Things Above – 3:1-4

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¹ 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.

Paul is making a transition in this short section. For the first two chapters he was laying the foundation of his theology – the centrality and supremacy of Christ. From here through the rest of the letter he will be working out the practical implications of that doctrine. The revelation of the mystery of God – which is Christ himself – effects sweeping change in the lives of those who believe. One cannot simply hear the good news of the death and resurrection of Jesus and go on as if nothing has happened. The whole world has been turned upside-down! The appropriate response to the Gospel is repentance – to turn around and follow the way of Jesus.

The resurrection is both the beginning and the direction of the way of Jesus. For Paul, the resurrection is an event in which all true believers participate. While Christ has been raised from physical death, Christians are raised from spiritual death when they confess and are baptized. Baptism is the physical symbol of the spiritual reality that the Christian has been brought from death to life.

Believers participate in the full story of the Gospel. We have died with Christ (2:20), and now we have been raised with Christ. The way of Jesus is participatory. It is not enough to say that Jesus has died for us; the true story of the Gospel is that, by faith, we have died with him. We have died to the old way of life, which, according to Colossians 2 comprises all the pointless toiling of Christless religion, and which, according to Colossians 3, is steeped in sinful desire and behavior. The new way of life – the way of living that we experience when we are raised with Christ – is centered around Christ and abounds in virtue, freedom, and hope.

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“You can be better. You can do better.”

We keep telling ourselves these things, but they rarely seem to make a difference. Why is it so difficult to improve ourselves? Why does it seem like it’s always one step forward, two steps back? You tell yourself every morning, “Today, I’m going to be focused.” And then you scroll Facebook for the next 47 minutes. At the end of a long day you promise not to yell at the kids tomorrow. But when they don’t obey, Angry Parent rears its ugly head.

Everyone wants to be a better version of themselves, but self-improvement doesn’t help you get there unless you’re writing a book about it. We all need external motivation – and external assistance. The truth is that we can’t improve ourselves by ourselves. Someone has to walk alongside us – someone who can make a difference in our lives.

In Colossians 2:20, Paul uses an odd phrase to describe what it’s like to become a Christian. He says, “you died with Christ.” Pay attention to that preposition. With. When you become a Christian, you die with Christ. That means that you are dead to the way you used to live. You have left that world and sinful way of life. This means that self-improvement isn’t about trying harder; it’s about living with the One with whom you also died.

Jesus died for the things that make you worse: sin, selfishness, immaturity, and all of the specific things that hold you back. When you put your faith in Christ, that part of you also died with him right up there on his cross. But the good news is that Jesus rose from the dead, and he gives us power to rise again, too. We rise again into the fullness of life that exists in him, a life characterized by faith, hope, and love. Our death and resurrection are a spiritual discipline symbolized by our baptism and that we have to walk out, with careful intentionality, every day.

And we are not alone. God has given us the Holy Spirit to walk alongside us. He fills us up with the power of God. He reminds us of the things that Jesus taught. He convicts us when we sin and restores us when we repent. He molds us into the image of Jesus.

You can be better. You can do better. But not by yourself. Only by living out the death and resurrection of Jesus as your own death and resurrection, and doing this in the power of the Spirit, can you truly become a better version of yourself.

Rules – 2:20-23

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²⁰ Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: ²¹ “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? ²² These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings. ²³ Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.

The first verse of this section requires two explanations. First, what does it mean that believers have “died with Christ?” In Paul’s language, to die with Christ means to be crucified with him. In other words, believers participate, in spirit, in the death that Jesus experienced in his body. This is what is symbolized in our baptism. We are buried with Christ in death as we go under the water, and we rise again to new life as we come out of the water.

Second, what does Paul mean when he talks about “the elemental spiritual forces of this world?” Interpretations vary. Several translations use the phrase “elemental spirits,” while other commentators use the term “basic principles.” In their respective translations, N.T. Wright and Eugene Peterson opt for “worldly elements” and “pretentious and infantile religion.” It is difficult to say, with precision, what Paul had in mind, but he seems to be talking about paradigmatic human spirituality, which is always full of rules but devoid of spiritual value. Humanity’s basic and universal efforts to be better are useless, and therefore ought to be rejected.

