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Seeking the Things Above: The Heavenly Mindset of the Risen Believer (Colossians 3:1–2) · Reformed Thinking

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Usually when we talk about a person's line of sight, there's
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this underlying assumption of conscious control.
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You walk down a busy city street.
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Your eyes lock onto a flashing billboard.
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Or, you know, an interesting storefront, and you just assume
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you made the choice to look at. It right, You think you're the
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one that driver seats? Yeah.
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But then you step back and look at the reality of our current
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cultural moment. Suddenly, you start to realize
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that your attention is well, it's actively being harvested.
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The digital notifications on your phone.
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The constant hum of political anxiety on the news.
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The consumer greed screaming for your loyalty through targeted
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ads. Oh, man, it really can feel like
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trying to stand up right in the middle of a rushing river.
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I mean, your mind is just constantly being pulled downward
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into a million different earthly concerns.
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Yeah. It really is so welcome to
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reform thinking. Today we are taking a
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fascinating stack of historical and theological sources
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specifically focused on a single ancient letter, and we're just
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going to extract the core insights.
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Our mission today is to glasp the theological weight in the
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very practical application of the Apostle Paul's command in
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Colossians chapter 3. Yeah, specifically verses 1 and
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2, where he tells believers to seek the things above.
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We're going to look at the historical setting of this
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letter, breakdown the original Greek grammar, and try to
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understand how this ancient text reorients the Christian life
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away from worldly anxieties. Right.
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And the sources we're looking at today offer this radical cure
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for our distracted age. But it starts with a spiritual
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reality you might not even realize you already possess.
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So to grasp what's going on here, we really have to set the
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scene. The author, Paul, didn't write
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these words from like a quiet academic office with a cup of
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coffee. No, not at all.
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The contracts between Paul's physical environment and his
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mental focus is just striking. The sources note Paul is writing
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this letter from a Roman prison cell, or well, at least a strict
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Roman house arrest. This is right around AD 60 to
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62. Wow, so he's quite literally in
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chains for preaching the gospel at this point.
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Yeah, he is facing potential execution, separated from his
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friends, and dealing with the miserable conditions of 1st
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century confinement. Yet when you read the text, his
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mind is not fixated on his chains, or his impending trial,
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or even the corruption of the Roman legal system.
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His mind is anchored entirely in the heavenly realm.
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That is just wild to think about.
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So he's writing to believers in Colossae, which is a city
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located in the Lycus Valley of Asia Minor, basically modern day
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Turkey. But what makes this particular
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congregation unique is that Paul didn't plant this church
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himself, did he? No, he had never even visited
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them. The gospel was actually brought
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to Colise by a man named Epifros.
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Epifros was a faithful minister who likely heard Paul preaching
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in the nearby metropolis of Ephesus.
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So Epifros was converted, trained and then took the good
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news back to his hometown to start a church.
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That's fascinating, and Colossae itself is pretty interesting
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too. Historically, it was kind of
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past its prime as a commercial hub, having been eclipsed by
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neighboring cities like Laodicea.
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But its location on a major East West trade route meant it was
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still this massive cultural crossroads.
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Right. You had travelers, merchants and
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philosophers constantly passing through.
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So as a result the city became a total melting pot.
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You had Eastern mysticism, Greek philosophy, Jewish diaspora
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traditions, and local Phrygian religious practices all
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colliding and blending in one place.
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You know, that kind of cultural blending feels incredibly
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relevant to our modern ears. It actually reminds me a lot of
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the modern health and Wellness industry.
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Oh yeah. Oh so.
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Well, specifically the extreme corners of it that mix
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pseudoscience, strict diets, and vague spirituality.
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You scroll through social media and you see these influencers
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combining like Eastern meditation practices with rigid,
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punishing fasting protocols, and then they throw in some quantum
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physics buzzwords to make it all sound legitimate and scientific.
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Spot on. It looks highly appealing.
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It looks sophisticated and intellectually elite.
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It promises a secret knowledge that the average person just
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doesn't have. Yeah, and you can easily imagine
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a 1st century believer in Colisea, maybe a new Christian
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who just left paganism feeling incredibly intimidated by local
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philosophers who claim to possess a higher, more elite
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tier of spiritual knowledge. The parallel you're drawing is
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highly accurate. The threat facing this church,
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the reason EPI Frost traveled all the way to Rome to seek
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Paul's help, is what historians and theologians call the
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Colossian heresy. It was this toxic, syncretic
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blend of all those varying cultural elements we just laid
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out. It was a theological cocktail.
