Friday Communication - 10th Feb 2023
Look Up
There is much to pre-occupy us all at the beginning of the year. The busyness of the new school year; grief at the trials of others; joy in seeing growth in children and fellow believers as we meet again after the holidays; the organizational load of resuming ministries. For the pastors, adjustments to our work loads. When so much is going on I find it is easy to have my mind full of the affairs of this world, to have my horizons narrowed to present concerns and so find other matters, matters that touch on eternity, on our relationship with the living God who is our life and joy, crowded out.
I had an older colleague at Bible College who had had many reasons to have his mind full of present concerns, having been left to raise three boys on his own. But he resisted that narrowing of focus. One of his favourite passages, preached at his funeral, was Colossians 3:1-4. The first two verses read “So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on the things above, not on earthly things.” Here is an appeal to the mind and will to look up, not just out at the world or in towards our own felt experience, a call to deliberately develop a settled way of thinking where our thinking is pre-occupied with Christ and what it is to live in His presence.
The basis of this appeal as Paul has outlined in chapter two is Christ’s victory over all His foes and our union with Him by faith. Christ, having defeated the ‘rulers and authorities’ 2:15 by His death is now reigning at God’s right hand, the Lord of all. Believers are united to Him by faith. Having died with Him [2:11-12, 20, 3:3] we have also been raised with Him, and by faith our life is ‘now hidden with Christ in God’ 3:1. In Christ our present is now secure, and our future certain – “when Christ, who is our life, appears, then we also will appear with him in glory.”
Seek the things above
Since this is true believers are called to ‘seek the things above’, “to set our minds on the things above, not on earthly things.” The ‘things above’ is both the reality of Christ’s present reign and the life and character that is consistent with living in Christ’s presence, with the life of heaven. That life is the life of self giving love described in 3:12 – a life of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, forbearance and forgiveness, a life of thankfulness to God 3:16-17. It is contrasted with earthly things, in Colossians both a life of man made religiosity [2:16-23] and what Paul calls the things that belong to our earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust evil desire, and greed, which is idolatry; anger, wrath, malice, slander, filthy talk [3:5-9]. Where we are seeking the things above these things have no place in our lives.
Seeking the things above as a habit of mind is so good for us. It lets us live with confidence – for it reminds us that in Christ we are welcome now in heaven, can come and be always in the presence of God, always rely on His love and help. It gives us guidance as to how to conduct ourselves in the present no matter what the pressures, as those who practice the life that is consistent with Christ’s life and rule. And it gives us hope and so lifts our minds beyond the horizon of the present, for our present union with Christ guarantees our future glory.
A habit to cultivate
When many things press in on us we need to practice the discipline of setting our minds on the things above. This is something we can do: by daily giving thanks to God for all things, but especially for being saved by Christ’s death and resurrection; by meditating on God’s word and so being reminded of the greatness of our God, of His sovereign rule and steadfast love, His faithfulness and holiness; by making time to reflect on our lives to see if we are living as citizens of heaven, embracing a life of self-giving love, the love that reigns in heaven and repenting where we fall short. It is something we must deliberately do, a habit of mind we daily cultivate.
There is lots on, lots that demands our time and attention, solutions that need to be developed, plans to be made. But if we are to engage in these confident in God on whom the success of all our plans depend, in a way that pleases Him, and with a hope that looks beyond present difficulties and present joys so they do not overwhelm us, then, like my friend, I and you need to make the effort to set our minds on the things above.
