#DailyDevotion Keep Your Mind On Things Above

Colossians 3 Now if you were raised with Christ, be eager for the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right of God. ² Keep your mind on things above, not on earthly things. ³ You see, you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. ⁴When Christ, your Life, appears, then you, too, will appear with Him in glory.

Paul connects us to our baptisms as he has done in other places he writes. Being “in Christ” is baptism language. Connecting us to the events in Christ’s life is baptism language. We see this in Romans 6:3ff where in baptism we are crucified in Christ, die in Christ, are buried with Christ and raise to new life in Christ. So if you are baptized and you have faith in Christ, i.e. trust what he has done for you, then these things are true for you. Well they are true whether you believe or not but they don’t do you any good then.

Being joined with Christ has consequences in how we live, breath and have our being. One of the ways it changes us, and we need to be encouraged in this life to continue in it, is to “be eager for the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God.” What sort of things are “things above”? Well what has God promised us? He has promised us himself. He has promised us Christ Jesus, eternal life, forgiveness of sins, to see his face, to gaze upon his beauty, his love, mercy and kindness, his righteousness, holiness and wisdom, his kingdom and anything else you can think of that he has promised. All these things will continue after this world waste away.

The reason we are to think on these things is we have died and our life is hidden with Christ in God. Yes you don’t have to wait to shed these mortal coils to die. You have already died with Christ in baptism. If you are dead, then this world means nothing to you. What can it offer that God cannot replace or replace with better things in the world to come. Jesus warns us not to desire the things of this world, our life, even our family. Our chief love is to be God and his Christ who loves us and has given everything to us in Jesus. Jesus has said, Luk 14:26-27  “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.  (27)  Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” Again he says, Luk 16:13 “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” And again Jesus says, Luk 17:33 “Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.” So make your life which is hidden in Christ your chief thing in this world.

Paul tells us, “When Christ, your Life, appears, then you, too, will appear with Him in glory.” Christ is our Life. Love that life more than your own life. He is coming back. When Jesus appears again, you will appear with him in glory. That is to say, Christ is your hope of glory. At the resurrection, you will bear his eternal weight of glory. Rom 5:2 “Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” Eph 1:11-12 “In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will,  (12)  so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.” You will be like him. It is this sort of thing we should be thinking about having been saved from this perishing world.

Heavenly Father, ever keep our eyes, hearts and minds on Christ Jesus and all the things he has promised by being joined to him in baptism and faith, that we may prize the things above more than the things below, so we may live our lives here below as if we lived there above. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.