If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
Those who have been raised to new life with Christ are to set their minds and desires on heavenly things where Christ reigns beside the Father, rather than on earthly things. To be risen with Him is to be truly converted and dead to the old life of self and sin, a change pictured in baptism as burial with Him and rising to walk in newness of life. Seeking what is above means turning heart, affections, intellect and interests away from the world toward God, yielding self to Him now and living by heaven's order in this life. Christ at God's right hand represents His people before the Father, ever living to intercede for repentant sinners and to enable them to overcome, and He stands as the pattern to whom they are to be conformed. The risen life therefore puts off the old deeds of impurity, anger, malice and deceit and puts on mercy, humility, patience, forgiveness and love, until those whose life is hidden with Christ appear with Him in glory when He who is their life appears.
Verse Words and Setting
If then any are risen with Christ, the command is to seek the things above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God, fixing attention, thoughts, interests and desires on heavenly rather than earthly things, because the former life has ended and the new life is hidden with Christ in God. Those raised with Christ through baptism are pledged by that rising to live this new life with Christ, turning their aims away from earthly things toward the life above.
The command belongs together with setting affection and thoughts on things above and not on things on the earth, for those risen are dead and their life is hidden with Christ in God, and when Christ who is their life appears they will also appear with Him in glory. It is a straight, plain and unvarnished command, given so that none need walk into the trap Satan has placed for the unwary, and those who desire to be like Christ meet it by praying in faith, watching unto prayer, and then believing and singing songs of praise and thanksgiving. It holds out an inducement to faithful service and earnest resistance to temptation as those made new in Christ, calling for the Christian character to reproduce Christ's character in the same love, grace and unselfish benevolence that marked the Redeemer's life. It directs believers to be dead to the world and live in devotion to Christ, not letting worldly or trivial things draw their minds away from God.
The chapter around the command teaches what Christians must do to represent the truth favorably to unbelievers, joining seeking what is above to living in Christ and putting on compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forbearance, forgiveness even as Christ forgave, love or charity as the bond of perfectness, the peace of God ruling in the heart, thankfulness, and the word dwelling richly in wisdom in teaching and singing with grace and doing all in word and deed in the name of Jesus with thanks to the Father. That risen life has put off the old man with his deeds — anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy speech and lying — and has put on the new man renewed in knowledge after the image of the Creator, where earthly and social distinctions disappear and Christ is all and in all. It holds a broader view of the Saviour as Lord and Christ who has all power to give to those who claim belief in His name, meaning to give Him full homage and obedience and growing faith and to understand its deep significance, not half acknowledgment of His right. The third chapter is to be read and studied by young men and young women preparing for service, teaching giving the self first to the Lord for sanctification to His service, taking heed to self and to doctrine, trimming the lamp of the soul and seeking grace and clearness of comprehension from Christ for successful work, and maintaining a godly example and well-ordered life that tells for the truth. This risen life is walking in newness of life after being buried with Christ by baptism into His death and planted together in the likeness of His death and resurrection, something to strive for and press toward without claiming to have already attained perfection, counting all things loss to win Christ and be found in Him with the righteousness which is of God by faith, knowing Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, forgetting things behind and reaching forth to things before toward the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
The command lifts up Jesus as the One in whom hope of eternal life is centered, pressing souls in the valley of decision to confess Christ by taking the steps God has laid down of repentance toward God, faith toward the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and baptism, best administered in pure running water decently and in order without excitement. It was spoken as a baptism sermon for about forty minutes at an outdoor baptism in pure flowing water where nineteen souls were baptized decently and in order, and its call moved hesitant hearers to decide to keep the Sabbath.
It is the voice of Jesus, the Son of God, the Sin-bearer and Giver of eternal life, to His disciples who have risen with Him in baptism, calling those baptized to be true to their vow and to live His life as co-laborers with Him. It is instruction for the church of God to the end of time, meaning true conversion and death to the old life, walking in newness of life with life hid with Christ in God. It requires sternly resisting and cleansing from the soul fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, covetousness which is idolatry, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication, and lying, because the wrath of God comes on disobedience for them, and putting on the new man renewed in knowledge after the image of the Creator. It requires reproducing His character in the same love, grace, and unselfish benevolence by treading His footsteps of self-denial and self-sacrifice, denying self, taking up the cross, and following Him. It requires single-hearted choice, for no one can serve God and mammon, and each must choose of his own free will whether to follow God or Baal, with no compulsion and with the full results of the choice resting on himself; if he chooses the principles of God, respecting and maintaining them, they become a part of his life, molding him according to the divine similitude and becoming in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life, and Christ who understands every temptation turns the cross into a means of eternal happiness.
Risen With Christ
To be risen with Christ is to be truly converted and dead to the old life, with self dying and a new life of heavenly origin imparted when truth is received. The old sinful, self-indulgent character is left behind, with no thread of selfishness drawn into the pattern of life, and life purposes are changed to seek heavenly things and to bring the principles of the new life into daily experience by understanding one's place in the Lord's work. The heart is cleansed from sin and self is crucified, so Christ is placed on the throne where self-indulgence and love of earthly treasure once ruled, and the new man created in righteousness and true holiness is put on, with the image of Christ seen in the countenance, sanctification through the Spirit carried forward in the soul, self-righteousness banished, undivided service rendered, and perfection of character desired. This requires a purified heart, because the heart is the citadel of the person from which come the issues of life or death, and until the heart is purified and given to God no one is fit to have part in the fellowship of the saints. Mere profession of obeying law and gospel while the heart stays carnal, loving and practicing secret sin, with truth never stamped on the heart and the love of the Saviour exercising no constraining power over base passions, breaks this command, for God as the searcher of hearts knows and witnesses those who linger in sin regardless of their souls, even in the most secret things of life. A person who is dead to sin no longer lives as a sinner, but lives the changed life in which Christ takes the place once held by self-indulgence, and God's servants use His abundant provisions to relieve the needs of suffering people whom Christ has bought with His blood.
Rising with Christ comes through receiving Him by personal faith, by which believers live a new life in holy union with Him, justified and sanctified. Through His mercy and gracious love they are chosen, adopted, pardoned, and justified, and Christ becomes their life, so that they are made partakers of the divine nature. Those raised with Christ through faith and baptism are to seek heavenly things where Christ is enthroned at God's right hand, rather than follow worldly ways, theories, customs, and practices, for their new life belongs to Christ and calls them to turn from sinful practices and live as people made new in Christ. The risen life is to be lived in daily pursuit of the Lord and obedience to His instruction, with aims directed toward heavenly things and conduct shaped by His character in preparation for appearing with Him in glory.
Rising with Christ is pictured in baptism as burial with Christ into His death and raising from the water in the likeness of His resurrection. It signifies renouncing sin, dying to the old life and to the world and its temptations, interests, and attractions, receiving forgiveness as new creatures, and walking in newness of life in union with Him. The baptized are pledged to serve God, to live in obedience and no longer careless or devoted to the world, to reject earthly attachments, to seek victory over sin, to put away the sins of the unregenerate heart, and not to form character after worldly patterns, because their life is bound up with Christ. Baptism represents Christ's resurrection and begins a new life devoted to God, in which those risen with Christ live in keeping with that new life and resist temptation.
Those risen are dead, with life hidden with Christ in God until Christ who is their life appears, when they will also appear with Him in glory. They are dead to carnal desires and to fierce, burning passions that consume love and gentleness, kindness and Christian courtesy, dead to the world, its fashions, pride, display, ambition for fame, and temptations, and dead to sin's ruling power, no longer living in sin but sharing in the divine nature. This means mortifying the members upon the earth — fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness which is idolatry that brings the wrath of God on the children of disobedience — and putting off the old man with his deeds with anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication, lying, hasty sharp words, selfishness, fraud, and acting for self-advantage at a neighbor's disadvantage. It means being submerged in Christ and drawing sustenance and support from Him as a present help in every time of need, having Jesus and His life of sacrifice, His precious grace, and the redemption He dearly earned filling the thoughts and calling forth gratitude and praise and words that magnify His undying self-sacrificing love, instead of levity, vanity and trifling conversation, pleasing self and accomplishing objects that suit personal pleasure, and instead of formal religion without a special sense of natural weakness, corruption and vileness. By abiding in Christ they show the world what Christ can do for them, living sincerely as members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King, doing God's will in earth as in heaven, having died in solemn baptismal covenant to come out from the world and be separate.
