This is Part 11 of a 15 part Bible Study on the book of Colossians.
Compiled and written by Norma Becker – a true woman of God and God’s word.
FREE – Printable e-book version
Part 11- Colossians Chapter 3
“Since then, (all of the things they have heard in the first two chapters) you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” (Colossians 3:1-4).
Again we have this comparison to baptism. Back in Colossians 2:12 it first talked of:
“when you were baptized you were buried with Christ and then raised with Christ and now have a new life in Christ.” Then in verse 20, it again says, “you have died with Christ….”
Set Your Hearts
Now in Colossians 3:2:
”They have been raised with Christ, so set their hearts on heavenly things.”
Have you seen pictures of marathon runners? Concentration and determination seem to ooze from every pore. These people set their hearts and minds on one thing: Finish this race. They focus on the next step, the next checkpoint, until the race is complete. They shed pounds, unnecessary clothing or anything else that might slow them down. Attach their official number and they are ready to run. As Christians, we are to live like marathon runners. We are to take off anything that slows us down and set our hearts and minds on the finish line.
To illustrate further, as a child, how did setting your heart on a certain toy or gift affect how you acted and what you thought about? Paul is saying, “If they were raised to a new life, then they were a different person.” So for now, if we are a different person, then our life should show that difference.
“So set your hearts on things above.”
He isn’t saying that a Christian should be other worldly where He withdraws from all the work and activities of this world and only sits and contemplates eternity. We know this because the rest of chapter 3 sets out ethical principles for living in this world.
Priorities and Values
We are to put heaven’s priorities into daily practice. We change our behavior by letting Christ live in us, so that He can shape us into what we should be. Now we should look at everything against the background of eternity and no longer live as if this world is all that matters.
This will obviously give us a new set of values. Things the world thinks are important will no longer worry us.
In making these lifestyle changes our thoughts might change to wanting to forgive rather than avenge, give rather get, and serve rather than rule. In addition, our material values will change – they will be God’s values, not man’s values.
Colossians 3:1 says,
“…set your hearts on things above…” and now verse 2 says, “…set your minds on things above….”
The difference between “heart” and “mind” comes when you have your heart or affection set on something. When we truly desire something, we work for it, strive for it and are willing to give up things for it – like an Olympic trainee. We concentrate with our minds.
In the Good News Translation, 2 Corinthians 4:18 reads:
“For we fix our attention, not on things that are seen, but on things that are unseen. What can be seen lasts only for a time, but what cannot be seen lasts forever. Concentrate on the eternal rather than the temporal. Look at things from God’s perspective and seek what He desires.”
That is not to say that all earthly things are evil – some of them are, and some become bad because of misuse. Even things harmless in themselves become harmful if they are permitted to take the place that should be reserved for the things above. Some examples of earthly things would include: wealth, worldly honor, power and pleasures such as sex. To make these things the goal of your life, the subject of your preoccupation, and your full focus, is to give them the wrong place in the life of someone who has been raised with Christ. Our values and goals should change and when these are changed then our daily thoughts and actions will gradually come under the control of Christ.
Safe in Christ
“For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3).
Paul again states that we have died, stressing what he said in Colossians 2:11:
“In union with Christ….we are freed from the power of this sinful self.”
Read Romans 6:6-8:
“And know that our old being has been put to death with Christ on his cross, in order that the power of this sinful self might be destroyed, so that we should no longer be the slaves of sin. For when a person dies, he is set free from the power of sin. Since we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.”
If something is hidden, it is concealed, safe and secure. We are safe in Christ; free from the power of sin and safe in Christ and that is a pretty good place to be!
Colossians 3:4:
“When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”
Christ gives us power to live for Him now, and He gives us hope for the future – He will return.
“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18).
He will come again and we will share His glory. We should use this to encourage the people around us.
“Dear friends, now we are , and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he really is” (1 John 3:2).
Back in Colossians 1:27 Paul said:
“…and the secret is that Christ is in you, which means that you will share in the glory of God.”
Free Will and Choices
Now after setting the foundation Paul, spends the rest of his letter explaining how Christians should act now in order to be prepared for Christ’s return.
The first two chapters tell us how His characteristics become ours when we have Him -when we are in Christ. If we allow Him to, He lives His Christ-like life in us; however, our spirit, which lives by feeling, is still in us and is at odds with God’s spirit. There is always a constant struggle between these two natures in us. Since we have free will, we have to constantly make choices as to which spirit we will obey.
