Christian Desires (Colossians 3:1-17)
A Christian's Response To Salvation (3:1-2)
Colossians 3:1--2 (ESV) --- 1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.
Paul starts with a reference to our salvation. "If you have been raised with Christ," refers to being joined to Christ in baptism (Col 2:11-13). We were raised from spiritual death to be alive with Christ. Notice how Paul puts that as a condition. He says, "If." This is absolutely true of everyone who was baptized with faith in the powerful working of God. But, in light of this gracious forgiveness we have received, Paul wants us to seek things above.
We have been raised with Christ so that we would seek the things that are above. Well, what does that mean? If I'm reading quickly over that, I would think that Paul is encouraging Christians to seek to be with God in heaven. I have often thought Paul said, "Seek to be above." Many of us desire that, and that is a good thing to desire. But that doesn't require me to do anything on earth. Notice that he says, "Seek the things that are above." What does that mean, and why does he say it like that? Does anyone know what things are above? Verse 2 reiterates this idea by saying that we are to "set our minds on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth." What are these things above, and what are the things on the earth? The answers to these questions are found in the surrounding verses.
Earthly Things
Earthly things could refer to a lot of things in our lives. But Paul actually talks about earthly things before this command. Paul tells the Colossians not to let people judge them based on earthly principles. Some tend to focus on their own ability and create a "self-made religion" (2:23). God is not pleased when we rely on our own knowledge and our wisdom to decide what God wants from us. Earthly things could refer to creating ways to worship that are not given to us by God. We worship the created instead of the creator. So setting our minds on earthly things looks like the works-based righteousness of the Jews. Many people call that legalism today. God does not want us to set our minds on what we can accomplish without his help. Now, let's look at the
Colossians 3:5--9 (ESV) --- 5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices
According to verses 5-9, the earthly things include sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, covetousness, idolatry, anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk, and lying. This is not a comprehensive list, but these are the type of earthly things Paul does not want us to set our minds on.
Think about this for a minute. How are these earthly? All of these things come from self-preservation or self-gratification. We covet and pursue sex outside of what God has commanded. We want to get angry and make someone feel our wrath because that gratifies our desire to be better than others. We hurt others and lie to protect our self-image. Do you see how all of these things are describing earthly living? It is all so self-focused.
Heavenly Things
What about heavenly things? Do we need to set our minds on the cherubim? Previously he has told us that the substance is Christ (2:17) and to hold fast to our head (2:19). Back in Chapter 1, he said that Christ is preeminent. Jesus is our primary image of all things heavenly. Go down to 3:12-14, and notice what he says.
Colossians 3:12--14 (ESV) --- 12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.
In these verses, Paul lays out for us what the heavenly things look like. They look like holiness, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, bearing with others, forgiving others, and love for others. These are the heavenly things we are supposed to set our minds on.
How are these things "above?" Notice how these resemble God's character, demonstrated in Christ. If we focus on being good, compassionate, kind, humble, patient, forgiving, and loving, we are setting our minds on things above. These are the things that our God has been teaching us through the life of Christ.
Why?
Controlling our minds to think about heavenly things and stop thinking about earthly things sounds pretty hard. That means we give up on self-gratification and self-preservation. That sounds scary. Why can't we just live like everyone else? Paul explains why we should want to do that.
Colossians 3:3--4 (ESV) --- 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Paul says that the old self chased selfish satisfaction through sexual immorality, lying, anger, slander, and idolatry. But I'm not supposed to pursue those things anymore because that version of me has died. We did not preserve ourselves. We did not gratify our greatest desire for meaning and purpose. But God cut off the body of flesh and made us alive together with Christ (2:13). We like to focus on our forgiveness of sins, but Paul wants us to focus on our union with Christ.
Our Current Life Preserved
Notice how Paul explains our current life. We are "hidden with Christ in God." That means that we are hidden from the wrath of God we deserve. Christ provides the protection we need from the judgment we deserve. Think about that for a moment. We don't need to protect ourselves anymore. We are always alive with Christ. As we live and pursue earthly things with our hearts, are we thinking about the fact that Christ is with us? How does he feel about our attempts to self-preserve and self-gratify? If we only knew how much more excellent his way of life is for us! He can save us from any situation, and he keeps us from death. He can also gratify every desire and make us new.
Our Future Life of Eternal Glory
Then, he explains our future life. He says, "When Christ, who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory." He says that faithfulness to the will of God and trusting in Christ will result in us appearing with him in glory. Eternity will not be filled with sexual immorality, vengeance, or deception. We won't live to get the upper hand and dominate our opponents. It will be an endless day of praising God for the unmerited glory he has bestowed on a bunch of unworthy sinners like us.
We can stop focusing on earthly things because we recognize that 1. Christ is with us, hiding us in his sacrifice. 2. The heavenly things lead to eternal glory, while the earthly things are temporary and pointless.
Are We Earthly?
Now, Paul has shown us the Christian mindset that ought to be inside of each of us. How is that going? Can we honestly say that Christ is our all in all or our life? If the only service we pay to God and Christ is one hour on Sunday, we are lying to ourselves. We need a radically different heart. We need to let go of earthly things. That old self chased selfish satisfaction. Is he gone?
What Is Your Idol?
Repentance means that we are removing the idols from our hearts to worship God fully. Idolatry is at the core of all these earthly things.