It is not enough to say I was once converted or to base faith and hope on what one once was, for conversion must bring into a new state before God transforming the entire being, so that old things — quick impatient temper, hate, envy, revenge, spirit of retaliation, pride of heart, emulation, seeking for supremacy — are overcome and emptied out of the heart and not seen in the life. Baptism does not complete Christian life or make a person a graduate, but begins the formation of Christian character in a continuing life of learning in Christ. The risen life requires constant effort, watching unto prayer, keeping the soul firmly united to Christ trusting Him every moment, forcing passage heavenward against the current of sinful indulgences with both oars of faith and works, and putting all powers to work for the Saviour who left His majesty, honor, and riches and gave His life for poor rebellious man. Those risen must leave earthly things farther behind as they advance upward on the way of the cross, which leads upward on an uphill path, resisting the downward pull of the world and of worldly fashions and influences and of carnal professed Christians rushing downward toward death, lest they be carried along with them. The verse applies to living faithfully amid temptation, difficulty, self-denial, and duty under the pledge made at baptism of a life pledged to God's service.
The risen life is lived not by human strength alone but through dependence on the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who have pledged their help, guidance, grace, and cooperation. At baptism believers enter covenant relation with the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, with all heaven pledged to minister to them and to work with them as they live the new life, and with the three great powers of heaven keeping them from falling. Seeking what is above brings the Holy Spirit, who gives them the mind of Christ and equips them to meet God's claims through Christ's merits, removes hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil, reveals in them a character after the divine similitude, and is shown in a sanctified life and in works of righteousness where faith in Bible truth bears good fruit that glorifies God. By consecrating all human capabilities to serve God and to represent the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost on whom they depend, with human agencies united to divine agencies and increased by faith working by love that purifies, sanctifies, and ennobles, they become through heavenly efficiency partakers of the divine nature and workers together with Christ. Seeing those things above requires spiritual discernment, which comes through communion and harmony with Christ, and if Christlikeness has been lost, reconversion and rebaptism and repentance are needed to regain that communion and discernment, filling the heart and mind with rejoicing and praise and thanksgiving to God, and that condition converts sinners.
Seeking Things Above
Seeking the things above means turning mind, affections, heart, intellect, desires, interests and aims away from the world and earthly things toward God and heaven where Christ is seated at God's right hand, so as to grasp spiritual things and cherish the joys of heaven in preparation for future immortal life. It means beginning to live by heaven's order in this life, with powers and faculties guided by the Holy Spirit and devoted to pure, good work, carrying the divine nature into the work. The new life calls for leaving the world's idolatrous practices and sinful desires and practices to live for Christ in purity, with life hidden in God and hope fixed on appearing with Christ in glory, for such sins bring God's wrath. Obeying this call from the heart fills life with grace and peace, so that thoughts and actions accord with God's will, and Christ's abiding love brings harmony and kindness into the home and happiness to those around.
Seeking things above is turning attention from seen and temporal things to unseen and eternal things, realizing what being called in Christ involves and attaining His righteousness by faith as the standard of attainment, so that no one can be satisfied with present attainments. It is yielding the heart to God and deciding to dedicate self to Him now, individually and today, knowing all heaven is at command and having a living Saviour who is substitute and surety, and it requires drawing nigh to God. It is individual because each must give an account of himself to God, and therefore it is not to wait for a revival in the church, special conviction, a Conference meeting, a large company being called forward, or a neighbor's surrender.
Those bought at infinite cost by Christ's death, whom the Father has valued at the price of Jesus, have no right to spend God-given powers, time and talents in serving the world and sin and aiding the powers of darkness, but must fix mind and heart on heavenly things where Christ is at God's right hand. To set the affections on things above where Christ lives is to give the whole heart and undivided affection freely to Him who gave all, while those who do not do this, with the very Word of God open before them, drink up iniquity like water, read God's divine solicitations in a perverted light, and bend their footsteps to certain ruin.
Obeying from the heart means cultivating heavenly affections and yielding wholly to God and giving self wholly to His service, not letting earthly interests come between the soul and God. As heaven and Christ become the focus of contemplation by faith, heaven's attractions absorb and grow stronger, believers grow in grace and knowledge of the truth, and they receive a foretaste of heavenly joy with rejoicing and praise. This heavenly focus fills life and conversation with grace, peace and joy, deepens human love and sympathy, and brings kindness, forgiveness and harmony into the home, so that thoughts, actions and speech show agreement with God's will. It stands apart from worldly vanity, pleasure-seeking and folly, and includes looking for the Saviour and seeking pardon, peace, righteousness and true holiness. Communion with God and contemplation of heavenly things, dwelling on Christ's death at Calvary and themes of eternal importance, transform the soul into Christ's likeness, turn conversation toward heaven and make vain thoughts seem out of place, while strengthening the mind, developing the character, and supporting firm principle and growth in grace and knowledge of the truth.
Seeking is a continual part of Christian work and devotion, a keeping on seeking sustained by continually trusting and abiding in Christ. Through baptismal vows the risen are dead to the world — its customs, ambition, pride and pursuits — with life hidden with Christ in God, and they must keep these truths and their baptismal obligations in mind and live faithfully until Christ appears, when they will appear with Him in glory. This abiding seeking sustains sound, healthy piety and zeal even when iniquity abounds. Affliction can serve this seeking by turning the heart away from the world and its unsatisfying pleasures and inclining it toward heaven's enduring attractions.
Christ at God's Right
The verse points to a real place and a real reign, for Christ is enthroned in heaven at the right hand of God as Lord and Christ with all power, and those risen with Him are to seek heavenly things there and look for the Saviour from there. Believers therefore direct hope and affection beyond this brief, troubled life to life with God and the home of the blessed, turning from earth and earthly things to heaven and heavenly things. Those who belong to Christ have their citizenship above where He sits, and this present life is only a training school to purify them for the inheritance of the saints in light, revealing Christ in faith, purity, godliness and holiness and shining as lights without spot or wrinkle. The same call turns attention toward heaven to become fit for the mansions prepared for those who love Him, keeping His soon coming continually in view in precious probationary time, refusing hearts weighed down by indulgence and the cares of this life, and valuing the heavenly reward in light of the infinite sacrifice made for sinners.
To seek where Christ sits is to understand the deep significance of His right and give Him full homage and obedience with growing faith, not half acknowledgment of His claim upon belief in His name. That broader view of the Saviour joins setting affection on things above and not on things on earth, being dead with life hidden with Christ in God, and appearing with Him in glory when Christ who is the life appears. It joins putting on mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forbearance, forgiveness as Christ forgave, love as the bond of perfectness, the peace of God ruling in the heart, thankfulness, and the word dwelling richly in wisdom in teaching and singing to the Lord.
In the heavenly courts a mighty working agency is at work for believers, for Christ represents them and pleads their cases before the Father. He presents them with His wounded hands as evidence of His right to claim that repentant sinners, however great, are forgiven and enabled to overcome and put away sin by yielding wholly to Him, ever living to make intercession. This seeking belongs to a continuing life of learning in Christ, since baptism does not complete Christian life or make a person a graduate but begins the formation of character to be lived faithfully amid temptation, difficulty, self-denial and duty. It means the heart turned from the concerns and objects of the world to obey the voice of God and live by higher laws than the world obeys, with purposes and pursuits in distinct contrast to pride and selfishness, letting the mind be drawn by the cross from the earthly to the heavenly. It therefore keeps the line of demarcation between church and world plain and distinct, uplifting affections and pursuits above this world to be in the world but not of the world as pilgrims and strangers seeking a better heavenly country, and by that influence taking others along. Nor does it seek needless suffering or stand where duty does not call, but when called it does not enter the frivolities of the world and does enter the suffering part of religion, wherever placed looking to Jesus as Author and Finisher of faith.
