October 16, 2024 - Colossians 3

“Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.  Keep thinking about things above, not things on the earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (3:1-3).  You know, the older I get, and I think this is just normal, the more these words mean to me.  I remember that Jesus told us to lay up treasures in heaven, not on earth where moths destroy and thieves steal.  Paul is writing to the Colossian church and writes “If you have been raised with Christ.”  Sort of a rhetorical statement, isn’t it?  Paul has already affirmed that these are those “Having been buried with him in baptism, you also have been raised with him through your faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead” (2:12).  Wow, we live in uncertain times.  Every day brings its own troubling news.  Our physical bodies are wasting away.  We are like the grass of the fields, here today and gone tomorrow.  Right there is all the incentive we should need for “seeking the things above, where Christ is” and when “will be revealed in glory with him” (3:4).

Ye faithful souls, who Jesus know,

If risen indeed with Him ye are,

Superior to the joys below,

His resurrection's power declare.

There your exalted Saviour see,

Seated at God's right hand again,

In all His Father's majesty,

And everlasting might, to reign.

Your real life, with Christ concealed,

Deep in the Father's bosom lies;

And, glorious as your Head revealed,

Ye soon shall meet Him in the skies.   --Charles Wesley (18th century)