Why do we lie? If we don't, we will miss out on something we want. Do we want that more than we want God? Why do we commit sexual immorality? The same thing is happening but at different levels. We want something more than we want God. We pursue passions like jobs, sports, hobbies, politics, comfort, or money because we think those things will make us feel alive. They become so important that we disobey God to succeed at them. They become so important that they consume our attention to a point where we ignore God's will and God's cause.
What Do We Fear Losing?
We also mistreat other people because they offend or threaten to take away these passions. What do we really love most? If the good things in our life were just good things, we wouldn't respond in an earthly way to someone taking them away. Instead of acting like Christ, we act like every other idol worshipper on this earth. When we have idols in our lives, it becomes evident because our minds are set on earthly things and not the heavenly things of Christ.
This Is Not New
John Calvin pointed out in his Institutes for the Christian church that idolatry has been a perpetual problem for mankind. He says that the human heart is an idol factory. Calvin said several things that I disagree with, but this illustration hits home for me. We all start off thinking that idolatry is something that people in other countries are involved in. We consider it to be a primitive, or even barbaric, way of life. Our hearts are never devoted to worshipping small carved figures. But if you have listened in on Bible class or sermons for the last year, you know that idols come in many different forms. They aren't just wood or metal figures anymore. An idol is a good thing in our lives that we make into our ultimate. It is the one thing we focus all of our attention on, and it is our motivation for doing whatever we choose to do with our time. In that sense, idols can be money, family, jobs, houses, possessions, comfort, hobbies, or even our reputation.
When we open up our minds to this truth, we go from thinking that we don't know anyone who worships an idol to thinking who doesn't worship an idol? Indeed, the heart is an idol factory. We can worship and adore many of the items on that list. We have been idolatrous people, and we still struggle with idolatry. As we look throughout the Old Testament, we find idols popping up in the oddest places. Rachel steals her father's idols, Aaron builds a golden calf while Moses is on the mountain, Solomon builds temples to foreign gods, and Ezekiel finds them in the temple God is about to destroy.
How Do We Stop?
Once we understand and admit that this is a very real problem in our lives, we are faced with the dreaded task of removing idols. How can we do that?
See The Deception
Do we understand that God is jealous for the hearts he made to dwell within us (James 4:4-8)? He wants to be our passion, our pleasure, and our fulfillment. Why won't we let him be our only God? Why do we continually pursue the things of earth instead of seeking heavenly things? Listen to his command.
Exodus 20:2--6 (ESV) --- 2 “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
This command tells us that God is jealous when his people fall and serve created things like they can provide what he promises to give them. So, we will talk about this command and consider where we might need to make changes in our hearts. God wants to rule our hearts and provide what we need to be satisfied.
If we are going to be serious about closing up the idol factory in our hearts, we have to admit that life is not and will never be found in these things. We pursue all of these earthly things because they give us a sense of immediate gratification. Our society tells us to take what we can get. In the words of Queen, "I want it all. I want it all. I want it all, and I want it now." This is an earthly philosophy. But we are renewed in knowledge after the image of our creator. We know that it's better to keep the command and suffer a temporary loss than to disobey and receive instant gratification. Keeping my job is not worth the lie. Pleasure is not worth sex outside of scriptural marriage. My reputation is not worth malice and slander. No idol is worth the disobedience we render it. God is not honored in our worship of idols. He is furious. In his eyes, we have committed spiritual adultery. We have let a created thing control our hearts.
Make God The Ultimate
When we give up on success, hobbies, and pleasure as ultimate things, they become good things we can live without. Then, God can become our ultimate. Through Christ, we have access to God. This is why he says what he does in 3:15-17.
Colossians 3:15--17 (ESV) --- 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
We have to want God more than anything else. He must be at the center of everything we do. We praise God for the good things in life, and we have peace even when the good things are taken away because we believe that we have been hidden in Christ. We have an abiding home in heaven that is much better than this place. God is there. Christ is there. Paul is so sure that we have that home in heaven, he says, "As Christ is seated at the right hand of God, so are we." A new, living version of us is sitting there today with Christ.
Hebrews 10:14 (ESV) --- 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
Notice that he says God has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. Sanctified is a way of saying set apart or made holy. God is able to perfect for all time those who he sets apart for salvation. That is us, if Christ is our life. He must be our all in all.
Set Your Minds On Things Above
If God is out ultimate, then Christ is the pioneer of our faith. We focus our minds and our hearts on living as he lived. We want compassionate hearts, humility, meekness, patience, and a forgiving spirit that loves other people. Why do we want to be that way? We want a relationship with God like Christ has with him. This is the only way.
Conclusion
I always tell couples I counsel for marriage to look at the Sermon on the Mount because if you act like Christians, you will be great husbands and wives. The same goes for every possible scenario. We will be the best spouse, parent, child, employee, or boss we can be if we stop worshipping our idols and set our minds on things above. Jesus would have been the best servant leader as a husband. We see that in his willingness to serve his church sacrificially. He would have been the most supportive wife and submissive child, we see that in his relationship to God as his head and his Father. He would have been the most patient, but also the most instructive father. We see that in his role with the disciples. He would have been the most loyal employee and the most just employer. We see this in his attempts to honor the law of the land and in his attempts to reveal the law of God to the teachers of Israel without compromise.
We must set our minds to live as Christ did every single day. We can enjoy the good things in life, but God is our ultimate. We are pursuing a live that honors his name in everything we do.