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So what were the actual ingredients of this cocktail?
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Like? What?
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What were they teaching? First, you had elements of
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Jewish legalism. False teachers were coming into
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the church and insisting that simple faith in Jesus was not
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enough. They claimed you also had to
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observe strict Sabbath's, new moon festivals and rigorous
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dietary laws to truly please God.
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Wow. OK.
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So adding a lot of heavy requirements right out of the
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gate? Yeah, and second, you had Pagan
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mysticism. The sources point out that these
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teachers were promoting the worship of angels and claiming
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to have intense, exclusive, visionary experiences.
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They claimed they were accessing higher spiritual realms that
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ordinary Christians couldn't reach.
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That sounds exhausting, and that there was a third element to
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write some kind of asceticism. Yes, severe asceticism.
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Paul summarizes their attitude with the phrase touch not, taste
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not, handle not Yeah. This is an early developing form
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of what would later become known as Gnosticism.
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The core idea of this philosophy was dualism.
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You know the belief that physical matter is inherently
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evil and the spiritual realm is inherently good.
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Oh I see. So because they believed matter
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was evil, they taught that the Supreme God couldn't have
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directly created the physical universe.
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Right. And therefore, to reach God, you
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had to climb this complex hierarchy of angelic mediators.
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At the same time, you had to severely punish your physical
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body to free your spirit. The ultimate danger of this
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heresy was its view of Jesus. It treated Christ as
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insufficient. That makes a lot of sense.
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It told believers that while Jesus might be a good starting
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point, you needed to add humanly invented religious systems,
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strict diets, and mystical experiences to achieve actual
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spiritual maturity. I want to stop and think about
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the mechanics of why a system like that works so well on the
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human mind. Well, why do you think
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syncretism, this blending of rules and mysticism, is so
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attractive? I mean, when you look at human
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nature, we just seem to inherently prefer a checklist.
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Asceticism, this idea of touch, not taste, not actually feeds
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the human ego. If I can point to a list of
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foods I avoid or a list of harsh physical disciplines I practice,
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I get to feel superior to the people around me.
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Yeah. It gives you an illusion of
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control over your own salvation. Right.
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Trusting entirely in the finished work of a crucified
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savior requires a terrifying surrender of the ego.
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It requires admitting that I bring absolutely nothing to the
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table. The Colossian heresy offered a
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way to be religious while keeping your pride completely
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intact. That is a very sharp
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observation, and the sources point out that any teaching
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today that adds to or detracts from the finished work of Christ
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is an identical threat. Whether it's a modern secular
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philosophy that tries to redefine human identity apart
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from God's design, or a religious system that demands
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certain political affiliations to secure God's favor, the error
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is the same. So the.
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Text we are looking at is essentially a battle cry against
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sophisticated syncretic heresy. Yeah, that analysis of human
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pride is spot on. We want to contribute to our own
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rescue so we can share in the glory.
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Because Paul is dealing with such a sophisticated lie, he
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knows he can't just yell at these people to behave better.
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He can't just give them a different list of rules to
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follow. Because relying on rules is the
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exact disease he's trying to cure.
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Right, that brings us to the architecture of the letter.
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When you analyze Colossians, you see a highly specific structure.
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Chaters 1 and 2 are heavily doctrinal.
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Aul sends a massive amount of time establishing Christ's
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absolute cosmic supremacy. So he's laying the groundwork
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before he ever gives a command. Yes, he declares that Christ is
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the image of the invisible God, the creator of all things
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visible and invisible, including all those angels the false
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teachers were worshipping and the head of the church.
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He dismantles the false teachings by proving that in
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Christ all the fullness of Deity dwells bodily.
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So there's no hierarchy of angels to climb.
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Jesus is the top, the bottom and everything in between.
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Yeah. Then we hit this massive
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literary hinge in Colossians 3.1 to 2.
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This is the transition from exposition to exhortation, from
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doctrine to duty. The text says if then you have
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been raised with Christ, which refers directly back to the
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chapter 2 where believers were said to be buried and raised
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with him through faith. So he connects the past
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spiritual reality to a present behavioral obligation.