To seek things above is to look up to Christ at God's right hand as the pattern to follow rather than fixing attention on worldly models. Remembering creation in the Maker's image, believers labor to be conformed to His perfect character, keeping God's plan of growth and development ever in view instead of taking too narrow and too low a range. In the training of the young this means teaching pupils to follow Christ and grow toward His perfect character, keeping His perfect character before teachers and pupils and laboring for students to become like Him. Lowering the standard to secure popularity and increase of numbers is blindness, for numbers are no evidence of success; prosperity is tested by the degree of moral power pervading the school and by the virtue, intelligence and piety of its people. Without divine grace education makes the learner proud, vain and bigoted, but education received under the Great Teacher elevates moral value with God and enables subduing pride and passion and walking humbly before God in dependence on Him for every capability, opportunity and privilege. Christ is the ladder joining earth and heaven, His humanity reaching fallen humanity and His divinity reaching God's throne, so salvation means looking to Christ, clinging to Him, and growing step by step in faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness and charity, until His wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption are formed in the believer.
Remembering Christ in heaven also recalls that He wrought salvation at a cost too great to describe or fully understand. That remembrance moves believers to seek people outside the fold and bring them the truth, opening new fields where they can hear it.
New Character in Christ
To be risen is to have put off the old self with its deeds and to have put to death what belongs to earth: sexual immorality, impurity, disordered passion, evil desire, and greed which is idolatry, together with anger, rage, malice, blasphemy, foul speech from the mouth, and lying to one another, for God's wrath comes upon disobedience because of such things. It is to be dead to carnal desires and to fierce, burning passions that consume love and gentleness, kindness and Christian courtesy. It is not enough to say I was once converted or to rest faith and hope on what one once was; conversion must bring into a new state before God transforming the entire being, so that old things — quick impatient temper, hate, envy, revenge, spirit of retaliation, pride of heart, emulation, seeking for supremacy — are overcome and emptied out of the heart and are no longer seen in the life. This means permanently subduing and sacrificing pride, self-love, selfishness, greed, love of the world, hatred, suspicion, jealousy, and evil surmising, with purity and rejection of sinful desires and practices, and this moral preparation must be made before Christ appears, for His coming will not be a time to correct these evils or make people fit for it. The converted still face temptation with a tempting devil continually on the track and a strong undercurrent running swiftly to bear him back to the former state of sin to indulge the natural passions of the unrenewed heart, so he must arm himself with faith and prayer to resist, for no heart can be kept pure without being constantly salted with divine grace, and no one can remain converted unless he watches unto prayer, keeps the soul firmly united to Christ trusting Him every moment, forcing passage heavenward against the current of sinful indulgences with both oars of faith and works, putting all powers to work for the Saviour who left His majesty, honor, and riches and gave His life for poor rebellious man.
The risen life puts on the new self renewed in knowledge after the image of the Creator, where earthly and social distinctions disappear and Christ is all and in all. It puts on, as God's elect, compassion, kindness, humility of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forbearance and forgiveness even as Christ forgave, and above all love which is the bond of perfection, letting the peace of God rule in the heart, being thankful, letting the word of God dwell richly in wisdom in teaching and singing with grace, and doing all in word and deed in the name of Jesus with thanks to the Father, leading to appearing with Christ in glory when Christ who is life appears. This heavenly focus is shown in a life of mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness, love, and peace, with the old life dead and the true life hidden with Christ in God. It is walking in newness of life after being buried with Christ by baptism into His death and planted together in the likeness of His death and resurrection, something to strive for and press toward without claiming to have already attained perfection. It means counting all things loss to win Christ and be found in Him with the righteousness which is of God by faith, knowing Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, forgetting things behind and reaching forth to things before toward the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Those baptized have solemnly covenanted to be the Lord's and have risen to walk in newness of life, viewing themselves as dead to sin with life hid with Christ in God, refusing to let sin reign in the mortal body, yielding themselves to God as alive from the dead and their members as instruments of righteousness.
Seeking what is above is shown in a sanctified life and in works of righteousness, for faith in Bible truth bears good fruit that glorifies God, with the Holy Spirit giving the mind of Christ and equipping through Christ's merits to meet God's claims. The Christian character is to be a reproduction of Christ's character, with the same love, grace and unselfish benevolence that marked the Redeemer's life characterizing the lives of His followers. Those raised to newness of life are to live His life as co-laborers with Him and reproduce His character by treading His footsteps of self-denial and self-sacrifice, denying self, taking up the cross, and following Him. This requires single-hearted choice, for no one can serve God and mammon, and each must choose of free will whether to follow God or Baal, with no compulsion and with the full results of the choice resting on himself; if he chooses the principles of God, respecting and maintaining them, they become a part of his life, molding him according to the divine similitude and becoming in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life, and Christ who understands every temptation turns the cross into a means of eternal happiness. This heavenly focus is to shape conduct and associations, so that words and example show the transformation wrought by God's Spirit and reflect Christ rather than frivolity or cheap behavior, with life bound up with Christ's so they grow in holy character, putting away sin and putting on kindness, humility, patience, forgiveness, and love. A new heart shows itself in new motives and conduct, and genuine spiritual renewal leads to a Christlike example for believers and unbelievers.
Seeking things above requires a purified heart given to God, because the heart is the citadel of the person from which come the issues of life or death, and until the heart is purified no one is fit to have part in the fellowship of the saints. Mere profession of obeying law and gospel while the heart stays carnal, loving and practicing secret sin, with truth never stamped on the heart and the love of the Saviour exercising no constraining power over base passions, breaks this command, for God as searcher of hearts knows and witnesses those who linger in sin regardless of their souls, even in the most secret things of life. A heart occupied by sin, deception, and falsehood is not fit for fellowship with the saints. Those who set affections above instead of breathing the atmosphere of the world and being at home with earthly things live as strangers and are misunderstood by the world, but with the eye single to God's glory they are dead indeed to sin and alive to God through Jesus Christ, purified by faith that works by love, made full of light, and fitted to see and appreciate God and the preciousness of Christ, so heaven will be perfect bliss with minds able to dwell on heavenly things rather than unable to bear infinite holiness.
The verse means the heart is turned away from the concerns and objects of the world to obey the voice of God, living by higher laws than those the world obeys, with purposes and pursuits in distinct contrast to pride and selfishness. It calls Christians to keep the line of demarcation between church and world plain and distinct, to let the mind be drawn by the cross from the earthly to the heavenly and to Christ who ever lives to make intercession, to be uplifted above this world in affections and pursuits, to be in the world but not of the world as pilgrims and strangers seeking a better heavenly country, and by that influence to take others with them. Seeking what is above marks a life shaped by the religion of Jesus Christ, rather than by the world's show and illusion. The new life as God's holy, beloved people calls to humility and righteousness, separation from the world's spirit and practices, and learning Christ's meekness, and those who have died with Christ and keep the baptismal vow will not be drawn by the world to deny Him. When life is hidden with Christ in God, believers share Christ's mind and spirit, and this death and resurrection quench ambition to be superior or first and make room for the gifts and abilities of others. This heavenly focus fills the heart with love for truth and makes the line between Christ's people and the world distinct, and living Christ's life makes them partakers of the divine nature, so that when Christ appears they will appear with Him in glory.
Being risen is transformation of character after the divine similitude, in which the Holy Spirit removes hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil and beholding Christ makes the believer like Him. This change produces high intellectual culture and refinement of sentiments and manners, sets affection on things above and not on things on the earth, leaves the believer dead with life hid with Christ in God, and brings the promise that when Christ who is life appears the believer will also appear with Him in glory. It calls for the transforming power of the grace of Christ affecting the heart and character. It connects to the baptismal pledge: believers die to the world and its temptations and rise to live in obedience to God, seeking heavenly things rather than worldly things and forming character after a heavenly, not worldly, pattern. It calls Christians, including mothers who have made a covenant with Jesus, to examine whether they are truly living the Christ-life rather than merely undergoing baptism while still alive to sin and the world, living as one who has died to sin and the world and walking in newness of life in keeping with baptismal vows.
Baptismal Covenant Living
The verse is given for every soul who receives baptism, calling those risen with Christ to walk in newness of life with affection set above and not on earth. In that covenant the baptized solemnly pledge to belong to the Lord, to count the former life dead and the new life hidden with Christ in God, and to refuse to let sin reign in the mortal body. Will, purpose and inclination are pledged to be dead to the world and its temptations, to selfishness and to sin, with the whole life made subordinate to God in obedience. The pledge means seeking heavenly things where Christ sits at God's right hand rather than worldly things, forming character after a heavenly pattern and not after worldly patterns, yielding self to God as alive from the dead with members as instruments of righteousness. It is to be kept without defrauding God, living out mercy, kindness, humbleness, meekness, long-suffering, forbearance, forgiveness as Christ forgave, charity, peace ruling in the heart, thankfulness, and the word of Christ dwelling richly with psalms and songs, until appearing with Christ in glory.
