Dr. Ron Sumners
June 5, 2011
In an old "Candid Camera" episode, an actor is on a busy sidewalk and begins looking at the ground. After a couple of minutes, he decides to get down on his hands and knees and begin feeling around with his hands. People begin to slow down to watch what he is doing. Finally, one person stops and starts looking at the ground. Then another one begins searching the sidewalk.
In a few minutes, the camera shows about a dozen people looking down, some even on their hands and knees. At that point, the actor, who got all this started in the first place, quietly gets up and walks away. No one notices that he has left. They are so intent in their search that they never even asked what he was searching for.
This is a good picture of how many people live in our society today. They are searching for something because they know there has to be more to life. But they will never find it if they do not know what is missing! Today, we are looking at Colossians 3:1-11. Paul challenges us to find what is missing. To do that we must:
Look up (1-4)
Look out (5-9a)
Look in (9b-10)
Look around (11)
In this chapter of Colossians, we move from doctrine and philosophy to conduct. It is as if Paul is saying, "If all the things I have taught you are true; this is how you ought to live your life!" In other words, what we believe should affect how we behave.
In Colossians we have learned that if we get Christ right we get everything else right. Jesus is supreme over His creation, His church and over each of us who are believers. There are practical implications that should be evident if one surrenders to the supremacy of Jesus. We have to move from principle to practice. It does little good if we can declare the truths of faith if we do not live it! Titus 1:16 has Paul saying about Christians, "They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny Him.”
Warren Wiersbe reminds us that the pagan religions of Paul’s day taught little or nothing about personal morality. He says, "A worshipper could bow before an idol, put his offering on the altar and go back to the same old lifestyle of sin. What a person believed had no direct relationship with how he behaved.” (The Bible Exposition Commentary, Page 133) Christianity is much different. Duty is always connected to doctrine. Paul had been arguing that we are set free from the powers around us, now he tells us that we have been set free for living a life above moral reproach. God's plan is to first make us new; then He challenges us to live as new people; In short, we don't have to be like we have always been. We can break free from the past, if we know where to look.
LOOK UP!
Instead of gazing at the ground, we must first look up. We see in Colossians 3:1-4, "Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your heart on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
Set your mind 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."
Paul admonishes us to fix our attention on things above. I know you have heard the phrase, "He's so heavenly minded that he's no earthly good!" That is possible, but I believe that just the opposite is true with most of us; we are so earthly minded that we are no heavenly good! If we really set our attention on things of God's Kingdom, we will experience power and freedom here on earth. The word "set" means to seek something out with a desire to possess it. Seeking the things above is the daily quest of the Christian. Jesus put it this way in Matthew 6:21, "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." If our focus is on things that will ultimately rust, tarnish, break down, or burn up, our energy and emotions will be misplaced. If we seek out Christ and allow Him to become our ultimate treasure, our hearts will follow.
Knowing that “Christ is seated at the right hand of God" provides a much-needed reminder that Jesus is supreme and in control. This phrase echoes Psalm 110:1. "The Lord says unto my Lord: 'sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet."' The redemptive work is complete and Jesus sits at the right hand of God. The false teachers stressed "heavenly things" also, but Paul was appealing to the highest power of all - Jesus Christ.
The first imperative is to “set our hearts on things above." The second I to “set on things above, not earthly things." This literally translates, “Keep on thinking, as a matter of habit, on things above."
Our feet must be on the earth, but our minds must be in heaven. Thoughts can influence actions, so, if we place our thoughts above and not on the earth, our behavior will reflect those things that matter to God. This requires tenacious effort on our part because we tend to look down, by nature, instead of looking up. We need to put our brain in gear by focusing on those things that are spelled out in Philippians 4:8: "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think on such things." By seeking what God desires, we have the power to break our obsession with pleasure and the accumulation of things. In verse 3-4 we are given five reasons for looking up:
First, (3a) we have died with Jesus Christ on the cross and are raised to walk in a new way of life. As a result, we cannot live like we used to. Galatians 2:20 tells us, "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." Because we have died with Christ, we should lose our desire for worldly pleasure. ·Our old nature is dead and we now live by the standards of the God who loves us.
