Scripture Daily

Context No. 1124 of 4322 · Colossians

Context · Reflection

Colossians 3:1-11: in context

1If then you were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God. 2Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth. 3For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ, our life, is revealed, then you will also be revealed with him in glory. 5Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6For these things’ sake the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience. 7You also once walked in those, when you lived in them, 8but now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and shameful speaking out of your mouth. 9Don’t lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his doings, 10and have put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator, 11where there can’t be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondservant, or free person; but Christ is all, and in all.

Paul draws the practical conclusion from the gospel. If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is seated; set your minds there, not on earthly things, for you have died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God, and when he appears, you will appear with him in glory. Then the double command: put to death what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, evil desire, greed which is idolatry, and put away anger, malice, slander, filthy talk, lying. You have taken off the old self and put on the new, being renewed in the image of your Creator, where Christ is all and in all.

The foundation of the whole passage is a startling statement of identity: you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Your truest self is no longer defined by your circumstances, your reputation, or even your visible performance; it is hidden, safe, out of sight, tucked away with Christ in God, and it will only be fully revealed when he appears. That is enormously freeing. If my real life is hidden with Christ, then I do not have to secure it, defend it, or prove it here; it is already safe in the one place nothing can touch. And out of that security comes the double movement of the Christian life: put off and put on, take off the grave-clothes of the old self, greed and anger and lying, and put on the new self being remade in God's image. Notice the order: because you have already been raised and hidden with Christ, therefore put off and put on; the effort flows from the identity, not the other way around. We do not put off the old self to become new; we put it off because we already are. And in that new self, all the old dividing lines dissolve, for Christ is all and in all.

Do I live from the security that my real life is already hidden with Christ in God, and does that identity fuel the daily work of putting off the old self and putting on the new?

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