Colossians 3:1-14

Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him—a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all. So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.^[1]

“If you have been raised with Christ” is a massive statement, one that many may not have adequately considered. Its ramifications are huge and the Apostle Paul enumerates them in these verses, particularly verse three, “For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” There are things that characterized our lives at one time but since we died and have been raised up with Christ we should have laid them aside. We should have laid them aside . . .! It gives, or should give, us all great pause because there is no way that one can read the list of things the Apostle declares we once walked in without seeing ourselves prominently somewhere in them. In fact, if we tell the truth, many of the things on the list we still struggle to wrest ourselves from. How then can one attain their freedom from these for which “the wrath of God will come?”

The Apostle gives us the answer. Our freedom is wrapped up in two important statements: “keep seeking … set your mind on the things above; and, the second, “consider the members of your earthly body dead to . . .” Both of these statements are acts of the individual will. We choose to seek and set our minds on the things above. We choose to consider ourselves dead to those things that emanate from our human nature. But that choice does not leave us empty because in their place we choose that which “those who have been chosen of God . . . put on.” There is no doubt in this author’s mind that any blood bought, blood washed believer would desire anything other than to put on and be characterized by what is contained in this second list instead of that in the first. Let us determine today to aggressively pursue the latter.

Dear Lord, it is tough seeing ourselves in this long list of things that once characterized our lives. It is even more sobering to admit how much of our lives are characterized by them. We desire, more than anything, to be free from that which once bound us but we cannot secure it apart from You. So fill us with Your Holy Spirit and Godly desire that we leave behind “the old self with its evil practices,” and become one with You. Amen.

^[1] New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (LaHabra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Col 3:1–18.