Sometimes there’s a knock on this heavenly-mindedness that Paul’s calling for, as if it’s a kind of betrayal of the earth, minimizing how important things are here and now, a distraction from our calling here and now to serve God in this world and this life. And I’m sure people have been guilty of that in the past, from indifference or inaction with real opportunities and real needs around them.

Set Your Minds Above

Let’s take a closer look at one of my favorite places in the Bible. Colossians 3:1–4. Paul writes,

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

A couple of basics right up front. One, there’s a command that Paul gives right at the center of this section of verses. He says to “set your minds on things that are above.” This is basic Christianity right here: a discipline of focus, of perspective, cultivating a vision for the world to come that’s been promised as the ultimate future for all of God’s people.

Paul’s calling us to a kind of spiritual discipline that meditates on the promises that God has given to us that we haven’t seen yet and something we haven’t experienced yet but that’s crucial for our new identity in Christ.

The second thing I notice here is that this command is rooted in who Jesus is to us. “Set your mind on things above, not on things that are on earth.” Why? “Because you’ve died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Our life before—the old self, the life that died—wanted everything it could get out of this world right here, right now. It’s all about kingdom building here. All about squeezing as much goodness, as much status, as much power, as much wealth as we could. That life is dead now. Through Jesus we recognize that that life was dead already. It had no hope, no future, nothing lasting. And in Christ, we found something far greater.

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