“If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. “

“seek those things which are above”

“Seek” is the first of many commands in the remaining practical section of Colossians. “Seek” means to pursue, search for, endeavor to obtain, desire to possess. If a legalist were writing this, he would write, “Don’t….,” but Paul writes, “Seek …” God wants us to apply our eternal privileges to time, to how we currently live the Christian life. Make those privileges our scope of daily living. Center our lives on the ascended and glorified Christ.

God wants us to understand our rights in Christ, our position in Christ. This discernment takes study and effort. Most Christians want fun when they come to church — “Come to our laugh and play club.” Others prefer misery — “Come to our rules and regulation club.” God wants us to conform to our position in our daily life. Everyday life is to conform to this position.

The Greek tense for “seek” indicates that this seeking is to continue throughout the Christian life. The word “seek” is also a command for God calls us to function in relation to the fact.

“Things which are above” are heavenly — our positional truth. A daily attitude of seeking the things of positional truth will afford daily communion with the Lord.

The following verses explain how to go about seeking things above. Non-Christians are earth-bound, secular, materialists. They operate in a world of taste, see and feel. They spend all their time trying to keep body and soul together. That is life to them. They do not know that there is more to life than that. For the Christian, their life is Christ (v.4). This life is far more than existence. When we center our lives on Christ, life takes on a purpose, a life worth living.

The Bible is the mind of God reduced to writing. We have what we need for the Christian life in writing. We have the Holy Spirit to help us dig it out.

Principle:

Every spiritual position is for the taking by faith, and every spiritual function is for the action of faith.

Application:

God grounds our holy walk in two spheres:

1. Godly living grounds its faith in Christ’s accomplishments.

2. Godly living is governed by a continual exercise of faith in Christ’s accomplishments.

God wants us to rest on what Christ has done, not on what we do. Everything we have before God is because He incorporated us in Christ at our salvation. The Christian experience must relate to our position in Christ.