At baptism the whole person of body, mind and soul is pledged in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost to die to the world and submit to God's will. Burial with Christ and raising to newness of life enters the believer into covenant relation with God, taking the Christian name and devoting life to God's service and henceforth living the life of Christ. In that relation the Father, Son and Holy Spirit pledge to work with the baptized, to minister, to cooperate, and to work in and through them. Human capabilities are therefore to be consecrated to serve God and represent the Father, Son and Holy Ghost on whom believers depend, with human agencies united to divine agencies and increased by faith working by love that purifies, sanctifies and ennobles. Through that heavenly efficiency the risen become partakers of the divine nature and workers together with Christ for the salvation of souls.
Keeping the vow calls for humility and cooperation rather than letting trifling differences of opinion part friends asunder. Since no one's opinion is without flaw or infallible, hearts are to be humbled before God, matters talked over together, concessions made to one another, and workers united in doing good. Striving for first place and ambition to be superior must cease, with death to self and life hidden with Christ in God quenching superiority and making room for the gifts and abilities of others. Believers are instead to submit to one another, press together in unity, be faithful at home and in study and loyal to church duties through earnest, fruitful service. God-entrusted capabilities are to be used to lift up Jesus and save souls and to be a strength in the world by active part in the church, rather than withheld in idleness and selfish purposes that register opposition to the great Worker.
Seeking things above cherishes the joys of heaven and prepares for future immortal life. Attention is turned toward heaven to become fit for the mansions Christ has prepared for those who love Him. Especially in the decline of life, when former wrestling can no longer continue, the risen are to seek more earnestly the things above where Christ is at God's right hand. That means becoming passive in God's hands to be used as His instrument, walking in the light and submitting to light so God makes the believer a conqueror. Pushing ahead when God is not pushing and yoking with elements where there is no harmony injures others, injures self still more, and injures God's precious cause.
Those who belong to Christ have citizenship above where Christ sits at God's right hand, with heaven as the center of hope and the eternal reward of those who overcome. This present life is only a training school to purify believers in faith, purity, godliness and holiness, shining as lights in the world. The training aims to make them without spot, wrinkle or any such thing, without blemish at Christ's coming, and meet for the inheritance of the saints in light.
Applied Life and Hope
Obeying the call to seek heavenly things from the heart fills the life with grace and peace, bringing thoughts, actions and speech into accord with God's will. Christ's abiding love in the soul deepens human love and sympathy and carries harmony, kindness and forgiveness into the home, making those around happy. Cultivating heavenly affections and yielding wholly to God is what this obedience means in daily life.
Seeking what is above shapes conduct in business and daily affairs toward truth, strict honesty, liberality and fair and just payment for work. Worldly sharpness, scheming, fraud and self-advantage have no place in religious life, and seeking gain by getting work done for the lowest possible price brings nothing worth facing at the judgment. Every business transaction needs the closest self-criticism, or threads of selfishness will be woven into it and it will become a snare to the feet, even while necessary secular work is still done. Arranging life and business so that self and those connected can serve God fully keeps the mind clear and directed toward heaven, for preparing self and helping others prepare for immortal life is the greatest work of this life and nothing should obscure the vision of heavenly things. Spiritual strength and clear understanding of eternal things require control of appetite and passions, with the mind trained to dwell on elevated, pure and holy themes rather than fixed on low desires. Guarding the affections, binding the soul to Christ with the strongest cords of devotion and love, and making friendship, relationship and everything in this life secondary to the glory of God creates around the believer an atmosphere of heaven's light that safeguards against contamination and exerts a saving power over others. Friendship, sympathy and congeniality with those not right with God, who breathe not heaven's atmosphere and are not in communion with God, draws into darkness, assimilates feelings and fancy to their temperament, leads to love of things from beneath and alienates from things above. Living at a distance from the breath of heaven and the influence of heavenly angels produces a spiritual lethargy gathering year by year that threatens usefulness and the soul even without marked transgression, causing an imperceptible sliding away from God in which the moral sense is stupefied and wrong appears right and right appears wrong; keeping the verse therefore requires standing unaffected by deleterious, virtually irreligious influences, preserving a devotional spirit, maintaining consecration and high spirituality, and having God by the side as an ever-present Friend rather than walking in darkness. Minds too occupied with earthly things in thought and talk, too content to breathe earth's atmosphere and too ready to consult self, turn perception and judgment into wrong channels and enjoy little communion with the risen Saviour, so the call is to more beholding of the Saviour and more talking of heavenly things.
The verse directs teachers to seek heavenly things and follow Christ as pattern, which prepares students to meet the tests and trials of the last days. Learning Christ's ways and methods requires the meekness of His grace rather than confidence that one's own ways need no reform. Young men and women preparing for service are to read and study the third chapter of Colossians, giving self first to the Lord for sanctification to His service, taking heed to self and to doctrine, trimming the lamp of the soul, and seeking grace and clearness of comprehension from Christ for successful work. Obtaining strength from the source of all strength, having Christ formed within as hope and strength of life, and maintaining a godly example and well-ordered life that tells for the truth accompany preaching and measure success by moral power, virtue, intelligence and piety rather than numbers and popularity.
Heavenly focus is shown by turning from pride, vanity, self-love, dress, outward show and giving to appearance the time and attention belonging to the Master's work, to the inward adorning precious in God's sight. Valuing the grace of Christ above gold, silver and costly array, making God the object of supreme regard in light of what Christ suffered to make sinners children by adoption, denying self and taking up the cross, walking before God in meekness and lowliness, praying to be changed into Christ's likeness, and looking to Jesus and learning from Him rather than keeping self prominent belong to this seeking; self-gratification hides Christ from view and leaves those who live for self without knowledge of this heavenly seeking and unready for Christ's coming. Needless clothing and ornaments take resources from the poor and from supporting the gospel and squander opportunities to do good, for God sees whether people seek to glorify Him or exalt themselves, and every person is judged for deeds and motives. Training the mind to dwell on spiritual themes and bringing thoughts and affections under Christ's will redirects selfish, worldly thinking toward spirituality and prepares a person to influence others for good, while letting the imagination wander into forbidden daydreams and romantic fantasies makes a person less useful. Directing conversation, sympathies, love, affection, desires and whole course of feeling toward heaven rather than making human objects the focus of devotion, and cherishing true love for Jesus distinct from sentimental or merely romantic love, is what rising with Christ requires.
Seeking what is above commits redeemed powers to earnest work for sinners' salvation, unselfish Christlike interest in souls, and bringing interests and actions into harmony with eternity. Baptism pledges believers to this pursuit, to grow in spiritual understanding and to order interests and actions in view of eternity. Arousing from ease in Zion and nominal religion, taking Christ's yoke and lifting His burdens with intense ardor that does not flag under difficulties or cool because iniquity abounds, receiving new power and new life from above to meet new satanic working, urging sanctifying truth upon perishing souls, praying earnestly, building hope on eternal realities proved by God's Word rather than suppositions, proving by God's Word and by God's law as moral standard whether in the faith and going to heaven, and bringing property, time, talents and all influence into the work for this time while standing on the borders of the eternal world belong to this seeking.
The verse holds out the inducement that those dead with life hidden with Christ in God will appear with Him in glory when Christ who is their life appears. The command is straight, plain and unvarnished, given so no one need walk into the trap Satan has placed for the unwary. Turning desires from earthly things toward heaven means being dead to the world and living in devotion to Christ, not letting worldly or trivial things draw the mind away from God. Being dead to sin and earthly aims, buried by baptism into Christ's death and raised to walk in newness of life, refusing to continue in sin, and walking worthy of a high calling by earnestly obtaining help and grace from Christ to rightly represent the faith must be shown in words, actions, conduct and public work. This assurance calls believers to be earnest and thankful, to pray in faith, to watch unto prayer, and then to believe and sing songs of praise and thanksgiving.