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So if I'm tracking with the logic here, the placement of
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these chapters is a matter of life and death for the Christian
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worldview. What happens if someone decides
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they don't have time for the heavy theological lifting of
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chapters 1 and 2? It's a disaster, yeah.
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What if a listener just skipped straight to chapter 3 and starts
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trying to implement the commands?
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Yeah, I mean, if someone just reads seek the things above and
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tries to force their mind to do it on their own strength, it
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seems like they're going to crash and burn.
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They absolutely will crash and burn because skipping the
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doctrine creates a workspace religion.
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This is a consistent pattern in Paul's writings.
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Whether you're reading Romans, Ephesians, or Colossians.
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The indicative always precedes the imperative.
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Could you break down those 2 terms for us?
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The indicative and the imperative.
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Sure. The indicative is the
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grammatical statement of fact regarding what God has already
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done. The imperative is the command
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regarding what we must do in response.
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If you invert that order, you get the Colossian heresy.
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You get people trying to achieve a spiritual status through their
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own rigorous obedience and willpower.
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But the biblical model insists that grace establishes
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obligation. We don't obey to achieve a
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status. We obey because of a status we
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already possess. True holiness is the organic
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fruit of our union with Christ. Yeah, if you try to seek the
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things above without first being raised with Christ, you're
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asking a dead body to climb a mountain.
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You're demanding motion from a corpse.
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The theological reality of chapters one and two, that
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Christ is supreme and sufficient and the believers are fully
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complete in Him, is the only soil in which the obedience of
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chapter 3 can actually grow. Wow, That completely reorients
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how we view Christian obedience. It removes the exhausting
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treadmill of constantly trying to earn God's favor.
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Our behavior has to flow from our new identity, since
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everything hinges on that identity.
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Let's look closely at the exact claim Paul makes about the
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believer in the very first clause of chapter 3.
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Go for it, he writes. If then you have been raised
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with Christ, that is a staggering claim to make about a
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normal person living a normal, difficult life.
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It is a staggering claim, and to fully grasp its weight, the
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sources look at the Greek grammatical nuances.
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The phrase translated as if then uses the Greek conditional
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marker I, I, and now in English, when we say if, we usually mean
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there's a possibility it might not happen.
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If it rains tomorrow, we will stay inside.
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Right, it introduces doubt or a hypothetical situation.
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But in Greek, this is a first class conditional clause.
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It doesn't express doubt, and it doesn't present a hypothetical
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scenario. It assumes the premise is
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entirely true for the sake of the argument.
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A much more accurate and helpful translation for the modern
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Raider would be since you have been raised with Christ.
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Oh wow, so Paul is not questioning their salvation or
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asking them to figure out if they qualify.
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He is establishing the baseline reality of their existence.
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Yeah, exactly. Then we look at the verb he uses
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for resurrection, which is senegiro.
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This is an incredibly rare word. It only appears three times in
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the entire New Testament. It means to be Co resurrected.
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Furthermore, the verb is in the aorist passive indicative form.
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OK, hold on. We are getting a bit into the
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grammatical weeds here. We need to translate that for
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the listener. When you say aorist, you're
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talking about a completed action in the past.
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Right. Yes, an action that is already
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finished. And passive means this is not
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something I did to myself. I didn't pull myself up by my
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own spiritual bootstraps. God performed the action on me.
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So putting that together, this Co resurrection is a finished
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event that was done to the believer by God.
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Precisely that grammatical reality completely eliminates
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any room for human boasting. It rests entirely on the
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theological concept of federal headship.
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Think about how a federal representative acts on behalf of
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an entire nation. In biblical theology, humanity
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has two distinct heads. Right.
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The first was Adam. Yes, when Adam rebelled in the
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Garden, he acted as our representative, plunging all of
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humanity into sin and death. But Christ acts as the second
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Adam, the new federal head for those who believes his
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historical victory on the cross, his literal death, and his
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literal empty tomb become the believers spiritual reality.
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So you are legally and spiritually bound to Him.
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Therefore, the believer is no longer a citizen of the fallen
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world. Their core identity has been
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totally relocated. God acted upon you, transferring
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you from the Kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of His beloved
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Son. Yeah, that's the core of it.
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I see the distinction and the theology is beautiful, but we
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have to deal with the reality of living in the real world.
