through God’s grace” and therefore “Do this,” like in our passage today).

So here’s the takeaway from this point. The first thing to do today if you want to seek and set your mind on the things that are above is to consider the reality that you have died with Christ and have been raised with Christ. Your life (your status of being spiritually alive now instead of spiritually dead) is hidden with Christ in God. These realities are what should drive the seeking and the mind-setting that you are called to as a Christian.

Keep it up! 3:5-8 tomorrow.