notes

Main point summary

If you are spiritually alive by faith in Christ, pursue him and his kingdom above all else. For he is, now partially-seen and one day fully, your life.

Bracket

editing

NT

Colossians 3:1-4

esv

b If then you have been raised with Christ,

seek c the things that are above,

where Christ is,

d seated at the right hand of God.

ideaexplanation

locative

e Set your minds on things that are above,

not on things that are on earth.

negativepositive

conditional

For f you have died,

and your life is hidden

with Christ in God.

progression

When Christ g who is your 1 life h appears,

then you also will appear with him i in glory.

temporal

ground

discourse

Notes

Takeaways from Colossians 3:1-4 1. The command to seek things above hinges upon one's having been raised with Christ. In other words, only people born of God can seek the things of God. Only Christians can seek the things where Christ is, because Christ is their life. 2. To be raised with Christ is a beautiful reality with so much tied up in it. One is made alive in Christ by the Holy Spirit, who unites the redeemed to Christ so that God sees that person inseparably linked to Christ and the individual experiences this as faith in Jesus Christ. Union with Christ by faith is the precondition for seeking God, not the other way around. 3. The foundation of seeking things above is that "you have died." The command to seek the things of God is given to people who have died to the world and are alive in Jesus Christ. In other words, the command is to seek to live the life Christ has made you alive to live! 4. Pursuing Christ and the things of Christ does involve not seeking other things, the things of the earth. For those who are truly alive this lack of seeking is a joy in itself because the one who is alive in God knows that any joys to be found on earth that are either outside of God or do not ultimately result in God are lesser, inferior pleasures. When you are free to dig for gold, no one in his right mind would try to find plastic. 5. To seek is to set one's mind on something. Seeking involves, as we have already seen, one being alive. Now we see that it involves mental effort. It is not enough to believe in Jesus by faith and yet think that godliness will happen by fate. This putting forth of one's mind toward the realities of God and his works is essential. That is what is commanded here: use your gospel-awoken mind to meditate on the supernatural reality of God that he has given you capacity to contemplate and pursue. Intellectual assent, however, is not enough. He is our life, our treasure, our most valuable possession. 6. A possible pitfall could be to think that this is merely a mental effort, but verse 5 explicitly commands an action, as do verses 6-10, which shows the value of studying everything in context.