Colossians 3:1-4 (NIV)
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Those who were trying to derail the faith of the Colossian Christians were trying to get them to focus their attention on earthly, material things: rituals, circumcision, and prayers and spirituality as a means of receiving physical blessings. But Paul is reminding them here that when they turned wholeheartedly to Jesus, they were born again of the Spirit. That means that they simultaneously died to the world and its “stuff”.
There are two areas that Paul urges the Colossians to reset, to refocus on things above. The first is the heart. In the culture of the time, the heart was not considered the seat of emotions as it is today. (Oddly, they placed the seat of emotions in the kidneys!) Instead, the heart was seen to be the seat of a person’s will.
So, what Paul is urging them to do is to focus their will, their plans, the dreams that they were pursuing, on things that are above. To aim their lives toward eternal life in God’s presence, and then take concrete steps each day to progress toward that goal. With that focus of the will away from earthly things, they will be far less likely to be drawn aside by the deceivers.
The second area in which Paul calls the Colossians to focus on heavenly things is their minds, their thought life. Even if a person’s will is focused on things above, if they allow themselves to get in a rut of thinking primarily about earthly things, it will ultimately drag their hearts that direction as well.
Paul is really urging the Colossians to completely reorient the core of their spiritual lives, their direction of focus, desire, and willpower away from the things of this world, fame, fortune, and a luxurious lifestyle. Even if they got those things, they were going to lose them entirely when their lives here on earth ended.
Instead, they were to consider themselves dead to those things, to shift their focus entirely onto eternity, and to live their remaining time on earth for that end. By doing so, they would not only keep themselves from being derailed, they would be investing in a future that they will be able to keep for all eternity.
Father, we really need to be reminded of this shift of focus every day, because our culture specializes in surrounding us with minute-by-minute ads that intend to focus us on the material, the here and now, the pleasurable, the worldly. But every time we let ourselves get sucked into that world-based thinking, we lose a little in the area of our spiritual health and vitality. And it usually takes quite a bit of time, focus, and energy to win back that lost ground. Help us, Lord, to build strong walls around our will, what we purposefully want and what we do to get it, and around our thought life, what we allow ourselves to think about and focus on, so that we can stand before you strong and unashamed when that time comes. Amen.