Those who have been raised to new life with Christ are to set their minds and desires on heavenly things where Christ reigns beside the Father, rather than on earthly things. To be risen with Him is to be truly converted and dead to the old life of self and sin, a change pictured in baptism as burial with Him and rising to walk in newness of life. Seeking what is above means turning heart, affections, intellect and interests away from the world toward God, yielding self to Him now and living by heaven's order in this life. Christ at God's right hand represents His people before the Father, ever living to intercede for repentant sinners and to enable them to overcome, and He stands as the pattern to whom they are to be conformed. The risen life therefore puts off the old deeds of impurity, anger, malice and deceit and puts on mercy, humility, patience, forgiveness and love, until those whose life is hidden with Christ appear with Him in glory when He who is their life appears.
Verse Words and Setting
If then any are risen with Christ, the command is to seek the things above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God, fixing attention, thoughts, interests and desires on heavenly rather than earthly things, because the former life has ended and the new life is hidden with Christ in God. Those raised with Christ through baptism are pledged by that rising to live this new life with Christ, turning their aims away from earthly things toward the life above.
The command belongs together with setting affection and thoughts on things above and not on things on the earth, for those risen are dead and their life is hidden with Christ in God, and when Christ who is their life appears they will also appear with Him in glory. It is a straight, plain and unvarnished command, given so that none need walk into the trap Satan has placed for the unwary, and those who desire to be like Christ meet it by praying in faith, watching unto prayer, and then believing and singing songs of praise and thanksgiving. It holds out an inducement to faithful service and earnest resistance to temptation as those made new in Christ, calling for the Christian character to reproduce Christ's character in the same love, grace and unselfish benevolence that marked the Redeemer's life. It directs believers to be dead to the world and live in devotion to Christ, not letting worldly or trivial things draw their minds away from God.
The chapter around the command teaches what Christians must do to represent the truth favorably to unbelievers, joining seeking what is above to living in Christ and putting on compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forbearance, forgiveness even as Christ forgave, love or charity as the bond of perfectness, the peace of God ruling in the heart, thankfulness, and the word dwelling richly in wisdom in teaching and singing with grace and doing all in word and deed in the name of Jesus with thanks to the Father. That risen life has put off the old man with his deeds — anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy speech and lying — and has put on the new man renewed in knowledge after the image of the Creator, where earthly and social distinctions disappear and Christ is all and in all. It holds a broader view of the Saviour as Lord and Christ who has all power to give to those who claim belief in His name, meaning to give Him full homage and obedience and growing faith and to understand its deep significance, not half acknowledgment of His right. The third chapter is to be read and studied by young men and young women preparing for service, teaching giving the self first to the Lord for sanctification to His service, taking heed to self and to doctrine, trimming the lamp of the soul and seeking grace and clearness of comprehension from Christ for successful work, and maintaining a godly example and well-ordered life that tells for the truth. This risen life is walking in newness of life after being buried with Christ by baptism into His death and planted together in the likeness of His death and resurrection, something to strive for and press toward without claiming to have already attained perfection, counting all things loss to win Christ and be found in Him with the righteousness which is of God by faith, knowing Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, forgetting things behind and reaching forth to things before toward the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
The command lifts up Jesus as the One in whom hope of eternal life is centered, pressing souls in the valley of decision to confess Christ by taking the steps God has laid down of repentance toward God, faith toward the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and baptism, best administered in pure running water decently and in order without excitement. It was spoken as a baptism sermon for about forty minutes at an outdoor baptism in pure flowing water where nineteen souls were baptized decently and in order, and its call moved hesitant hearers to decide to keep the Sabbath.
It is the voice of Jesus, the Son of God, the Sin-bearer and Giver of eternal life, to His disciples who have risen with Him in baptism, calling those baptized to be true to their vow and to live His life as co-laborers with Him. It is instruction for the church of God to the end of time, meaning true conversion and death to the old life, walking in newness of life with life hid with Christ in God. It requires sternly resisting and cleansing from the soul fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, covetousness which is idolatry, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication, and lying, because the wrath of God comes on disobedience for them, and putting on the new man renewed in knowledge after the image of the Creator. It requires reproducing His character in the same love, grace, and unselfish benevolence by treading His footsteps of self-denial and self-sacrifice, denying self, taking up the cross, and following Him. It requires single-hearted choice, for no one can serve God and mammon, and each must choose of his own free will whether to follow God or Baal, with no compulsion and with the full results of the choice resting on himself; if he chooses the principles of God, respecting and maintaining them, they become a part of his life, molding him according to the divine similitude and becoming in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life, and Christ who understands every temptation turns the cross into a means of eternal happiness.
Risen With Christ
To be risen with Christ is to be truly converted and dead to the old life, with self dying and a new life of heavenly origin imparted when truth is received. The old sinful, self-indulgent character is left behind, with no thread of selfishness drawn into the pattern of life, and life purposes are changed to seek heavenly things and to bring the principles of the new life into daily experience by understanding one's place in the Lord's work. The heart is cleansed from sin and self is crucified, so Christ is placed on the throne where self-indulgence and love of earthly treasure once ruled, and the new man created in righteousness and true holiness is put on, with the image of Christ seen in the countenance, sanctification through the Spirit carried forward in the soul, self-righteousness banished, undivided service rendered, and perfection of character desired. This requires a purified heart, because the heart is the citadel of the person from which come the issues of life or death, and until the heart is purified and given to God no one is fit to have part in the fellowship of the saints. Mere profession of obeying law and gospel while the heart stays carnal, loving and practicing secret sin, with truth never stamped on the heart and the love of the Saviour exercising no constraining power over base passions, breaks this command, for God as the searcher of hearts knows and witnesses those who linger in sin regardless of their souls, even in the most secret things of life. A person who is dead to sin no longer lives as a sinner, but lives the changed life in which Christ takes the place once held by self-indulgence, and God's servants use His abundant provisions to relieve the needs of suffering people whom Christ has bought with His blood.
Rising with Christ comes through receiving Him by personal faith, by which believers live a new life in holy union with Him, justified and sanctified. Through His mercy and gracious love they are chosen, adopted, pardoned, and justified, and Christ becomes their life, so that they are made partakers of the divine nature. Those raised with Christ through faith and baptism are to seek heavenly things where Christ is enthroned at God's right hand, rather than follow worldly ways, theories, customs, and practices, for their new life belongs to Christ and calls them to turn from sinful practices and live as people made new in Christ. The risen life is to be lived in daily pursuit of the Lord and obedience to His instruction, with aims directed toward heavenly things and conduct shaped by His character in preparation for appearing with Him in glory.
Rising with Christ is pictured in baptism as burial with Christ into His death and raising from the water in the likeness of His resurrection. It signifies renouncing sin, dying to the old life and to the world and its temptations, interests, and attractions, receiving forgiveness as new creatures, and walking in newness of life in union with Him. The baptized are pledged to serve God, to live in obedience and no longer careless or devoted to the world, to reject earthly attachments, to seek victory over sin, to put away the sins of the unregenerate heart, and not to form character after worldly patterns, because their life is bound up with Christ. Baptism represents Christ's resurrection and begins a new life devoted to God, in which those risen with Christ live in keeping with that new life and resist temptation.
Those risen are dead, with life hidden with Christ in God until Christ who is their life appears, when they will also appear with Him in glory. They are dead to carnal desires and to fierce, burning passions that consume love and gentleness, kindness and Christian courtesy, dead to the world, its fashions, pride, display, ambition for fame, and temptations, and dead to sin's ruling power, no longer living in sin but sharing in the divine nature. This means mortifying the members upon the earth — fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness which is idolatry that brings the wrath of God on the children of disobedience — and putting off the old man with his deeds with anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication, lying, hasty sharp words, selfishness, fraud, and acting for self-advantage at a neighbor's disadvantage. It means being submerged in Christ and drawing sustenance and support from Him as a present help in every time of need, having Jesus and His life of sacrifice, His precious grace, and the redemption He dearly earned filling the thoughts and calling forth gratitude and praise and words that magnify His undying self-sacrificing love, instead of levity, vanity and trifling conversation, pleasing self and accomplishing objects that suit personal pleasure, and instead of formal religion without a special sense of natural weakness, corruption and vileness. By abiding in Christ they show the world what Christ can do for them, living sincerely as members of the royal family, children of the heavenly King, doing God's will in earth as in heaven, having died in solemn baptismal covenant to come out from the world and be separate.