This type of life, bogged down by religious rules and regulations, belongs to the old way of living. When we die with Christ, we die to the fruitless human efforts to become more than we are. Growth, which we have seen earlier in this chapter, is only possible through the power of, and connection to, Christ. Humanity’s rules, which sound like a list of Don’ts, don’t have lasting value because they only function within this world. This kind of asceticism doesn’t actually make us better, because “asceticism has to do with the rudiments of the world and not the riches of the kingdom.”^[i] Asceticism, whether Jewish or pagan, cannot teach us about the kingdom of God because it does not deal with the things of the kingdom. It is focused, often with laser-like precision, on the things from which we must abstain in this life. “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch,” Paul mocks. But abstinence from food or drink do not, in and of themselves, bring us closer to God.

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I used to live in the house across the street from the church where I now minister. When I look out the windows in the back of the church, I can still see our old home and the huge trees towering above it in the backyard. During stormy nights I would lay awake in bed, anxious that these trees would topple onto the roof and crush our family.

In June of 2012 we experienced a kind of storm that I had never heard of before: a derecho. A derecho is a massive thunderstorm system with damaging straight line winds, which in this case reached up to 85 mph. After the storm passed our backyard looked like a jungle. There were tree branches everywhere. Our trampoline was crushed under a massive branch that had fallen at least 30 feet. It was nearly impossible to walk from the back door to the fence at the end of our property. Fortunately, the trees themselves were all still standing. But there sure was a lot of cleanup to do.

Though parts of these massive trees came crashing to the ground, the trees themselves remained deeply and firmly rooted in the soil. For me, this became a picture of the strength we receive when we remain rooted in Christ. Little did we know at the time, but a terrible and deadly storm was looming on the horizon of our family’s life, and we would need those deep roots in Christ to keep us strong and steadfast.

It is vital for believers to be, as Paul said in Colossians 2:7, “rooted and built up in Christ.” This means that we need to have a nourishing, life-giving relationship with Christ, while also being deeply connected to others within our churches. Your root system is your personal relationship with God and your relationships with others. It is crucial for you to invest in these relationships so that your roots will be deep in Christ. When the trials and tragedies of life come, it will be too late to give attention to the relationships that are meant to sustain and nourish you.

One of the most important ways that you can deepen your relationship with God is through prayer. Jesus taught us to pray relationally, addressing God not by his proper name, but with the word Father. Prayer is relational, not transactional. It is not an opportunity to present your grocery list to the heavenly farmer; it is your opportunity to have a heart-level conversation with your heavenly Father. Being rooted in Christ means having a deep and vibrant relationship with God through prayer. Do not wait for life’s derechos to pray. Begin today.

Money is useful, if you have it. You’ve probably noticed how quickly it disappears, though. Riches don’t last because the more money you have, the more expensive life seems to get. But what if there was a wealth that never ran out? What if there were riches that only increased the more you used them? This is the kind of money that truly matters.

Paul never set out to make people financially rich. Instead, he worked hard every day to help his churches become rich with understanding. Paul had discovered the wealth of knowledge in Christ, who he calls the “mystery of God.” He knew that nobody could steal this money, and that the more he gave it away, the more he received in return.

Do you treasure wisdom?

Is knowledge as valuable to you as money?

Or are you broke when it comes to the riches of understanding?

Too many Christians are settling for an elementary level understanding of God. Whether it’s because we’re distracted, lazy, or simply don’t know how to think well, we are impoverished in wisdom and knowledge. We don’t have the capital to purchase discernment on the difficult issues of life and faith. We stagger through life, wrought with inconsistency, burdened with foolishness, yet all the while the full riches of complete understanding are available to us.

God never asks his children to check their brains at the door. Jesus has not come so that we will close our minds, but so that they will be opened wide to the wonders of wisdom and understanding. In Christ, Paul says, are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. There is no excuse for a Christian to be ignorant, foolish, or stupid.

It’s time for you to get to work making money, and I’m not talking about fat stacks. It’s time for you to engage your mind in the person of Christ. It’s time for you to make massive withdrawals from the Bank of the Church, which is rich beyond measure with the wisdom of books and the beauty of art. It’s time for you to discover the treasures of Christ, to unleash the power of your mind, and to bring your wisdom and discernment to bear in a world rife with idiocy. We cannot afford to raise another impoverished Christian. Instead, be rich. And in your wealth, make the world rich.