Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. (Col 3:1-5)The "therefore" at the beginning refers to Paul's explanation in the previous chapter that we were "buried with Him in baptism, in which you were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God" (Col 2:12). Based on that, we "have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world" (Col 2:20). So, raised with Christ, we must "keep seeking the things above." We need to "Set your mind on the things above." Think this way
This seems like an impossible task. We're surrounded every day with "elementary principles of the world." We're bombarded with "immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed." It's in our entertainment, our advertisement, our conversation, our entire lives. And Paul says, "Your life is hidden with Christ in God." Are we living that way? Are we thinking that way? When I learned to drive, my instructor told me, "Don't look at the parked cars." "Why?" I asked him. "I need to avoid them." He said, "You always go where you look. Look down the road and not just in front of you." Paul is telling us the same. Don't look around you. You'll go that way. Look to Christ, to the things above. Think that way.
As with the orthodoxy/praxis argument, how we think informs how we walk. If our thinking is flawed, wrong, or confused, it is almost guaranteed that our walk/actions will follow suit.
ReplyDelete“Look down the road and not just in front of you." That is good advice--not only for safe driving but for a fruitful Christian walk, as it helps me focus on the successful end of the journey, rather than the difficult tasks immediately before me. “Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.” This particular Bible verse gripped me as a very young Christian and continues to direct and redirect my steps. Tying both those admonitions together, I strive to avoid the pitfalls all along the way to the destination by “look[ing] to Christ,” as you say.
ReplyDeleteP.S. Good for you for remembering anything your high school driving instructor said. I mostly only recall that it was a good thing that mine had that second brake on his side. (And yes, as a new driver, I did hit a parked car once--in our own driveway!) However, I do remember these instructions from my seventh-grade Biology classroom: a sign on the wall read, “This is a LABORATORY. Do more of the first five letters and less of the last seven!” I still laugh at that--knowing I continue to have that battle! :-D
The daily struggle of doing what I don't want to do, and not doing what I want to do. It's why prayer is such a powerful tool for us, praying forces us to think about God.
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