Transcript

The story is told about a young boy who loved his father and enjoyed following him around. One day while his dad was engaged in intensive Bible study, the youngster tapped at his office door.

The father turned and saw his boy peaking through his office window. He motioned for him to come in and said, “Well, my little man, what can I do for you?” The boy’s response was, “Nothing, Dad, I just want to be near you.”

Receiving permission to come in, the boy made his way to a far corner of the room and sat quietly for a long time, saying and doing nothing.

He was content just to be alone with his father. The father wrote these words, “I wonder, is this the kind of love we have toward the Lord?

“Do we go often enough to the Savior, even when we don’t want anything? Do we go in prayer or meditation or in our study of the Word just to be near Him? Abiding in close fellowship with Christ, we grow and we find great blessing.”

Colossians 3 teaches us to “seek those things which are above.” As we seek what is above, we seek Christ. We seek to know Him more, to be near Him, and to have a closer relationship with Him.

Seeking what is above is seeking to live in light of our union with and position in Christ. When we do this, we will grow, and the practical issue of putting off the old man and putting on the new will take place as we seek Christ and become more like Him.

Colossians 3:1: “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.”

The first two chapters of Colossians is doctrinal, while the last two chapters is more practical, emphasizing the importance of walking in the power of the truth of the new man and our relationship to Christ as our living Head.

The Church is challenged to “put off” the old ways in Adam, and instead to “put on” and live out the life of Christ in us.

In Colossians 3-4, Paul is exhorting his readers to be in practice what they are in position in Christ, resurrected with Him, empowered with the grand potential to live a brand new quality of life we could never have even imagined prior to our regeneration.

Paul wrote, “If ye then be risen with Christ.” The “if” here denotes reality. It is not an “if” of doubt,” but an “if” of argument. Literally, it means “Since” or “In view of the fact, that you were raised with Christ.”

When we believed the gospel, by the working of the Holy Spirit, we were immediately baptized spiritually into Christ, identified and made one with Him.

And at salvation, we died. We were crucified with Christ, we were buried with Him, and we are risen with Him. We are united with Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection.

Referring to this spiritual reality in Colossians 2:12, Paul wrote that we are “BURIED WITH HIM in baptism, wherein also ye are RISEN WITH HIM through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead.”

And by the power of the Holy Spirit, the believer, who is risen with Christ, is to raise their thoughts and affections to the heavenlies, because the risen man in Christ is to be looking to His Life, who lives and reigns and is seated at the right hand of God above.

Paul shows us here that as we seek things which are above, that’s where Christ is, Christ is above, He is far above all, reigning in the place of all honor, power, and majesty, highly exalted, seated at God’s right hand. All the things above are centered in Christ. All the splendors of heaven are wrapped up in Christ.

Christ is the fountain of all blessing for the believer and seeking what is above is about pursuing and attaching ourselves to Him.

Being risen with Christ and joined to Him, seeking the things that are above is about having a preoccupation with Christ, living a Christ-conscious life. It’s about making Him the focus and center of our lives.

Our union with Christ and His resurrection and our new life in Him is to give us a new set of desires, and a new purpose, and a new perspective.

Outside of Christ, we were alive to the world and dead to God, but now, risen with Christ, we are to be dead to the world, dead to the old nature, and alive to God.

And being alive to God we are to seek the things of God, to live in light of eternity, focused on spiritual realities in heaven, and to look at this life and this world from heaven’s viewpoint.

God wants the focus of His heavenly people, the Body of Christ, in the heavenlies, on our home and hope, and not on the earth only, living in light of our heavenly citizenship. As we are heavenly citizens, God wants us to live like citizens of heaven.

The presence of Christ is what makes heaven glorious. And the spiritual values of heaven are embedded in the heart of the risen and glorified Christ.

Seeking those things which are above is about seeking the things that fill the heart of Christ: things like love, joy, peace, tenderness, kindness, purity, patience, forgiveness, etc.

Seeking Christ who is above, is about having the things that fill Christ’s heart, then fill our hearts. This leads to the believer living on a higher plane from the world.

