The Things That Are Above - Meditations on Colossians 3

"If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is 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)

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Based on the fact that believers have been united with Christ, not only in his death, but more importantly in his resurrection and life, Paul commands them to “seek the things that are above” (Colossians 3:1) and to “set [their] minds on things that are above” (Colossians 3:2). There are two things that we need to understand here. The first is what the “things that are above” are; the second, what it means to “seek” and “set our minds on” them. This post will consider the first; the next post will consider the second.

The Things That Are Above

The first things that usually come to mind when we think about heaven are pearly gates, streets of gold, and reunion with friends and loved ones. Perhaps there are harps and chubby little angels in the mix, too. All of these are acceptable when we talk about heaven in our over-spiritualized, post-Christian American culture. But Paul doesn’t allow believers to think about heaven like that. He makes sure that there is no room for misunderstanding. The “things that are above” have nothing to do with heaven unless by heaven we mean “where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” All of the other benefits of that happy place are minimal in comparison to Christ who is the center and focus of every joy and blessing. So, when Paul says to seek or set our minds on the “things that are above,” he means for us to understand these things as the blessings that come from Christ, particularly, the blessings that come from His position at the right hand of God.

God’s Right Hand

The phrase “seated at the right hand of God” is a reference to Psalm 110:1: “The Lord said to my Lord. ‘Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.’” The New Testament takes up this refrain over and over again and attributes it to Jesus. What is its significance?

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Owen's Day - Being Spiritually Minded: Part 1, Chapter 3.5

"To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace." (Romans 8:6)

Last week we saw that the spiritually minded person comes to prayer with genuine faith toward God, love for Him, and delight in Him. We also saw that this person finds a deep spiritual satisfaction in prayer; he prays, not because he must, but because he loves to pray. Before we look at a few more indications of spiritual mindedness, we need to consider a warning.

The Danger of Spiritual Pride

There is a danger that is always looming over the horizon of our best spiritual exercises. We are inclined to feel satisfied with ourselves for having prayed well. Instead of being steeped in humility, as all true grace is, there is a tendency toward spiritual pride. We are always ready to sacrifice to our net and make offerings to our dragnet (Habakkuk 1:16). We find it the easiest thing in the world to put confidence in our flesh. We like to feel that we have done well, and we like others to notice. We like to be recognized and complemented. This sense of satisfaction can, before we know it, turn into pride.

This self-satisfaction is a far cry from the spiritual satisfaction that we addressed in the last post. And it is easy to be deceived by it if we aren't careful to examine our hearts in the matter. The language of spiritual satisfaction is “With the mighty deeds of the Lord God I will come; I will remind them of your righteousness, yours alone” (Psalm 71:16). That of spiritual pride is like the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable, “God, I thank you that I have done such and such,” (cf., Luke 18:11-12). The one is all about God; the other all about self. The one fills the soul with humility; the other fills with conceit. The one casts out all remembrance of what we have done and retains only a sense of what we have received from God; the other disregards what God has done and remembers only what we have done ourselves.

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United with Christ - Meditations on Colossians 3

"If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is 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)

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A New Standard for Relationships
         Sunday morning, we continued the series The Gospel in Real Life by talking about how the gospel impacts our relationships. Pastor Norm walked us through Colossians 3:1-17 and showed us how the gospel doesn’t lower the bar of expectations here, but raises it. It gives us a new standard for relationships. Our affections, attitudes, and actions toward other people should be noticeably different because we know and trust Christ. 

        There are nine imperatives, or commands, in this section; they tell us either what we need to stop doing or, more importantly, what we must begin to do. These are more than the basic childhood instructions that we’re all familiar with (for example, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”). In fact, they go beyond the most profound moral or sociological teaching of every other religion or philosophy. Before we can understand what the apostle Paul is saying in the last seven imperatives, though, we must understand the first two.

Christ’s Fullness and Yours

        Actually, we need to go back a little further still. The first two imperatives (seek and set your minds) are based on the fact that you have been raised with Christ. This is Paul’s habit. He never gives a command without first giving the basis for it. What is fact (what some have called the “indicative” of the Christian life) always serve as the motivation and reason for what must be done (the imperative of the Christian life). 

        The language that Paul uses in these verses is unique. “You have been raised with Christ” is actually only one word in Greek, and it is emphatic: “You have been co-raised with Christ.” The language carries over from Paul’s argument in chapter 2, where this kind of wording abounds.

        

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Owen's Day - Being Spiritually Minded: Part 1, Chapter 3.4

"To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace." (Romans 8:6)

            It’s natural that when you pray, you think about spiritual things. But that doesn’t mean that you are spiritually minded. As we have seen, your thoughts may be prompted by circumstances or religious obligation rather than by a heart in love with spiritual realities and animated by grace. So is there any way to know whether these thoughts come from being spiritually minded or from something else? Here are some suggestions.