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Wait, I need to stop you there. If this resurrection is a
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completed past action, why did I completely lose my temper in
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traffic this morning? That's the real question, isn't
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it? Seriously, why do I still panic
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when I look at my bank account or read a stressful e-mail?
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If I'm already Co resurrected and my core identity is
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relocated to heaven? Why do I still feel so
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hopelessly tethered to my earthly struggles?
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That tension you're describing is the universal experience of
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every Christian, and it requires us to draw a sharp line between
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definitive positional sanctification and our
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progressive daily experience. Definitive sanctification is
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that completed aorist passive reality we just discussed.
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So the legal standing is settled.
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Yes, at the exact moment of regeneration, the new birth, a
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decisive transfer of realm occurred legally and
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spiritually. You died to the penalty of sin,
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and you were raised to new life. What is true of Christ
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historically is true of you spiritually.
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However, while your core identity has changed, you are
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still living in an unredeemed physical body.
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Right. We're still living in a fallen
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world heavily influenced by sin. Yeah.
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You've been granted a completely new nature, but you still battle
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the remnants of the flesh. The reason you feel tethered to
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earthly struggles, the reason you still lose your temper or
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battle anxiety, is that your daily progressive sanctification
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is in the process of catching up to your definitive positional
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reality. Paul is commanding the
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Colossians to live in accordance with what is already true about
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them. Oh, I get it.
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So it's kind of like the concept of adoption.
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Let's say a child is legally adopted out of a harsh,
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impoverished orphanage into a loving, wealthy family.
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The paperwork is signed, the judge has banked the gavel, and
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the child's last name has been legally changed.
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That is a completed past action. Right, their legal status is
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totally permanent. The definitive reality is that
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the child is now an heir to that family.
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But when the child moves into the new mansion, they might
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still hoard food under their bed or flinch when someone raises a
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hand. Because they are still operating
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on the survival tactics they learn in the orphanage, the
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parents have to teach the child day by day to live in accordance
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with their new reality. Yes, telling them you're safe
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now you don't have to hoard food.
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Exactly. Paul is telling believers to
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unlearn the survival tactics of the world because their
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spiritual adoption is final. That is a perfect illustration
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of the dynamic. Because the spiritual
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resurrection is a completed reality.
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It creates an immediate, ongoing obligation for how the believer
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directs their life moving forward.
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This brings us to the first massive command in the text,
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Plum says. Seek the things that are above
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and. There's a specific Greek tense
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there too, right? Yeah, the Greek phrase here is
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TA anchisotete. This is a present act of
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imperative. The present tense in Greek
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denotes continuous, habitual, ongoing action.
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Paul is not asking for a momentary religious mood.
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He is not asking for a brief burst of emotional enthusiasm
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during a Sunday morning worship service.
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He's demanding A sustained, relentless habit of life.
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The word implies A passionate striving and deliberate
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directing of all your energies. But we really have to clarify
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what he means by the things above.
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Well, the text provides its own specific definition right in the
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next breath, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
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This is crucial. Seeking the things above is not
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about floating on clouds, playing harps, or harboring some
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architectural curiosity about what the streets of gold look
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like. It is strictly Christological.
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The heavenly realm has value solely because the risen Savior
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reigns there. I want to highlight the imagery
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Paul uses here because he is directly pulling from the Old
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Testament. When he mentions Christ seated
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at the right hand of God. He is invoking Psalm 110, verse
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one. Yeah, the Lord says to my Lord,
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sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your
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footstool. Right.
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And the specific detail of being seated carries massive
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theological weight. In the earthly temple system
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established in the Old Testament, there were no chairs.
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The priest stood daily offering the exact same animal sacrifices
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over and over again because the work of dealing with human sin
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was never truly finished. The blood of bulls and goats
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could only cover sin temporarily.
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It could not remove it. But the writer of Hebrews tells
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us that Christ offered one sacrifice for sins for all time,
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and then he sat down. His seated posture denotes the
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absolute completion of His atoning work.
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He's not scrambling. He's not pacing the floors of
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heaven wondering how human history will turn out.
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His seated posture denotes cosmic authority.
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Let me push back on how we apply this today.
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Looking at the landscape of modern Christianity, we
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constantly hear messaging that tells us to seek our best life
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now, right here on earth. Oh yeah, you hear that
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everywhere. There are massive platforms
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dedicated to maximizing human potential, achieving financial
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breakthroughs, and finding personal fulfillment in this
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current life. How does the specific command to
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seek the things above contradict that earthly focus?