Colossians 3:2-4: “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”

A preacher once told a senior lady that at her age she should be thinking about the Hereafter. She told him, “I do, all the time. No matter where I am, in the bedroom in the kitchen, upstairs, in the basement, or out in the yard, I’m always asking myself, ‘Now, what am I here after?” God does want our thoughts on the hereafter.

Paul says “set your affection [or your mind, your thinking] on things above.” God wants our “head in the clouds,” for our thoughts and minds be fixed on Him who is above, on our hope above, and on Christ and our spiritual blessings above.

Like the word “seek” in verse 1, the word “set” in verse 2 is also in the present tense in the original Greek. This speaks of this instruction not being just a one-time decision, but a daily, continuous action for the believer.

As 1 Chronicles 22:19 reads, God desires us to continually, “set your heart and your soul to seek the LORD your God.”

Seeking things above, speaks of the outward, practical striving of the believer to live like Christ, by His Word, for the eternal and in accordance with heavenly values.

Setting our affections on things above speaks of the inward thoughts and contemplations of the mind. And God wants us to think heaven and to think Christ.

How one lives is determined by how one thinks. As Proverbs 23:7 states, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.”

As one person correctly observed, “A man’s life is governed by his thoughts; he will ultimately become that which dwells most on his mind. And so believers should engulf themselves with Christ’s presence, and put Christ in their minds.”

Thoughts are powerful and they influence actions, so if we place our thoughts above and not on the earth, our behavior will reflect the things that matter to God.

This requires consistent effort on our part because we each tend to look down by nature, instead of looking up. We tend to look down and look around, and focus on the world’s and our country’s situation, and we get depressed, frustrated, and upset.

But if we would set our hearts and affections on things above, it’ll raise us up, and we’d instead experience power, freedom and joy. Everybody wants to enjoy heaven after they die, but God wants us to enjoy our hope now and be heavenly-minded while we live, to live knowing that this world isn’t our home, but that we’re on our way home.

In setting our mind on things above, God wants us to concentrate on the eternal and “not on things on the earth.” Now there are things on earth, which are not sinful or wrong in themselves, and there are things on earth we have to think about in life.

What we’re being told here by the Lord is to not let the temporal come between us and God, to not prefer the things on the earth over the things above.

There is a story of a child who was crying loudly because he had shoved his hand into the opening of a very expensive Chinese vase and then couldn’t pull it out again.

Parents and neighbors tugged on the child’s arm, with the child crying louder and louder. Finally there was nothing left to do but to break the beautiful, expensive vase. Once broken, it became clear why the child had been so hopelessly stuck.

His little fist grasped a penny which he had spied at the bottom of the vase and which he, in his childish ignorance, would not let go. For the sake of a mere penny, the expensive vase was lost.

Sometimes we grasp what is UNimportant, we cling to it and in so doing, sacrifice and lose the very things that are important.

In our daily lives we can become so busy with the everyday things of life, and we can get so caught up in the here and now that we forget the Lord and we fail to prioritize the spiritual, the eternal, the things that will last forever and ever.

And Satan wants to keep us there, he wants to keep us preoccupied and busy and to set our affection on the things of earth so that we block out the things which are above.

But this world is not to be the center of the believer’s universe, Christ is to be that. God wants our hearts set on Christ, and on eternity.

It’s been said, “If you read Church history, you’ll find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were just those who thought most of the next.”

We are going to live a lot longer on the other side of death than we’re going to live on this side. And it is wise and it is God’s will to live with eternity in view, knowing time is short, knowing there’s much to be done for Him, knowing there’s many to reach for Christ.

Paul’s further argument for setting our affection on things above is that we “are dead” and our life “is hid with Christ in God.” The believer is dead. We have been crucified with Christ, and now in Christ we are dead to sin, dead to self, and dead to the world. We died to all that we once were as children of Adam.

Therefore, we should not live after and set our minds and aims and goals only on things on the earth, or living after the world. We are risen with Christ that we might live a new life with our minds, aims and dreams in heaven.

We’ve been raised to live on a new plane, and to walk in freedom in Christ, and by faith in Christ, and in Christ’s power, peace and provision, and for Christ’s glory.

