Sunday July 26, 2015 | Seth McCoy
Since, then, 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.
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 also 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. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
The upcoming Mixed Tape series will be a collection of scripture passages that have moved and inspired the body of Christ over the centuries. In this first message of the series, Seth takes a look at Colossians 3:1-14 and what it means to get our life from being hidden in Christ. We also take a look at our role of choosing to die to the old way of living and not letting it pollute our current reality.
The central symbol of the Christian faith, the cross, is ultimately a symbol of death. We tend to think about and do a great deal in terms of avoiding the physical consequences of death, but often times don’t consider the everyday choices we make that affect our spiritual life. The biblical language used for the area of our inner psyche where we have the ability to choose is our mind or heart. This is what makes us unique as humans – we have the ability to choose what we will set our minds on. We are not to be controlled by our carnal instincts.
Many people become Christians and want Jesus in their life, but after time it becomes only when they need something or it’s convenient. Another way to put it is we want him as a passenger along for the ride, but we never fully surrender to the point where Jesus is in control. If this were truly the case, then we’d be surrendering control of our wallet and where we spend our money, our ego and the ambitions we choose to pursue, and our mouths and what we choose to say or not say (just to name a few). Jesus doesn’t force His way in. It’s up to us as His followers to choose with our heart to surrender our will to His way, trusting that it’s the best possible way to live.
In the scope of eternity, even if we’ve walked with Jesus for 60 years or more, we’re still relative beginners in our relationship with God. Just as with a human marriage, a kingdom life is something that’s built together. As a person’s single life dies when he or she commits to being part of a marriage, so also our old way of life (old nature, flesh life, old man) must die when we say yes to Jesus being Lord of our life. Thus the reason a new life has to be built, we starting fresh. The best news of all is that we get to build this new life with the master of life Himself. He owns it, gives it, and lived it best of anyone ever to walk the earth. Humans like seeds. Just as Jesus was buried in a garden and rose forth with new life, when we die to our old way of life and are hidden (buried) in Christ a new kingdom life can spring forward and grow.
Yes our goal is to see a Jesus looking God and build a Jesus looking Church, but also we should be striving to produce a Jesus looking me. We read in Colossians that we say no to things on the inside (lust, evil desires) as well as things on the outside (anger, rage, malice, lying) in order to say yes to the life Jesus offers to us. We say no to the patterns of daily living that lead to spiritual death and clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, and love. Ultimately, the best way to die is to choose it everyday so we can say yes to the life God has for us.
1. Was there anything in the scripture unclear, or worth further investigation?
2. After hearing the message, what does it mean to you to set your mind on things above?
3. What is the one thing you could do today to set your mind and heart on the things above, the things of God?
4. Is there anywhere that your old way of life is sneaking back in to your present reality? Are there areas that aren’t fully surrendered to Christ’s rule in your life?