LEARNING DAILY

 

Colossians 3:1-4, If then you were raised with Christ, seek the things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth, for you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you will also appear with Him in glory.

 

When reading Paul’s letters, I made note in my Bible to take some time to encourage us by writing about chapter three. There is so much teaching in this chapter that each of us need to be reminded of as we walk on the narrow way to God’s kingdom and eternal life. May you be encouraged as I have been encouraged.

 

Paul’s writing is a reminder and encouragement for Christians to stay focused on who we are in Christ. That little word “if” can be translated to mean “since”; since we accepted Christ as our Savior, we died with Him and rose from the grave with Him. Our lives are in Christ who is seated at the right hand of God in heaven. Because of that, you and I must set our minds on a brand-new life because the old life is gone. We must set our minds and to our attitudes be determined from an eternal and heavenly perspective. This perspective is long-term or eternal. This allows us to focus our will and emotions on the reality of heaven and allowing that to control our motivation for living; it means our focus is not on the worldly concerns of life. The LSSB note states it this way, “Our goals and pursuits should center in Jesus Christ, including resisting sin, and being clothed with Christ’s life and character.” Notice that we do not stop living our lives, we just live our lives centered on Jesus Christ.

 

Through the death of Jesus, you and I as Christians, are able to die to our old self, our old ways of thinking and living our life. I know from experience that when I take my eyes off of Him and center on things in my old self, I stumble and get off the narrow way. When I do, I must ask for His forgiveness which gets me back on the narrow way (1 John 1:9). As Christian’s, we must keep Him at the very center of our walk every day or else we stumble. Our emphasis must be to please Him in our speech, actions, thought life.

 

The DJSB notes give a great summary of what Christ has done for every Christian. “Paul has covered every phrase of life: God’s people have been raised with Christ in the past. They have been hidden with Him in the present, and they will appear with Him in the future. They may be hidden now, but they will not be hidden forever. Scripture points to the One who can supply everything their hope expects. This is every Christian’s destiny.” It is important to stress that we do not ignore the things of the world. Instead, we bring heavenly guidance to our earthly life.

 

To be hidden in Christ means our old self is dead; we are not to worry about what we used to do or be because it is buried with Christ. Our true identity is hidden because there is much we do not know about Christian living and will not be revealed to us until we reach heaven. We live by faith and not by sight. What does need to be apparent is the light of Jesus Christ living in us because of living our lives in obedience to Him.

 

From now on DJSB will be used to note information or quotes from the David Jeremiah Study Bible and LSSB will refer to information and quotes from the Life in the Spirit Study Bible.  I have added Jimmy Swaggart’s Expositor’s Study Bible to be referred to from now on as JSESB.