The truth of Scripture is that believers are dead and alive at the same time. We are alive in Christ and alive to God, and our life, Paul says, is hid with Christ in God.

Being so, that our life is hid in Almighty God, it is absolutely untouchable and secure. Nothing or no one can reach that life or ever take it away. What is hid in Him is utterly, infinitely and eternally safe.

Therefore because our life in Christ is sure and secure, we should not set our affections on this earth alone; we should live for the eternal, we should live for Christ, because it is absolutely certain that we are going to glory. Our hope in Christ is sure.

That being so, when Christ appears in glory to take the Body of Christ home to heaven at the Rapture, we will appear immediately with Him in glory.

The promise of the Christ’s return is not only that we will see His glory, but He comes for us so that we also will appear with Him in glory, when He catches us up to heaven.

And our life is not only hid with Christ, it is Christ. Paul says Christ is “our life.”

Christ is our life, and we live through Him, and we live in Him, and we live by Him. His life is in us, our life is hid with Him in God, and He is our life.

So as we look up, seeking those things which are above, setting our affection on things above, we look FOR Christ to return at the Rapture. The fact of His return is certain but the time is indefinite, so we must look continually for His coming. But we do so knowing without a doubt that when Christ our life appears, He will take us home to glory.

Colossians 3:5: “Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”

A resort in Breckenridge, Colorado, posted signs warning skiers to keep off a certain slope. The signs, large and distinct, warned, Danger! Out of Bounds! In spite of the warnings, however, several skiers went into the area.

The result? A half-mile-wide avalanche buried four of the trespassers beneath tons of snow and rock. This tragedy never would have happened if the signs had been heeded.

God has posted clear warning signs in the Bible to tell us what kinds of behavior and attitudes are off limits. The Lord loves us and wants us to avoid the consequences of sin in our lives. He warns us about immorality, lying, anger, blasphemy, filthy language, and a host of other sins.

Yet many times we ignore His warnings and wander into a forbidden area. We convince ourselves that nothing bad will happen to us or that we can turn back if we sense danger.

But God’s Word is true wisdom. When tempted to explore a forbidden area, we should not be so foolish. God’s warning signs are posted for good reason, and we should obey them.

Paul states here that “therefore,” or in light of the fact that we have died and are risen with Christ, we are to practically “mortify,” or put to death the desires and deeds of the flesh, the old nature.

The word “therefore” points back to our identification with the risen Lord Jesus and the newness of life we have in Him. It is because we know and understand this fact that we can put to death the things in our life that are contrary to our identity in Christ.

The word “mortify” in the Greek is very strong and means literally “to make dead, to put to death.” It suggests that we are not to simply suppress or control evil acts and attitudes.

But rather they are to be put to death. And this suggests a decisive action and for it to be done now and quickly.

As one commentator put it: “We are to be ruthless with those acts and attitudes that are contrary to the will and ways of God.” We are to consider these sinful actions as dead to us and us dead to them.

Living the crucified and risen life involves putting sin to death in our daily life. God in salvation has broken the power of the old man and given the believer power over it.

But the believer is charged with the responsibility of maintaining that state of freedom from sin in his experience, by putting sin to death.

And then Paul gets specific in naming the sins which need to be put to death decisively within our lives and members. The first 4 are sexual sins. The first is “fornication.”

The Greek word is “porneia,” from which we get our term pornography. The term has a broad meaning in Scripture and takes in any form of sexual immorality.

The term “uncleanness,” goes beyond acts of sins to encompass indecent, impure thoughts and intentions as well. “Inordinate affection,” refers to depraved passion and uncontrolled lust. “Evil concupiscence” is evil, base desires, illicit cravings.

God has told us where He wants our thoughts to be and now He tells us where he doesn’t want our minds to be, what thoughts should be put out of the believer’s life.

And God doesn’t want our minds in the gutter. He wants them in the heavenlies and on Christ. And heaven and Christ are both pure and good. Being risen with Christ, God wants our thoughts raised to be higher and purer, so that our actions might be pure.