 

Faith, Love, and Delight in God

I take it for granted that anyone who has been the recipient of grace will be able to examine his own heart and find genuine faith toward God, love for Him, and delight in Him. When the spiritually minded person prays, these are his primary motivations. Knowing this to be so is part of the inward testimony that John writes about and that Paul says is the ministry of the Holy Spirit (1 John 5:10; Romans 8:16). Sincere faith will be its own evidence; and when our actions are motivated by such faith, they, too, when judged in light of the word, will be their own evidence. But if you settle for mere performance of religious duty without examining your heart, you will not be able to tell whether you are spiritually minded.

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I'm Sorry...Will You Forgive Me?

Is There a Difference?

     I have been pondering the issue of forgiveness a lot lately, partly because I still need to learn how to forgive, and partly because I need to learn how to be forgiven. I don’t mean being forgiven by God, but being forgiven by others and even by myself. It really is a hard thing to do sometimes.

     I was challenged this afternoon by an incident with two of my sons. One of them had made some comments that were derogatory to a friend that was in our home. I called him out on it and told him to apologize. When he said, “I’m sorry” I told him that it might have been better for him to have asked forgiveness. At this point, my other son piped up. He insisted that there was no difference between saying “Will you forgive me?” and saying “I’m sorry.”

     But there is a difference, isn’t there? We might not be able to articulate it very well, but we know it’s there. The simple fact that we don’t usually ask for forgiveness because it’s too awkward is enough to prove this. So what is the difference? Isn’t a genuine “I’m sorry” good enough?

I’m Sorry

     An apology is an expression of one’s regret or sorrow for having wronged another person. To give an apology is a noble thing. It is recognition that you have violated the other person in some way and that your action was wrong. If it’s genuine, it even goes beyond a simple recognition of these facts and includes an appropriate sorrow for the wrongdoing - that’s why we say “I’m sorry.”

     The problem is that genuine apologies are easy to counterfeit. We make it a habit in our household that if one of our children wrongs another, he or she must apologize. But usually this forced apology is not, in fact, an apology. The words are spoken to satisfy our expectations. There is no corresponding sorrow for actually doing anything wrong. “I’m sorry” is really “I’m sorry I got caught and have to tell you. Are you happy now?” There is no concern for the other person. There is no acknowledgement that the relationship has been compromised and no desire to be reconciled.

     So, yes, a genuine, heart-felt “I’m sorry” is much better than a forced or insincere one. But if we are to be biblical, if we are to forgive as God in Christ forgave us (or allow the other person to forgive as God forgave him), then we must get past “I’m sorry.”

Will You Forgive Me?

     “I’m sorry” never goes beyond the person saying the words. It is more about me than about the other person. It requires nothing and asks nothing. It doesn’t matter how the other person responds or whether the apology is accepted or not. It is just a statement of fact about what is going on in my heart.

     On the other hand, forgiveness cannot stop with the offending party. When a person asks, “Will you forgive me?,” he is drawing the offended party into the matter. It is no longer just about one person’s change of heart. It seeks to involve both people in a reorientation towards one another. It is a request for reconciliation.

It is a huge risk to say, “Will you forgive me?” As was said before, “I’m sorry” requires absolutely nothing from the other person. I don’t have to open myself up to them and I don’t have to expect anything in return. I can be sorry with or without their acknowledgment or reconciliation. But forgiveness is another matter entirely. It is something that is entirely out of my control, something that I cannot create by myself. It cannot exist unless the other person grants it. To say, “Will you forgive me?” is to place myself in the hands and at the mercy of another person. It means that I make myself vulnerable to the one whom I have offended.

     This is so much harder than simply saying, “I’m sorry.” It’s no wonder, then, that we don’t ask for forgiveness very often. It feels awkward to open ourselves up to another person in this way. We don’t like being vulnerable. The other person may refuse to forgive, they may use the moment of our vulnerability to retaliate. What happens then? We will be left looking weak, looking like a fool.

     So how are we to overcome our reluctance to speak the words? How do we get over our fear of rejection and retaliation? The answer lies in our understanding of and motivation for forgiveness.

Biblical Forgiveness

     Biblical forgiveness, the forgiveness that we have received from God through the death of Christ, is never simply about the removal of my subjective guilt. It was never intended merely as an anesthetic for remorse. Its goal has always been reconciliation. The removal of subjective guilt is a great benefit; as long as guilt remains, there will never be joy or confidence in the relationship. But that is the point. The guilt and shame of sin is removed so that we might have joy and confidence in our relationship with God. Forgiveness removes the barriers of sin and shame so that an honest, loving relationship can exist between two parties who were once at odds.

     When we begin to view our relationships with other people the way that God views his relationship with us, we should able to approach forgiveness with the same design. My guilt is not merely a feeling of disgust for having screwed up again. It is a violation of a person with whom I am supposed to be in relationship. My offense has compromised that relationship, and it is that fact that should cause me pain. When I come to ask forgiveness, my goal is not to alleviate my emotions, but to restore what has been broken. It requires me to look the other person in the eye, say I love you, confess my guilt and shame, and then ask them to receive me back into fellowship.