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To understand the contradiction, we have to look at the concept
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of the already and not yet in redemptive history.
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We possess the spiritual life of Christ already, but the full
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physical manifestation of that glory is not yet revealed on
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earth. The modern obsession with
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achieving an earthly utopia or viewing the Christian faith as a
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practical tool for temporal success and wealth completely
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contradicts Paul's command. So we are commanded to seek the
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historical bodily resurrected Christ who currently resides in
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heaven. The prosperity gospel and even
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secular self help philosophies that get dressed up in Christian
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terminology ask us to fix our gaze horizontally.
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Yeah. They treat the earthly realm,
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with its bank accounts, political power, and physical
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health, as the ultimate reality. But Paul insists that our
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primary orientation must be vertical.
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We seek heaven not as a psychological escape from a hard
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reality, but because heaven is the actual control room of
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reality. It is where the King currently
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reigns. That's a great way to phrase it,
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the control room of reality. If your religion is primarily
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focused on acquiring earthly wealth, securing political
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dominance, or ensuring your own physical ease, you are entirely
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out of step with the Apostolic Command.
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So we have the first command which focuses on our actions and
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our outward striving, a continuous act of seeking of the
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ascended king. But Paul knows that outward
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actions are driven by internal realities.
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He takes it a step further. It is one thing to say we are
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seeking heaven, but Paul demands absolute command over our
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internal thought world. This is the second command found
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in verse 2. Set your minds on things above,
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not on earthly things. We are moving from the outward
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pursuit to the exclusive focus of the mind.
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The specific verb Paul uses for set your minds is fronite.
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And that means more than just thinking, right?
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Absolutely. This word goes far beyond mere
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intellectual cognition or memorizing facts for a theology
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exam. It involves the entire inner
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disposition, the affections and the moral will.
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It is asking what occupies your daydreams, what drives your
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deepest unstated ambitions. When your mind is in neutral.
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When you have a quiet moment with nothing to do, where does
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your imagination naturally drift?
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Paul couples this command with an absolute unyielding
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prohibition. Not on things on Earth.
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Yeah, the negative Greek particle me is used here,
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creating a diametrical opposition.
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You cannot have a divided mind. You cannot simultaneously harbor
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a mindset dominated by the anxieties and lusts of the
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fallen world and a mindset governed by the reigning Christ.
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You cannot serve 2 masters. We really need to flesh out a
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clear analogy here, because it is incredibly easy to
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misinterpret the phrase Not on Earth things as a command to
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abandon our daily responsibilities.
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If someone takes this the wrong way, they might think they need
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to quit their job, ignore their family and move to a monastery
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in the desert. Right, which is not what Paul is
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saying at all. Think about using a compass.
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Imagine you're lost in a massive, dense forest.
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The panic starts to set in. The trees all look the same.
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The sun is going down and you have no idea which way is north.
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You pull out a small metal compass.
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You don't look at the compass to ignore the forest around you.
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No, if you just stare down at the needle and refuse to look
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up, you will walk straight into a tree trunk or fall into a
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ravine. Right.
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You look at the compass precisely so you can steer your
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way through the forest correctly.
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The compass gives meaning and direction to the trees.
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The heavenly mindset is the compass for earthly living.
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Paul is not telling the Colossians to ignore their
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families or stop paying their taxes.
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We know this because later in this very same letter, he gives
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practical instructions for marriage, he honors daily labor,
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and he gives rules for managing earthly households.
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He is telling us to reject an earthbound mentality that treats
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the fallen order, material wealth or human philosophies as
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the absolute final reality. The compass analogy captures the
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essence of Paul's logic beautifully.
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Whatever commands the inner man eventually steers conduct.
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Your internal compass dictates your external path.
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If your mind is tendered to the political machinations of this
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world, well, if you're evaluating every election cycle
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on cultural shift as a matter of ultimate existential life and
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death, your conduct will inevitably become anxious,
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angry, and worldly. Yeah, you will start treating
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people who disagree with you as enemies rather than image
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bearers of God. If your mind is consumed by the
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accumulation of wealth, your conduct will become greedy,
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stingy and self-serving. Right.
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A mind captivated by earthly things lives in direct, daily
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contradiction to its resolution directed nature.