Then Paul says that we should put to death the sin of “covetousness, which is idolatry.” “Covetousness” is the desire to have more, to have what does not belong to us, never being satisfied with what we have, and envious of what other people have.

Covetousness fits with the context of the sexual sins and also in setting our minds on things on the earth. And in coveting we place material things and selfish, sinful desires in the place of God and before Him, and therefore it is idolatry.

That’s the world we live in. Enough is never enough. The more people have, the more they want. There is a driving desire for more, more, more in our culture. And covetousness causes man to worship and serve material things, experiences, and desires.

God is a jealous God and is worthy of all our worship and devotion. Putting earthly, fleshly, temporal things in place of Him grieves His heart.

He loves each of us so deeply that He gave His own Son to die for us. He desires our thoughts to be on Him and our actions to be in serving and living for Him. And the sin of covetousness will fall away in our lives as we find true contentment in Him.

Colossians 3:6-9: “For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.

“But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds.”

From Ephesians 2:2, we know that the “children of disobedience” are unbelievers. The wrath of God is real and it “cometh” with certainty. It will fall upon the children of disobedience if they don’t trust Christ before it’s too late.

If you have not trusted Christ as your Savior, we do not want you to face this wrath which will come upon you because of your sins.

You’re saved from God’s wrath by trusting God’s provision, the Substitute who faced the wrath of God against your sins at the Cross and paid the penalty of all your sins for you.

Just by believing that Christ died for your sins, was buried, and rose again the third day you are saved from all your sins and from God’s wrath.

When we trust Christ alone, we are saved and have no fear of the wrath of God coming upon us because of our sins, because we are forgiven of all our sins in Christ and we are given the very righteousness of God as a gift of grace.

Paul’s argument in verse 6 is that the children of God should not live like the children of disobedience and we should have no part in and not participate in the sins which bring the eternal wrath of God upon those outside of Christ.

Paul reminds the Colossians they once lived and practiced those things, before they knew Christ, implying they shouldn’t go back and live in these things anymore, calling them to remember and be grateful for their deliverance from their sinful past in Christ.

Paul says, “But now” in verse 8, but now that they had passed from their past life of sin, and like shedding a filthy, dirty shirt they were to “put off” or rid themselves of these sins as well. Paul challenges us to put off the old man in every area of our lives.

“Anger,” speaks of a deep, resentful bitterness, a chronic attitude of smoldering hatred. It’s the settled heart attitude of hostility of an angry person. “Wrath,” is the sudden verbal outburst of sinful anger, a fiery outburst and eruption of temper.

As Laurence Peter stated, “Speak when you’re angry, and you’ll make the best speech you’ll ever regret.”

“Malice,” is an attitude of ill will and a vicious disposition that results in a desire to hurt others. “Blasphemy,” speaks of slanderous talk, insulting and tearing others down. “Filthy communication,” is obscene language, shameful speaking, foul speech.

Paul further tells the Colossians to “lie not one to another.” The form in the original Greek is actually forbidding the continuation of an action that was going on. Paul is literally saying, “Stop lying,” as there was evidently a problem with lying in the church.

All these things in these verses need to be put to death decisively and put off in our lives by the resurrection power we have within by virtue of us having risen with Christ.

It’s been put well that “When a surge of anger [or any sin] is felt, it must be dealt with as the alien intruder it really is, and turned out of the house as having no right to be there at all, let alone to be giving orders.”

And Paul says we should put off all these things “seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds.” This phrase refers to our salvation and the positional truth before God of our old man being put off and crucified in Christ.

The apostle is saying in effect, “Let your state be consistent with your standing.” In Christ, the old man has been put off with his deeds, now we need to do the same in our daily walk.

Thus anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication, and lying can be thrown off like an old, dirty shirt, and we can put to death fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence and covetousness in our lives.

Our old man is dead and buried in Christ, but it still resides within us. But now, we have power over it in Christ. Thus, seeing that we have put off the old man with his deeds when we trusted Christ as our Savior, we can and we should put off the old man with its deeds in our daily practice.

And when we do that, our lives will be transformed by God’s grace.