It is not enough to say I was once converted or to base faith and hope on what one once was, for conversion must bring into a new state before God transforming the entire being, so that old things — quick impatient temper, hate, envy, revenge, spirit of retaliation, pride of heart, emulation, seeking for supremacy — are overcome and emptied out of the heart and not seen in the life. Baptism does not complete Christian life or make a person a graduate, but begins the formation of Christian character in a continuing life of learning in Christ. The risen life requires constant effort, watching unto prayer, keeping the soul firmly united to Christ trusting Him every moment, forcing passage heavenward against the current of sinful indulgences with both oars of faith and works, and putting all powers to work for the Saviour who left His majesty, honor, and riches and gave His life for poor rebellious man. Those risen must leave earthly things farther behind as they advance upward on the way of the cross, which leads upward on an uphill path, resisting the downward pull of the world and of worldly fashions and influences and of carnal professed Christians rushing downward toward death, lest they be carried along with them. The verse applies to living faithfully amid temptation, difficulty, self-denial, and duty under the pledge made at baptism of a life pledged to God's service.
The risen life is lived not by human strength alone but through dependence on the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who have pledged their help, guidance, grace, and cooperation. At baptism believers enter covenant relation with the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, with all heaven pledged to minister to them and to work with them as they live the new life, and with the three great powers of heaven keeping them from falling. Seeking what is above brings the Holy Spirit, who gives them the mind of Christ and equips them to meet God's claims through Christ's merits, removes hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil, reveals in them a character after the divine similitude, and is shown in a sanctified life and in works of righteousness where faith in Bible truth bears good fruit that glorifies God. By consecrating all human capabilities to serve God and to represent the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost on whom they depend, with human agencies united to divine agencies and increased by faith working by love that purifies, sanctifies, and ennobles, they become through heavenly efficiency partakers of the divine nature and workers together with Christ. Seeing those things above requires spiritual discernment, which comes through communion and harmony with Christ, and if Christlikeness has been lost, reconversion and rebaptism and repentance are needed to regain that communion and discernment, filling the heart and mind with rejoicing and praise and thanksgiving to God, and that condition converts sinners.
Seeking Things Above
Seeking the things above means turning mind, affections, heart, intellect, desires, interests and aims away from the world and earthly things toward God and heaven where Christ is seated at God's right hand, so as to grasp spiritual things and cherish the joys of heaven in preparation for future immortal life. It means beginning to live by heaven's order in this life, with powers and faculties guided by the Holy Spirit and devoted to pure, good work, carrying the divine nature into the work. The new life calls for leaving the world's idolatrous practices and sinful desires and practices to live for Christ in purity, with life hidden in God and hope fixed on appearing with Christ in glory, for such sins bring God's wrath. Obeying this call from the heart fills life with grace and peace, so that thoughts and actions accord with God's will, and Christ's abiding love brings harmony and kindness into the home and happiness to those around.
Seeking things above is turning attention from seen and temporal things to unseen and eternal things, realizing what being called in Christ involves and attaining His righteousness by faith as the standard of attainment, so that no one can be satisfied with present attainments. It is yielding the heart to God and deciding to dedicate self to Him now, individually and today, knowing all heaven is at command and having a living Saviour who is substitute and surety, and it requires drawing nigh to God. It is individual because each must give an account of himself to God, and therefore it is not to wait for a revival in the church, special conviction, a Conference meeting, a large company being called forward, or a neighbor's surrender.
Those bought at infinite cost by Christ's death, whom the Father has valued at the price of Jesus, have no right to spend God-given powers, time and talents in serving the world and sin and aiding the powers of darkness, but must fix mind and heart on heavenly things where Christ is at God's right hand. To set the affections on things above where Christ lives is to give the whole heart and undivided affection freely to Him who gave all, while those who do not do this, with the very Word of God open before them, drink up iniquity like water, read God's divine solicitations in a perverted light, and bend their footsteps to certain ruin.
Obeying from the heart means cultivating heavenly affections and yielding wholly to God and giving self wholly to His service, not letting earthly interests come between the soul and God. As heaven and Christ become the focus of contemplation by faith, heaven's attractions absorb and grow stronger, believers grow in grace and knowledge of the truth, and they receive a foretaste of heavenly joy with rejoicing and praise. This heavenly focus fills life and conversation with grace, peace and joy, deepens human love and sympathy, and brings kindness, forgiveness and harmony into the home, so that thoughts, actions and speech show agreement with God's will. It stands apart from worldly vanity, pleasure-seeking and folly, and includes looking for the Saviour and seeking pardon, peace, righteousness and true holiness. Communion with God and contemplation of heavenly things, dwelling on Christ's death at Calvary and themes of eternal importance, transform the soul into Christ's likeness, turn conversation toward heaven and make vain thoughts seem out of place, while strengthening the mind, developing the character, and supporting firm principle and growth in grace and knowledge of the truth.
Seeking is a continual part of Christian work and devotion, a keeping on seeking sustained by continually trusting and abiding in Christ. Through baptismal vows the risen are dead to the world — its customs, ambition, pride and pursuits — with life hidden with Christ in God, and they must keep these truths and their baptismal obligations in mind and live faithfully until Christ appears, when they will appear with Him in glory. This abiding seeking sustains sound, healthy piety and zeal even when iniquity abounds. Affliction can serve this seeking by turning the heart away from the world and its unsatisfying pleasures and inclining it toward heaven's enduring attractions.
Christ at God's Right
The verse points to a real place and a real reign, for Christ is enthroned in heaven at the right hand of God as Lord and Christ with all power, and those risen with Him are to seek heavenly things there and look for the Saviour from there. Believers therefore direct hope and affection beyond this brief, troubled life to life with God and the home of the blessed, turning from earth and earthly things to heaven and heavenly things. Those who belong to Christ have their citizenship above where He sits, and this present life is only a training school to purify them for the inheritance of the saints in light, revealing Christ in faith, purity, godliness and holiness and shining as lights without spot or wrinkle. The same call turns attention toward heaven to become fit for the mansions prepared for those who love Him, keeping His soon coming continually in view in precious probationary time, refusing hearts weighed down by indulgence and the cares of this life, and valuing the heavenly reward in light of the infinite sacrifice made for sinners.
To seek where Christ sits is to understand the deep significance of His right and give Him full homage and obedience with growing faith, not half acknowledgment of His claim upon belief in His name. That broader view of the Saviour joins setting affection on things above and not on things on earth, being dead with life hidden with Christ in God, and appearing with Him in glory when Christ who is the life appears. It joins putting on mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forbearance, forgiveness as Christ forgave, love as the bond of perfectness, the peace of God ruling in the heart, thankfulness, and the word dwelling richly in wisdom in teaching and singing to the Lord.
In the heavenly courts a mighty working agency is at work for believers, for Christ represents them and pleads their cases before the Father. He presents them with His wounded hands as evidence of His right to claim that repentant sinners, however great, are forgiven and enabled to overcome and put away sin by yielding wholly to Him, ever living to make intercession. This seeking belongs to a continuing life of learning in Christ, since baptism does not complete Christian life or make a person a graduate but begins the formation of character to be lived faithfully amid temptation, difficulty, self-denial and duty. It means the heart turned from the concerns and objects of the world to obey the voice of God and live by higher laws than the world obeys, with purposes and pursuits in distinct contrast to pride and selfishness, letting the mind be drawn by the cross from the earthly to the heavenly. It therefore keeps the line of demarcation between church and world plain and distinct, uplifting affections and pursuits above this world to be in the world but not of the world as pilgrims and strangers seeking a better heavenly country, and by that influence taking others along. Nor does it seek needless suffering or stand where duty does not call, but when called it does not enter the frivolities of the world and does enter the suffering part of religion, wherever placed looking to Jesus as Author and Finisher of faith.