     This doesn’t completely remove the awkwardness of asking forgiveness, nor does it guarantee a positive response. What it does do, is to allow us to see the issue from a proper perspective. When the other person, and my relationship with him, is more important to me than the soothing of my own conscience, I am willing to bear whatever scorn might be given. Love for the one whom I have offended, a love that longs for reconciliation, is willing to take every blow.

Love Like Christ

     Once again, I am brought back to the only place where a believer can find the strength to love, to forgive, and to be forgiven. My forgiveness came at the cost of the blood of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:7). He was wounded for my transgressions, crushed for my iniquities (Isaiah 53:5). He willingly suffered every blow, every nail, all of the wrath of God on my account, because he loved me (Galatians 2:20). When I fix my eyes on him and set all of my heart to love and trust him, he gives me strength to love my neighbor, my now offended friend.

Related articles

• The Radical Nature of Forgiveness*

The One Sure Sign

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“But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.” (Deuteronomy 18:20-22)

These words contain a serious warning to those who take it upon themselves to speak on God's behalf - and there is no shortage of people who do. It was only a few months ago when, according to Harold Camping, the Judgment Day was supposed to occur. Others might not be so bold as to make such an astounding claim. They may, instead, insist that natural disasters, such as the tornado that ravaged Joplin, Missouri on May 22, are the judgment of God.

Still others, and this perhaps proves to be the largest population of false prophets, deal with smaller, less significant, matters. Borrowing their theology from pop culture and bad tradition, they teach people a religion that has no foundation in the Bible. They create divisions within the church, cause believers to waver in their faith, and lead people away from the truth of the gospel. The New Testament writers are no less severe with their condemnation of such people (cf. Galatians 1:8-9; 1 Timothy 1:6-7, 6:3-5; 2 Peter 2:1, 12, 17).

This is not just a warning to would-be prophets, though. The concern is not so much about the consequence of speaking falsely on God's behalf. It is about preserving and protecting God's people. We know, from our own experience, that we can't simply take a man's word for it when he claims to be speaking for God. So God provides a litmus test, a way to know for sure whether the man in front of us is truly speaking God's word: if what he says comes to pass, he is genuine; if it does not, he is a liar.

But let's look a little deeper still. Are these verses, at bottom, really about the prophet at all? Aren't they really about God? Might not God be using this warning as a means to teach His people something about Himself? I think that just might be the case.

Read the verses that immediately precede the warning: "I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him" (Deuteronomy 18:18-19).

The warning about false prophets sits in contrast to the promise of another prophet like Moses. By giving the litmus test, God is reinforcing the truth that the new prophet would, indeed, come. And come he did. His name was Jesus Christ (Acts 3:22; 7:37), the one in whom all of God's promises are guaranteed (1 Corinthians 1:20).

All of God's promises are marked by this proof: they come to pass. There is no way to conceive of a promise from God that would fail to come true. This is so certain that God says  that the one evidence that a word is counterfeit is that it fails to happen. God gives no counterfeit promises.

Related articles

• Owen's Day - God's Promises are Guaranteed, Part 1
• Is God Judging Joplin? Thoughts About Natural Disaster and the Sovereignty of God (Part 1)

Owen's Day - Being Spiritually Minded: Part 1, Chapter 3.3

"To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace." (Romans 8:6)

Circumstantial Prayers Don't Prove Spiritual Mindedness

Prayer, even if it produces spiritual thoughts, does not prove that a person is spiritually minded. If the only time, or even if most of the time, our thoughts are turned to spiritual things in prayer is when the events and circumstances of our lives push us in that direction, our prayers will not help us to grow spiritually. They will not help us to develop humility, holiness, and obedience. It is astonishing that we have the ability to pray much, and at times pray fervently, and yet be at a standstill in our spiritual growth. The problem is not that God has changed. "The Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear" (Isa. 59:1). He is the same as when the saints of old cried out to Him and were delivered, when they trusted in Him and were not put to shame. "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever" (Heb. 13:8). Prayer, too, is the same today as it was then and will never lose its power as long as this world remains.

Why is it, then, that there is so much prayer among us with so little success? If our prayers were successful, we would be able to say with David, "On the day I called, you answered me; my strength of soul you increased" (Ps. 138:3). But there are many who pray very consistently, and in a way that seems to be very spiritual, without ever receiving this strength in their souls. There is a defect somewhere because their prayers don't produce the spiritual vitality and growth in grace that should accompany them. Of course, if a person does not receive a specific answer to his sincere prayers, it is not an absolute indication that there is a defect in his praying. God may have other plans for him. But how a person should continue to pray in general according to the will of God and yet not thrive at all in spiritual strength is hard to conceive.

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