Colossians 3:1-3 says "If then you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God."
What do you think it means to seeking the things above and set your mind on the things above?
What do you think that your life is hidden with Christ in God means?
To me, this is about where our focus is. Is our focus simply on the material and the here and now. Or are we thinking about God's kingdom and his righteousness as it says in Matthew 6:33?
The words "If then" can also be translated "Since" which is a wonderful promise.
Since we have been raised up with Christ...keep seeking the things above.
I consider that we seek God's glory. We set our minds to seek God's glory.
This section gives us the idea of "Already, but not yet."
Our position is to sit at the throne of God, but we are not physically there yet. So we seek that the King might be glorified and we set our mind to the task of glorifying our King.
Our life is presently on this earth, but our position as a child of the King is found in Christ.
In Galatians 2:20 Paul tells us:
"I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet, not I, but Christ lives within me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me."
That, by the way, is my favorite verse. It perfectly expresses our position with God. How can we not rejoice and lift up our voice in praise? How can we not shout out the Amen!
Amen and Amen!!! This is fantastic! But I first have to say I have been REALLY blowing it of late...I feel like crap, and I not only apologize for being offensive, but Im really angry with myself for being so easily taken out of this position...(not judicially positionally, so to speak, as we stand in the righteousness of Christ...the REALITY of those great verses you posted)...But in practice, my 'posture' of position. I guess part of it is expecting persecution from the obvious parts of the world, but ONLY from there, and forgetting it can come from many other sources as well, and it's sometimes allowed by God to test us, and my reactions are what matters, and they've been horrible. Amazingly enough, its verses like these that are the very thing that can and should be used at times to help avoid falling into the unGodly position of a bad attitude and behavior. If I'm fully believing and 'immersed' in Colossians3:1-4, and YES, Galatians2:20 !!!...(ALSO one of MY all time favorite verses, thank you, Menno, it has been a valuable passage in my life many times, a place of refuge and encouragement) then that shield of faith, God's Word applied, is able to quench the fiery darts that fly.
And thanks jsimms435 ... Would you believe I was just at a conference, and the opening speaker gave a wonderful talk on heaven being our real home, and this passage from Colossians3 was his theme, and what he opened the conference with! :disgonbegood:
I'm also thinking of that great chapter, Romans8 , first with verse1, no more condemnation, verse 34, Jesus being risen, seated at the right hand of God, making intercession for us, and the chapter summary, that we can never be separated from Gods love which is in Christ. And where are we? In Christ. And where is He? Like you said, Seated in the heavenlies! Col.3:1-3 ↑ and Eph.1:3 !
What an awesome God and Saviour we have, Thank you, Lord Jesus!
Thank you brothers, for the encouragement,
and I pray every reader to this thread gets abundantly blessed!
Just to add...
We can find great assurance in these passages that prophetically we WILL be there, because positionally, we already are!
(this is another great reason for believing osas is true...imo.
I think some debates are often just a misunderstanding of it)
