“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.” Colossians 3:1-4 KJV
(After reading the above passage in a couple of translations, including the Greek text, I decided that none really improved upon the King James, nor did they make it any clearer. So we will just stick with the good ole’ KJV for this passage).
Some translations say, “Since you have been raised with Christ,” for this opening statement, and it can be either a question or a statement of fact. The tense in the Greek does not seem to be conclusive on how it should read. “If you are risen with Christ” speaking of receiving Him as Lord and Savior, received the baptism of the obedient (Colossians 2:2), now we enter into the Holy Spirit’s teaching on living the lifestyle of the Beloved.
In most of Paul’s writings, he is diligent to give us the position of the believer as a Son of God and many of the blessings that are automatic within that Sonship, then he will turn to the expected outcome, which is a lifestyle appropriate for one is such a position. We could study the royal family of Great Britain if we wished to see a lifestyle marked with position. They have excellent training as to proper behavior, royal thinking, manners, love of people, and on and on it goes. Well, we have the same type of thing in the New Testament writings.
We are no longer like other people. We are God-infused human beings, so everything we do has divine consequences. That is not to place undue stress on us, but the reality of belonging to the King! So our lifestyle must, of necessity, be very different than the rest of mankind. As sons of the King, we are to serve the people, love the people, govern the people, etc. (If we understand John 13:1-17 — that will help us here). Since we belong to the Royal household, there is training we must undergo to serve and live well as sons of God.
The first instruction – in verse 1 – is that we are to “seek those things which are above, where Christ is sitting on the right hand of God.” This is something many of us know nothing about. Our days, hours, moments, seconds, and our prayers are spent seeking the best way to order our world. Almost everything we seek has to do with the world we know – the physical. We, as a rule, do not even know what is above. This is true even when we read the Word, pray, and worship. Most of us are still “landlocked” into what we physically see, know, touch, feel, want, etc. Clearly, this will take some time and training (and there is no condemnation at all), but many, many joys await us as we choose to “seek,” “look at,” spend time pondering, become aware of, what is “above.”
Just how do we do that? There are several avenues to begin our journey of as we choose His way. Learn to be “in Spirit” buy purposely joining your heart and His in Spirit. Choose to be in Him and to see what He sees. Meditating and seeking the Spirit’s Word beyond the black and white letters as we read and study the Word. Begin to expect to “see” what was not “seen” before. Sometimes this is called revelation, and sometimes it is a new “Spirit-knowing” that empowers us. As we diligently listen for His voice, His words to us individually, and begin to worship weaving with Him in Spirit with His truth; much appears for our seeking. Other avenues will open as we begin to consciously “seek that which is above.”
None of this is easy at first. But as we are diligent to begin, our gracious Holy Spirit begins to open realms of glory above for us, and we start to be able to understand matters of the Spirit and not just of flesh. Understanding on the flesh dimension can never do the work of God. Understanding on the flesh dimension can never “see that which is above.” We are sons, filled with His presence and His glory. Our home and our inheritance are above. Let’s go for it!
Beloved, there is more, much, much more!
Mannaword 