Second, (3b) our life is hidden with Christ. To have our life hidden with Christ gives us peace and satisfaction and security. The image here is of a treasure that has been safely stored away in a secure place. Like seeds put into the ground, our real lives are hidden from the world, only to be revealed when Christ returns. Our new life is a mystery to those who do not understand spiritual matters. 1Corinthians 2:14 says, "The man without the spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned."
Third, (4a) Christ is our life. In a very real sense for the believer, Christ is what life is all about. Without Him we would be dead in our sins. In John 14:6, Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life..." By realizing that Jesus is our life, we can have a new attitude about anything that happens to us. If He is truly our life, we have nothing to fear!
Fourth, (4b) Christ will come again. Since Jesus is coming again, it only makes sense that we should be looking up on a continuous basis. The phrase, "When Christ appears," shows that Christ is definitely coming again. The only thing in doubt is the time. We don't know when, therefore we must always be ready!
Fifth, (4c) we will appear with Him in glory. The verb "appear" means "to make visible that which is invisible." When Christ returns, the real position of the believer, which has been hidden from the world, will be made known. When Jesus is revealed in His glory, we shall be totally transformed according to 1John 3:2, "...But we know that when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is."
Paul is urging us to look up and remember who we are now, who we once were, and who we will be when Christ returns.
LOOK OUT!
Not only must we look up, we must also look out. We see this in verse 5-9a: "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature; sexual 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. But now you must rid yourselves of a all such things as these; anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other ..."
Colossians 3:5, in The Living Bible, reads like this; "So, put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you." Because we have died and been raised with Christ, we have the spiritual power to slay those desires that want to control us. We have died to sin, but we must render sinful desires powerless. While we cannot totally eradicate the sinful nature, we can fight against it every day. The new life calls for more than just getting rid of a few vices and going to church once in a while. We have died with Christ to our sinful nature and now we have to live it out practically!
Paul wants us to look out so he lists several sins in verse 5. We must slay these with the same passion as did Phinehas. Any time we see these desires awakened in our life, we need to do away with them. Phinehas did not lecture the man about his sin; he destroyed it. We must not debate the forces of sin; we too, must totally destroy them! We are not to experiment with them or play around with them, rationalize them or even explain them away. We are to kill them! We are to run the spear right through them.
God's wrath is balanced within his holiness by mercy, compassion and love. He is repulsed by sin and yet he is committed to us in love. Jesus will give you grace but he also tells the truth about your sin because he comes to us with grace and truth! Just as he told the woman caught in adultery to “go and sin no more," so too, he calls us to look out and stop what we are doing so we can follow him.
Verse 7 reminds us that this kind of sinful behavior belongs to our old life, “You used to walk in these ways," Paul says. Before we can put on the new; we have to take off the old! Before the new garments of righteousness can be put on; the old rags of sin must be discarded.
LOOK IN! ·
After looking up and out, if we are serious about breaking free from the past, we must also look in. We do this by recognizing the truth about what happened at conversion. Look at the last parts of verses 9-10, "Since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in the image of its Creator."
We are created in the image of God but because of our sin, that image has been defaced. God's purpose is to restore his image in us. Warren Wiersbe put it this way, "We were formed in God's image, and deformed from God's image by sin. But through Jesus Christ, we can be transformed into God's image once again."
LOOK AROUND!
That leads to the fourth aspect of breaking free from the past: we must look around and see others as Christ sees them. Verse 11, "Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all and in all!" The word "here" indicates that in Christ there are no barriers of nationality, race, education, social standing, wealth, gender, religion, or power.
The Gospel breaks down the walls of prejudice. Stop looking down! Stop looking for things that can never satisfy. Instead seek Christ by looking up... and live by looking out, looking in, and looking around.
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