“Setting our hearts on things above” – Colossians 3:1-11
By James Galbraith
First Baptist Church, Port Alberni
October 28, 2007
Text
3 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. 7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11 Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
Review
Paul has been drilling one message in to his readers…Jesus is enough!
You don’t need Jesus
+ money or time or good deeds or special rituals or festivals
You need Jesus – he’s enough!
Jesus will not be impressed with your stuff, your time, your offerings;
he wants you to admit your need for him and give your life to him!
Now that the Apostle Paul has driven that point home,
he shares with them where to go from there.
Introduction
The Colossians had been living lives of “do this and do that” to please God, and many of us do the same thing as well.
Now, to be fair, there is a fair bit of “do this and do that” in any way of life, including Christianity. There are certain things we should be doing, and certain things we shouldn’t be doing!
But our lives as Christians are not meant to be centred merely around what we do and what we don’t do. They are meant to be centred around the person of Christ himself.
All too often, we forget this and let our faith devolve into a pattern of achievements and avoidances, or “do’s and don’ts”
The problem with the “do this, do that” way of life is that very often it does not sink down in to the heart. We can do things automatically, without letting them touch our hearts.
Think about this question –
How many things can you do well without getting your heart involved? Count change? Get dressed? Drive? Work? Chat? Sing?
I can remember at least two times where I was busy doing one thing, but when I was doing it my heart was far, far away…
1. fold over 800 curtains in one day
2. rip the heads off of live shrimp for over 5 hours…
Now there’s nothing wrong with doing certain things without our hearts getting involved, but our faith is not one of them!
If the living of our faith becomes an heartless activity,
than we are in dire need of spiritual attention.
And that is why, when Paul starts to tell us how to live as Christians,
he starts by telling us to “set our hearts on things above”
For if we can set our hearts in the right place, the other things can begin to fall in to place.
Let’s take a close look at what “setting our hearts on things above” actually means.
Exegesis
To understand what “Setting our hearts on things above” means here,
We first have to understand that he is speaking to those who have already made a decision to follow Christ.
There are a total of five phrases in this passage that show us just this:
“ Since you have been raised with Christ…”
- Christ raising from the dead also raises us out of our sin,
when we place our faith in him
“ For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God”
- giving up our old way of life is the same as dying to it,
and when we place our faith in Christ we are seeking his protection,
just like a chick hides in his mother’s wings, or a child behind her father
“ When Christ, who is your life,”
- making a decision to follow Christ is a life long commitment,
not a passing whim or hedging your bets
“ you used to walk in these ways…”
- indicating that the former way of life before Christ is to be history
“ You have taken off your old self … and put on the new self”
- Life in Christ as a new start
- looks back to Jesus himself “you must be born again…”
All of these phrases refer to people who have already made a decision to follow Christ.
So according to Paul, we can’t set out hearts on thing above
until we’ve made sure our hearts are in the right hands!
We can think and wonder and learn about “things above”,
and come to a place where we know a great deal about them,
but Paul is telling us that to truly place our hearts on things above
we need to start with a heart given over to Christ.
There is no substitute for full commitment – head knowledge is not enough.
We also see here that the act of “Setting our heart on things above”
is something that we have to consciously and constantly do
after we give our lives to Christ.
Whether we’ve been a follower of Christ for 50 minutes or 50 years,
we still need to deliberately choose to keep our hearts focused on “things above”.
So then, the question still remains, what does it mean for us,
as people with our hearts given over to Jesus Christ,
to set our hearts on things above?
Well, another clue comes in what Paul tells us to stay away from..
There are two lists here of things we must learn to avoid if we are to enjoy “setting our hearts on things above”.
Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature:
sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
These are the kinds of things that come naturally to us when we show no inhibitions, when we simply live controlled by our appetites,
instead of letting God’s love and knowledge guide our choices.
Each of these things, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, greed, is simply something God has given us that, divorced from God, becomes something evil.
An “earthly nature” is simply our nature apart from God,
our lives when our own appetites rule us instead of helping us and those around us.
Part of “setting our hearts on things above”
means leaving that earthly nature behind,
and allowing God above to set the agenda for us,
which means seeking His desires for our lives
and living the way he intended us to live.
But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these:
anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips
These are the kinds of things that manifest themselves in our lives when we don’t care for anyone other than ourselves.
They don’t need a great deal of explanation – we have all tasted them to various degrees. We have either been victims of them or parties to them, and they are the outworking of hearts that are not set on things above.
Reading through these two lists leads me to conclude that a great part of “setting our hearts on things above”
is rooted in placing others above ourselves,
by living in a life that cares for the needs of others
rather than just speaking and acting for ourselves!
Is that not how Christ himself lived when he lived amongst us, serving the needs of others even though he was Immanuel, or God with us?
His heart, of all hearts, was certainly “set on things above”,
And it is he who tells us that,
“the son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and give his life as a ransom for many”
But another part of living with our hearts set above boils down to be honest about who we are and what we do:
“Do not lie to each other”
Lying is probably the one thing we do that hurts others the most,
and it’s also one of the easiest things to do!
Usually we lie because it seems easier than facing the truth,
whether it be paying taxes or confronting a friend or dealing with the police.
Truth doesn’t always feel better than a lie,
but it is always better to live in truth rather than live a lie,
and setting our hearts on things above means a hunger and thirst for truth, in all it’s flavours and with all it’s challenges.
Honesty is integral to a life lived like a new life given over to God,
which is what Paul focuses on right after saying “do not lie”:
since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10
and have put on the new self,
which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator
When we lie, we are acting in that earthly nature, trying to do the easiest thing that will accomplish what we want for ourselves.
When we tell the truth, and live in the truth,
we are showing that we are ready to live out what is best for everyone, whether that makes our lives easier or not.
When we set our hearts on things above,
we are tossing out all the lies we used to live in or live for,
and embracing the truth of a full life that God has ready to give us instead.
So, in setting our hearts on things above,
we are tossing out what controlled our lives before God,
and opening our hearts up to what God has ready for us.
We are putting to death that which is already divorced from God,
and ridding ourselves of a dependency on self-centred sin,
choosing instead to live in truth, no matter how hard that may be,
allowing God to give direction, purpose, power and peace to our lives.
We are bringing our lives under the care of Jesus,
who is seated next to God the Father in Heaven.
and who is ready to help us along each step
of this perilous but ultimately blessed journey.
And, finally, in setting our hearts on things above,
we are living lives which demonstrate that we all enjoy God’s presence on an equal footing:
Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
When our minds are set on thing above, we do not see each other in regards to differences, denominations, diet or dress.
We see each other as God sees us
- his children, loved now and always,
ready to live for him by loving each other the way he loves us
Setting our hearts on things above means living a life turned over to God.
We start by inviting him into our lives,
and if you’ve done that already you need to start taking the next steps.
If you haven’t, consider it today.
Home is where the heart is.
Our hearts should be set on things above,
because when our lives are given over to God,
than our home,
that place where we spend most of our earthly lives and all of eternity, is with him.