To seek things above is to look up to Christ at God's right hand as the pattern to follow rather than fixing attention on worldly models. Remembering creation in the Maker's image, believers labor to be conformed to His perfect character, keeping God's plan of growth and development ever in view instead of taking too narrow and too low a range. In the training of the young this means teaching pupils to follow Christ and grow toward His perfect character, keeping His perfect character before teachers and pupils and laboring for students to become like Him. Lowering the standard to secure popularity and increase of numbers is blindness, for numbers are no evidence of success; prosperity is tested by the degree of moral power pervading the school and by the virtue, intelligence and piety of its people. Without divine grace education makes the learner proud, vain and bigoted, but education received under the Great Teacher elevates moral value with God and enables subduing pride and passion and walking humbly before God in dependence on Him for every capability, opportunity and privilege. Christ is the ladder joining earth and heaven, His humanity reaching fallen humanity and His divinity reaching God's throne, so salvation means looking to Christ, clinging to Him, and growing step by step in faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness and charity, until His wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption are formed in the believer.
Remembering Christ in heaven also recalls that He wrought salvation at a cost too great to describe or fully understand. That remembrance moves believers to seek people outside the fold and bring them the truth, opening new fields where they can hear it.
New Character in Christ
To be risen is to have put off the old self with its deeds and to have put to death what belongs to earth: sexual immorality, impurity, disordered passion, evil desire, and greed which is idolatry, together with anger, rage, malice, blasphemy, foul speech from the mouth, and lying to one another, for God's wrath comes upon disobedience because of such things. It is to be dead to carnal desires and to fierce, burning passions that consume love and gentleness, kindness and Christian courtesy. It is not enough to say I was once converted or to rest faith and hope on what one once was; conversion must bring into a new state before God transforming the entire being, so that old things — quick impatient temper, hate, envy, revenge, spirit of retaliation, pride of heart, emulation, seeking for supremacy — are overcome and emptied out of the heart and are no longer seen in the life. This means permanently subduing and sacrificing pride, self-love, selfishness, greed, love of the world, hatred, suspicion, jealousy, and evil surmising, with purity and rejection of sinful desires and practices, and this moral preparation must be made before Christ appears, for His coming will not be a time to correct these evils or make people fit for it. The converted still face temptation with a tempting devil continually on the track and a strong undercurrent running swiftly to bear him back to the former state of sin to indulge the natural passions of the unrenewed heart, so he must arm himself with faith and prayer to resist, for no heart can be kept pure without being constantly salted with divine grace, and no one can remain converted unless he watches unto prayer, keeps the soul firmly united to Christ trusting Him every moment, forcing passage heavenward against the current of sinful indulgences with both oars of faith and works, putting all powers to work for the Saviour who left His majesty, honor, and riches and gave His life for poor rebellious man.
The risen life puts on the new self renewed in knowledge after the image of the Creator, where earthly and social distinctions disappear and Christ is all and in all. It puts on, as God's elect, compassion, kindness, humility of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forbearance and forgiveness even as Christ forgave, and above all love which is the bond of perfection, letting the peace of God rule in the heart, being thankful, letting the word of God dwell richly in wisdom in teaching and singing with grace, and doing all in word and deed in the name of Jesus with thanks to the Father, leading to appearing with Christ in glory when Christ who is life appears. This heavenly focus is shown in a life of mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness, love, and peace, with the old life dead and the true life hidden with Christ in God. It is walking in newness of life after being buried with Christ by baptism into His death and planted together in the likeness of His death and resurrection, something to strive for and press toward without claiming to have already attained perfection. It means counting all things loss to win Christ and be found in Him with the righteousness which is of God by faith, knowing Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, forgetting things behind and reaching forth to things before toward the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Those baptized have solemnly covenanted to be the Lord's and have risen to walk in newness of life, viewing themselves as dead to sin with life hid with Christ in God, refusing to let sin reign in the mortal body, yielding themselves to God as alive from the dead and their members as instruments of righteousness.
Seeking what is above is shown in a sanctified life and in works of righteousness, for faith in Bible truth bears good fruit that glorifies God, with the Holy Spirit giving the mind of Christ and equipping through Christ's merits to meet God's claims. The Christian character is to be a reproduction of Christ's character, with the same love, grace and unselfish benevolence that marked the Redeemer's life characterizing the lives of His followers. Those raised to newness of life are to live His life as co-laborers with Him and reproduce His character by treading His footsteps of self-denial and self-sacrifice, denying self, taking up the cross, and following Him. This requires single-hearted choice, for no one can serve God and mammon, and each must choose of free will whether to follow God or Baal, with no compulsion and with the full results of the choice resting on himself; if he chooses the principles of God, respecting and maintaining them, they become a part of his life, molding him according to the divine similitude and becoming in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life, and Christ who understands every temptation turns the cross into a means of eternal happiness. This heavenly focus is to shape conduct and associations, so that words and example show the transformation wrought by God's Spirit and reflect Christ rather than frivolity or cheap behavior, with life bound up with Christ's so they grow in holy character, putting away sin and putting on kindness, humility, patience, forgiveness, and love. A new heart shows itself in new motives and conduct, and genuine spiritual renewal leads to a Christlike example for believers and unbelievers.
Seeking things above requires a purified heart given to God, because the heart is the citadel of the person from which come the issues of life or death, and until the heart is purified no one is fit to have part in the fellowship of the saints. Mere profession of obeying law and gospel while the heart stays carnal, loving and practicing secret sin, with truth never stamped on the heart and the love of the Saviour exercising no constraining power over base passions, breaks this command, for God as searcher of hearts knows and witnesses those who linger in sin regardless of their souls, even in the most secret things of life. A heart occupied by sin, deception, and falsehood is not fit for fellowship with the saints. Those who set affections above instead of breathing the atmosphere of the world and being at home with earthly things live as strangers and are misunderstood by the world, but with the eye single to God's glory they are dead indeed to sin and alive to God through Jesus Christ, purified by faith that works by love, made full of light, and fitted to see and appreciate God and the preciousness of Christ, so heaven will be perfect bliss with minds able to dwell on heavenly things rather than unable to bear infinite holiness.
The verse means the heart is turned away from the concerns and objects of the world to obey the voice of God, living by higher laws than those the world obeys, with purposes and pursuits in distinct contrast to pride and selfishness. It calls Christians to keep the line of demarcation between church and world plain and distinct, to let the mind be drawn by the cross from the earthly to the heavenly and to Christ who ever lives to make intercession, to be uplifted above this world in affections and pursuits, to be in the world but not of the world as pilgrims and strangers seeking a better heavenly country, and by that influence to take others with them. Seeking what is above marks a life shaped by the religion of Jesus Christ, rather than by the world's show and illusion. The new life as God's holy, beloved people calls to humility and righteousness, separation from the world's spirit and practices, and learning Christ's meekness, and those who have died with Christ and keep the baptismal vow will not be drawn by the world to deny Him. When life is hidden with Christ in God, believers share Christ's mind and spirit, and this death and resurrection quench ambition to be superior or first and make room for the gifts and abilities of others. This heavenly focus fills the heart with love for truth and makes the line between Christ's people and the world distinct, and living Christ's life makes them partakers of the divine nature, so that when Christ appears they will appear with Him in glory.
Being risen is transformation of character after the divine similitude, in which the Holy Spirit removes hereditary and cultivated tendencies to evil and beholding Christ makes the believer like Him. This change produces high intellectual culture and refinement of sentiments and manners, sets affection on things above and not on things on the earth, leaves the believer dead with life hid with Christ in God, and brings the promise that when Christ who is life appears the believer will also appear with Him in glory. It calls for the transforming power of the grace of Christ affecting the heart and character. It connects to the baptismal pledge: believers die to the world and its temptations and rise to live in obedience to God, seeking heavenly things rather than worldly things and forming character after a heavenly, not worldly, pattern. It calls Christians, including mothers who have made a covenant with Jesus, to examine whether they are truly living the Christ-life rather than merely undergoing baptism while still alive to sin and the world, living as one who has died to sin and the world and walking in newness of life in keeping with baptismal vows.
Baptismal Covenant Living
The verse is given for every soul who receives baptism, calling those risen with Christ to walk in newness of life with affection set above and not on earth. In that covenant the baptized solemnly pledge to belong to the Lord, to count the former life dead and the new life hidden with Christ in God, and to refuse to let sin reign in the mortal body. Will, purpose and inclination are pledged to be dead to the world and its temptations, to selfishness and to sin, with the whole life made subordinate to God in obedience. The pledge means seeking heavenly things where Christ sits at God's right hand rather than worldly things, forming character after a heavenly pattern and not after worldly patterns, yielding self to God as alive from the dead with members as instruments of righteousness. It is to be kept without defrauding God, living out mercy, kindness, humbleness, meekness, long-suffering, forbearance, forgiveness as Christ forgave, charity, peace ruling in the heart, thankfulness, and the word of Christ dwelling richly with psalms and songs, until appearing with Christ in glory.
