2 years ago

DAY 18 – SETTING YOUR MIND ON THE ETERNAL THINGS

Col 3:1 Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Col 3:2 Keep thinking about things above, not things on the earth,
Col 3:3 for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Col 3:4 When Christ (who is your life) appears, then you too will be revealed in glory with him.
Col 3:5 So put to death whatever in your nature belongs to the earth: sexual immorality, impurity, shameful passion, evil desire, and greed which is idolatry.
Col 3:6 Because of these things the wrath of God is coming on the sons of disobedience.
Col 3:7 You also lived your lives in this way at one time, when you used to live among them.
Col 3:8 But now, put off all such things as anger, rage, malice, slander, abusive language from your mouth.
Col 3:9 Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with its practices
Col 3:10 and have been clothed with the new man that is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of the one who created it.
Col 3:11 Here there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian (sin-the-en/savage), slave or free, but Christ is all and in all.
Col 3:12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with a heart of mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience,
Col 3:13 bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if someone happens to have a complaint against anyone else. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also forgive others.
Col 3:14 And to all these virtues add love, which is the perfect bond.
Col 3:15 Let the peace of Christ be in control in your heart (for you were in fact called as one body to this peace), and be thankful.
Col 3:16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and exhorting one another with all wisdom, singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, all with grace in your hearts to God.
Col 3:17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Col 3 is a list of standards for Christian behavior that make absolutely no sense to today’s culture or is out right rejected. Everything about the self-centered priorities that have high value today run counter to the type of restraint and sacrifice that instructs us in His Word. The culture of Colossae was thoroughly pagan and immoral, and as it is in much of the world today. The Christians in Colossae, however, were to no longer take their cues from the world around them as to all followers of Christ Jesus today.

They had to learn to take direction from “above,” the “Eternal things.” Although physically in the world, they were not to believe the same things that the culture around them did. They were not to behave according to the standards of the culture around them. To do so would be taking their cues from “below.”

Col 3:6-9 describes the “below” culture in words and concepts like anger, rage, malice, slander, filthy language, lying. But the “above” culture, in contrast, is characterized by words and concepts like compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness, peace, singing, worship, and gratitude.

How are we to cultivate these eternal-values that are from above while living below? It will takes a concentrated effort on our part by choosing to “set our minds” to it. Thinking on “things above” (the truths of God’s Word) not only guides us in what we should do but gives the reasons why we should do it (grace, our position in Christ, our eternal reward, etc.).

To set one’s mind on the Word of God is to choose to think on it to the point that it guides the course of your actions. The more we believe the truth “from above” the eternal things more than the lies “from below,” the more we will act like creatures born from above, who have been raised with Christ (Colossians 3:1) and seated with Him at the right hand of the Father

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