Colossians 3:1 - Meaning and Application

The apostle has already shown our privileges in Christ in the earlier part of the letter, including our release from the yoke of the ceremonial law. Now he presses the duty that follows from that gift. Even though we are free from that law, it does not mean we may live however we want. Instead, we must walk more closely with God in every part of gospel obedience.

He begins by calling us to fix our hearts on heaven and loosen our grip on this world: “If you then have been raised with Christ.” It is our privilege that we have risen with Christ. That means we share in the benefit of Christ’s resurrection, and because of our union and fellowship with him, we are justified, that is, counted right with God, and sanctified, that is, made holy, and we will be glorified. From this, Paul draws the conclusion that we must seek the things that are above.

We must care more about the matters of the world to come than the matters of this one. Heaven must be our goal and our aim. We must seek God’s favor above all, keep communion with the world above through faith, hope, and holy love, and make it our steady concern to secure our right to, and readiness for, heavenly joy. The reason is that Christ sits at the right hand of God. He, who is our best friend and our head, has been raised to the highest honor in heaven, and he has gone ahead of us to secure heavenly happiness for us. So we should seek and value what he has bought at such great cost and still cares for so deeply. We must live as Christ lived on earth and now lives in heaven, as far as our human weakness allows.

Paul explains this duty more fully: “Set your minds on things above, not on things on the earth” (Colossians 3:2). To seek heavenly things means to set our affections on them, to love them, and to desire them. The heart rises on the wings of affection and moves toward spiritual and divine things. We must learn what they are, value them above everything else, and prepare ourselves to enjoy them.

David showed his love for God’s house by earnestly seeking it and preparing for it (Psalm 27:4). This is what it means to be spiritually minded (Romans 8:6), and to seek and desire a better country, a heavenly one (Hebrews 11:14, Hebrews 11:16). Earthly things are set over against heavenly things here. We must not cling to them or expect too much from them, if we want our hearts set on heaven. Heaven and earth pull in opposite directions, so full devotion to both cannot stand together. The more our affection grows toward one, the more it weakens toward the other.

Paul gives three reasons for this.

First, we are dead to present things, and dead to them as our portion. This is true in our profession and our duty, because we have been buried with Christ and joined to the likeness of his death. Every Christian has been crucified to the world, and the world to him (Galatians 6:14). If we are dead to the earth and have renounced it as our happiness, then it makes no sense to set our hearts on it or chase after it. We should be like something dead to it, untouched and unmoved by it.

Second, our real life is in the other world. “You died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). The new life of the believer comes from there. It is born and fed from above, and its full perfection is still reserved for that future state. It is hidden with Christ, not only hidden from our sight, but hidden for our safety. The life of a Christian is kept safe with Christ. “Because I live, you also will live” (John 14:19). Christ is now a hidden Christ, one we have not yet seen. But this comforts us, because our life is hidden with him and safely stored with him. As we have reason to love him whom we have not seen (1 Peter 1:8), so we may also take comfort in a happiness that is out of sight and kept for us in heaven.

Third, we hope for the full joy of our happiness when Christ returns. If we live now in Christian purity and devotion, then when Christ, who is our life, appears, we also will appear with him in glory (Colossians 3:4). Christ is the believer’s life. “I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). He is both the source and the purpose of the Christian life. He lives in us by his Spirit, and we live for him in all we do. “To me to live is Christ” (Philippians 1:21).

Christ will appear again. He is hidden now, and heaven must hold him until that time, but he will appear in all the splendor of the upper world, with his holy angels and in his own glory and his Father’s glory (Mark 8:38; Luke 9:26). Then we will appear with him in glory. It will be Christ’s honor to have his redeemed people with him, for he will come to be glorified in his saints (2 Thessalonians 1:10). It will also be their honor to come with him and remain with him forever. At Christ’s second coming, all the saints will meet together, and those whose life is now hidden with Christ will then appear with him in the glory he himself enjoys (John 17:24). If we look for such a future, should we not set our hearts on that world and live above this one? What is here that should make us love it so much? And what is there above that should not draw our hearts to it? Our head is there, our home is there, our treasure is there, and we hope to be there forever.