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By fixing our minds on the things above, we are actively
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adopting the interpretive framework at heaven to make
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sense of our earthly duties. We view our jobs, our difficult
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relationships, and our physical sufferings through the lens of
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Christ's sovereign seated rule. This reorientation of the mind
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is not just an abstract theological exercise for
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academics. Paul's commands here were
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designed as a direct assault on the specific idols and anxieties
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plaguing the original audience in Colisea, and by extension,
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the idols plaguing us today. So what was the specific target
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here? What was Paul actually trying to
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achieve in the hearts of these believers when he wrote these
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words from his prison cell? Paul's authorial intent was
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highly specific and pastoral. He wanted to produce absolute
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assurance, redirect their attention away from false
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spirituality, stir holy affections and humble their
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worldly pride. Think about the psychological
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anxiety of the Colossian believers listening to these
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false teachers. It must have been pretty
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intense. The heretics were telling them
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they had to perfectly follow rigid dietary laws, punish their
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physical bodies, and seek out bizarre angelic visions to truly
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reach God. That creates an exhausting,
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terrifying anxiety of doing enough.
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Am I fasting enough? Did I have the right vision?
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Did I worship the right Angel? Paul wanted to rescue them from
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that workspace terror by having them rest entirely in Christo's
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finished work. If Christ is seated, the work is
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done. You do not need to add your own
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puny efforts to His cosmic victory.
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Yeah, and furthermore, Paul understood the mechanism of the
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human heart. There is an old brilliant
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concept articulated by the 19th century Scottish minister Thomas
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Chalmers in his famous sermon The Expulsive Power of a New
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Affection. Oh I love that sermon.
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The core idea is that we don't defeat sins simply by saying no
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to it externally. You can't stare at a temptation,
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white knuckle your chair, and just will yourself not to want
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it. Human willpower is incredibly
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weak, right? You defeat a sinful desire by
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being captivated by something better, something infinitely
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more satisfying. The sinful affections of the
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earthly mind are expelled from the heart by the superior beauty
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and glory of the ascended Christ.
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That is such a vital practical point for the listener to catch.
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You don't stop a toddler from playing in a dirty mud puddle by
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just yelling at them and creating an empty void.
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You offer them a trip to the beach.
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The greater joy expels the lesser joy.
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Yeah, that's a brilliant way to put it.
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You do not beat earthly mindedness by trying to empty
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your mind and sit in a dark room.
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You beat it by actively filling your vision with the reigning
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king. Let's think about our own
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default settings. When a sudden crisis hits, like
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a car accident, a terrible medical diagnosis, a sudden job
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loss, where does your mind automatically go?
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Do you immediately open a social media app to numb the anxiety
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with mindless scrolling? Or do you excessively check your
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bank account or refresh the news headlines, desperately hoping to
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find some sense of control in the chaos?
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Do you lash out in anger at your spouse because your earthly
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comfort was interrupted? Those default reactions reveal
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where your internal compass is truly set.
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The sources are arguing that the only way out of this modern
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anxiety loop is a radical reorientation.
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We have to actively repent of earthly mindedness.
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We have to escape the horizontal worldview, the endless political
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agitation, the consumer greed, the vanity of curating a digital
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life by fully embracing the vertical reality of Christ.
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What is truly fascinating about our current era is how modern
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culture has effectively industrialized earthly
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mindedness. We're not just fighting our own
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internal sinful flesh, we are fighting billion dollar
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algorithms. Through constant digital
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distraction, curated news feeds designed to trigger outrage, and
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highly really targeted advertising, our culture has
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built massive engines designed to keep our souls chained to
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what is immediate material and passing.
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Right, left to ourselves, our minds do not drift upward
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naturally because of our fallen nature.
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The gravitational pull of our flesh always drags our thoughts
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downward toward the dirt. We have to actively, violently
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wage war against distraction. Cultivating a heavenly mindset
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requires intense, deliberate effort because the surrounding
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environment is incredibly hostile to it.
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So we have to talk about what this actually looks like on a
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random Tuesday morning. If our minds are legally fixed
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on Christ's throne, how does that alter the way we live our
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ordinary, sometimes boring lives?
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The reality is, heavenly mindedness is the only true fuel
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for earthly holiness. Parenting A defiant toddler who
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refuses to eat breakfast. Laboring at a mundane
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spreadsheet job where your boss doesn't appreciate you.