At baptism the whole person of body, mind and soul is pledged in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost to die to the world and submit to God's will. Burial with Christ and raising to newness of life enters the believer into covenant relation with God, taking the Christian name and devoting life to God's service and henceforth living the life of Christ. In that relation the Father, Son and Holy Spirit pledge to work with the baptized, to minister, to cooperate, and to work in and through them. Human capabilities are therefore to be consecrated to serve God and represent the Father, Son and Holy Ghost on whom believers depend, with human agencies united to divine agencies and increased by faith working by love that purifies, sanctifies and ennobles. Through that heavenly efficiency the risen become partakers of the divine nature and workers together with Christ for the salvation of souls.
Keeping the vow calls for humility and cooperation rather than letting trifling differences of opinion part friends asunder. Since no one's opinion is without flaw or infallible, hearts are to be humbled before God, matters talked over together, concessions made to one another, and workers united in doing good. Striving for first place and ambition to be superior must cease, with death to self and life hidden with Christ in God quenching superiority and making room for the gifts and abilities of others. Believers are instead to submit to one another, press together in unity, be faithful at home and in study and loyal to church duties through earnest, fruitful service. God-entrusted capabilities are to be used to lift up Jesus and save souls and to be a strength in the world by active part in the church, rather than withheld in idleness and selfish purposes that register opposition to the great Worker.
Seeking things above cherishes the joys of heaven and prepares for future immortal life. Attention is turned toward heaven to become fit for the mansions Christ has prepared for those who love Him. Especially in the decline of life, when former wrestling can no longer continue, the risen are to seek more earnestly the things above where Christ is at God's right hand. That means becoming passive in God's hands to be used as His instrument, walking in the light and submitting to light so God makes the believer a conqueror. Pushing ahead when God is not pushing and yoking with elements where there is no harmony injures others, injures self still more, and injures God's precious cause.
Those who belong to Christ have citizenship above where Christ sits at God's right hand, with heaven as the center of hope and the eternal reward of those who overcome. This present life is only a training school to purify believers in faith, purity, godliness and holiness, shining as lights in the world. The training aims to make them without spot, wrinkle or any such thing, without blemish at Christ's coming, and meet for the inheritance of the saints in light.
Applied Life and Hope
Obeying the call to seek heavenly things from the heart fills the life with grace and peace, bringing thoughts, actions and speech into accord with God's will. Christ's abiding love in the soul deepens human love and sympathy and carries harmony, kindness and forgiveness into the home, making those around happy. Cultivating heavenly affections and yielding wholly to God is what this obedience means in daily life.
Seeking what is above shapes conduct in business and daily affairs toward truth, strict honesty, liberality and fair and just payment for work. Worldly sharpness, scheming, fraud and self-advantage have no place in religious life, and seeking gain by getting work done for the lowest possible price brings nothing worth facing at the judgment. Every business transaction needs the closest self-criticism, or threads of selfishness will be woven into it and it will become a snare to the feet, even while necessary secular work is still done. Arranging life and business so that self and those connected can serve God fully keeps the mind clear and directed toward heaven, for preparing self and helping others prepare for immortal life is the greatest work of this life and nothing should obscure the vision of heavenly things. Spiritual strength and clear understanding of eternal things require control of appetite and passions, with the mind trained to dwell on elevated, pure and holy themes rather than fixed on low desires. Guarding the affections, binding the soul to Christ with the strongest cords of devotion and love, and making friendship, relationship and everything in this life secondary to the glory of God creates around the believer an atmosphere of heaven's light that safeguards against contamination and exerts a saving power over others. Friendship, sympathy and congeniality with those not right with God, who breathe not heaven's atmosphere and are not in communion with God, draws into darkness, assimilates feelings and fancy to their temperament, leads to love of things from beneath and alienates from things above. Living at a distance from the breath of heaven and the influence of heavenly angels produces a spiritual lethargy gathering year by year that threatens usefulness and the soul even without marked transgression, causing an imperceptible sliding away from God in which the moral sense is stupefied and wrong appears right and right appears wrong; keeping the verse therefore requires standing unaffected by deleterious, virtually irreligious influences, preserving a devotional spirit, maintaining consecration and high spirituality, and having God by the side as an ever-present Friend rather than walking in darkness. Minds too occupied with earthly things in thought and talk, too content to breathe earth's atmosphere and too ready to consult self, turn perception and judgment into wrong channels and enjoy little communion with the risen Saviour, so the call is to more beholding of the Saviour and more talking of heavenly things.
The verse directs teachers to seek heavenly things and follow Christ as pattern, which prepares students to meet the tests and trials of the last days. Learning Christ's ways and methods requires the meekness of His grace rather than confidence that one's own ways need no reform. Young men and women preparing for service are to read and study the third chapter of Colossians, giving self first to the Lord for sanctification to His service, taking heed to self and to doctrine, trimming the lamp of the soul, and seeking grace and clearness of comprehension from Christ for successful work. Obtaining strength from the source of all strength, having Christ formed within as hope and strength of life, and maintaining a godly example and well-ordered life that tells for the truth accompany preaching and measure success by moral power, virtue, intelligence and piety rather than numbers and popularity.
Heavenly focus is shown by turning from pride, vanity, self-love, dress, outward show and giving to appearance the time and attention belonging to the Master's work, to the inward adorning precious in God's sight. Valuing the grace of Christ above gold, silver and costly array, making God the object of supreme regard in light of what Christ suffered to make sinners children by adoption, denying self and taking up the cross, walking before God in meekness and lowliness, praying to be changed into Christ's likeness, and looking to Jesus and learning from Him rather than keeping self prominent belong to this seeking; self-gratification hides Christ from view and leaves those who live for self without knowledge of this heavenly seeking and unready for Christ's coming. Needless clothing and ornaments take resources from the poor and from supporting the gospel and squander opportunities to do good, for God sees whether people seek to glorify Him or exalt themselves, and every person is judged for deeds and motives. Training the mind to dwell on spiritual themes and bringing thoughts and affections under Christ's will redirects selfish, worldly thinking toward spirituality and prepares a person to influence others for good, while letting the imagination wander into forbidden daydreams and romantic fantasies makes a person less useful. Directing conversation, sympathies, love, affection, desires and whole course of feeling toward heaven rather than making human objects the focus of devotion, and cherishing true love for Jesus distinct from sentimental or merely romantic love, is what rising with Christ requires.
Seeking what is above commits redeemed powers to earnest work for sinners' salvation, unselfish Christlike interest in souls, and bringing interests and actions into harmony with eternity. Baptism pledges believers to this pursuit, to grow in spiritual understanding and to order interests and actions in view of eternity. Arousing from ease in Zion and nominal religion, taking Christ's yoke and lifting His burdens with intense ardor that does not flag under difficulties or cool because iniquity abounds, receiving new power and new life from above to meet new satanic working, urging sanctifying truth upon perishing souls, praying earnestly, building hope on eternal realities proved by God's Word rather than suppositions, proving by God's Word and by God's law as moral standard whether in the faith and going to heaven, and bringing property, time, talents and all influence into the work for this time while standing on the borders of the eternal world belong to this seeking.
The verse holds out the inducement that those dead with life hidden with Christ in God will appear with Him in glory when Christ who is their life appears. The command is straight, plain and unvarnished, given so no one need walk into the trap Satan has placed for the unwary. Turning desires from earthly things toward heaven means being dead to the world and living in devotion to Christ, not letting worldly or trivial things draw the mind away from God. Being dead to sin and earthly aims, buried by baptism into Christ's death and raised to walk in newness of life, refusing to continue in sin, and walking worthy of a high calling by earnestly obtaining help and grace from Christ to rightly represent the faith must be shown in words, actions, conduct and public work. This assurance calls believers to be earnest and thankful, to pray in faith, to watch unto prayer, and then to believe and sing songs of praise and thanksgiving.