Jesus taught the disciples that their love for Him would cause them to obey Him. He also said the Helper whom He would send – the Holy Spirit – would live in them to help them. When we love someone, we do things we do not want to do because we want to please the one we love. I’m sure you can all think of examples when you have done that.
The more we love God the more we will obey. The more we obey the more we will be aware of the reality of Christ in our lives. The more we are aware of Christ in our lives, the more victory we will experience. The more victory we experience, the less difficult the choices are and the less conflict we have within ourselves.
If we aren’t having victory in our life, we need to go back to the first item: The more we love God the more we will obey. It is a maturing process so don’t be discouraged.
The Holy Spirit that Jesus promised to send is the power within us that gives us the strength to do what seems impossible. Just like a straw that is too weak to be driven into a board, when that straw is yielded to the wind of a tornado, it is possible for it to be driven through a four-inch beam. His power supplies what we need for holy living: The power to obey God’s will.
How a Christian Should Act
“Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived” (Colossians 3:5-7).
He starts with a list of activities that come from man’s earthly nature. In case his readers might treat these sins lightly, he reminds them of God’s anger on those who disobey. When we are tempted to sin, we must remember that we too must one day stand before God.
“For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person…has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient” (Ephesians 5:5-6).
“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him” (John 3:36).
But we know there is a remedy to God’s wrath:
“They tell us how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead – Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath” (1 Thessalonians l:10b).
Now he goes on with more things that might hit a little closer to home – things that we are to rid our lives of.
“But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator” (Colossians 3:8-10).
It is interesting how the Bible often connects clothing with righteousness and nakedness with depravity. It talks about being clothed with Christ’s righteousness. When you have finished a hard day of dirty work digging ditches, you don’t just put clean clothes on over the filthy ones you have worked in all day. Likewise, we can’t put a new life on over an old one. We have to take off the “old self” before we can have the “new self.”
Have you ever tried to put new wallpaper on over old wallpaper? Sooner or later the old grease and grime will soak through and spoil the new.
Many try to put on the outside appearance of a new self, but their old self keeps asserting itself. Some people may be convinced and deceived, but God isn’t. He tells them that before they came to know Christ, when they still had on their old clothes, they used to live one way but now they are to get rid of that way of responding – the way that came from their old self.
Anger, Rage and Malice
Bad habits like anger, rage, malice (or hateful feelings), slander (or insults), filthy language and lying do not suit a Christian. They are unbecoming to believers. You can commit these first three, and no one but God will ever know it. Others will still think you are great. You can be angry with someone and have an ongoing attitude of smouldering hatred. Rage is an outburst of anger, but that can be done in private. Malice, or hateful feelings, can certainly be done within.
The others are more apparent because they have to be verbalized. For an antidote we can go to Ephesians 4:29:
“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”
They are to get rid of these things because, verse 9 says:
“You have taken off the old self with its habits and have put on the new self. This is the new being which God, its Creator, is constantly reshaping, in order to bring you to a full knowledge of himself” (Colossians 3:9).
To “put on the new self” means your conduct should match your faith. If you are a Christian, you should act like it. This means more than just making good resolutions and having good intentions; it means making the right decisions.
Never Stop Learning and Obeying
Do we always honor Him with our time, talent and treasure? When we are born again, we are a new being. God takes this new being and constantly renews it in His own image. God continues to work on us because every Christian is a ‘continuing education program’ – He wants to bring us to a full knowledge of Himself.
The more we know of Christ and His work, the more we are being changed to be like Him. Because this process is lifelong, we must never stop learning and obeying. It takes practice, ongoing review, patience and concentration to keep in line with His will.
This renewal of our new self will come as we have a deep personal knowledge of Christ. The goal is to be like Him for as Ephesians 4:24 says, we are,
“….to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”
Created in His Image
According to Genesis, Adam was created in the image of God, which included a moral and intellectual likeness to God. This image was not erased but was only marred by the fall. It was corrupted and needs to be repaired and renewed.
Christians become increasingly like the Lord as they yield to the Holy Spirit and choose to obey God.
Then at the resurrection, as 1 Corinthians 15:49 says about believers:
“Just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.”
Then we will truly know what it means to be made in His image. Then 1 John 3:2 says,
“…but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
Think of it like an outfit – you put on a new one when you accept Christ. It is a very plain one, and as you mature, He continues to add new things to it: a collar, belt, pocket, tuck etc, making your new self more like Him.
The final tuck won’t be until He comes again. But when we accept the Lord, we all have a new self or spiritual outfit. This still needs to be worked on and added to.
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