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Suffering through a chronic illness that limits your
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mobility. All of these things are done
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under Heavenly Lordship. We worked for Christ's approval,
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not just human applause. The mother folding her fifth
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load of laundry. The mechanic covered in grease
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fixing an engine. The students staying up late to
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write a paper. If they are doing those tasks
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with their minds set on honoring the risen Christ, those very
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ordinary tasks become acts of worship.
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They absolutely do. But to sustain that heavenly
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perspective in the middle of changing diapers or fixing
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engines, we must continuously recalibrate our minds using the
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means of grace God has provided. This is how the heavenly reality
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practically shapes the earthly life.
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We immerse ourselves in the reading and preaching of the
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Word of Christ, allowing Scripture to dictate our view of
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reality rather than the Morning News.
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We engage in earnest prayer, constantly lifting our minds to
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the throne of grace to ask for help.
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And crucially, we participate in corporate worship on the Lord's
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Day. The weekly gathering of the
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local church is a necessary reorientation away from the
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tyranny of the immediate and a collective corporate gaze toward
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the eternal. And this has massive
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implications for the church. Corporately, a local
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congregation must mirror Christ's supremacy in its
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worship and its mission. If a church relies heavily on
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worldly metrics of success like purely numerical growth,
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pragmatic marketing strategies, or shallow concert style
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entertainment, it proves that its collective mind is set on
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earthly things. The Church must refuse those
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carnal man made strategies and trust in the ordinary ordained
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means of grace to build the body of Christ.
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Let me offer another physical analogy to make that clear.
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Trying to live the Christian life without utilizing those
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means of grace, the word, prayer, and corporate worship is
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like trying to hold your breath underwater indefinitely.
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You are constantly surrounded by the crushing, suffocating
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pressure of an earthly secular environment.
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If you do not regularly surface for air, you simply will not
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survive the pressure. The means of grace are the
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oxygen for the heavenly mindset. You will drown in worldliness if
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you refuse to breathe. But as we look at all these
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commands, we also have to address the evangelical call
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inherent in this text. We have to recognize the reality
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of total human inability. An unregenerate person, someone
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who hasn't been given a completely new heart by God,
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cannot delight in Christ. Enthroned on their own strength,
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their mind is fundamentally hostile to God.
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The new birth is an absolute necessity.
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You cannot just decide to be heavenly minded if your core
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nature is still entirely earthbound.
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That is a critical theological truth.
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Without the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit, the commands of
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Colossians 3 are impossible to follow.
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The natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God,
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but for those who have indeed been raised with Christ, this
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text affirms the immense quiet dignity of the Christian life.
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Even your most ordinary acts of obedience, resisting a minor
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temptation to gossip in the workplace break room, working
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honestly on a project when no one is watching, suffering a
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quiet grief with steadfast hope, take on immense eternal value.
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Why? Because they spring directly
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from a hidden union with the exalted Lord.
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The world may look at your ordinary, faithful life and see
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absolutely nothing spectacular, but God sees a life safely
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tethered to the throne. So what does this all mean for
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you as you turn off this audio, put your phone away, and step
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back into your daily routine? We have traced Paul's logic from
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a damp, miserable Roman prison cell all the way to the cosmic
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throne of Christ. We have seen how a completed
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spiritual resurrection dictates a present, rigorous pursuit of
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heavenly realities. We don't obey to earn God's
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love. We obey because our fundamental
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nature has been permanently fused to the risen Savior.
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The noise of the digital age, the panic of the political
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sphere, the endless hunger for earthly wealth, these things are
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exposed as hollow, exhausting substitutes for the glory of the
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reigning king. Here is a final thought to Mull
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over as we close the sources. Note later in this chapter that
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the Christian life is hidden with Christ in God right now,
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but will one day be openly revealed for all to see.
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Consider this on your own. How would your daily anxiety
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shift if you viewed your current life not as the main event, but
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as the backstage preparation for a reality that is about to be
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unveiled? How would that change the way
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you react when earthly things inevitably fail you, knowing
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that you're true, permanent life is safely kept behind the
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curtain, waiting for the queue to step out into the light?
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Thank you for joining us on Reformed Thinking.
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Stand fast, keep your eyes fixed above, and we will catch you on
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the next deep dive into the word.