Seeds for 3/15/2023 - Colossians 3:2

Scripture: “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.”

Observation: Today is a continuation of yesterday’s basic observation that being “raised with Christ” calls us to change the setting of our heart from things of the world to “things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.”

Paul starts by instructing the Colossians, and us, to “set your hearts on things above.” What we desire and love shapes us deeply. Paul begins with the heart, but he does not ignore the mind.

The most straightforward observations from the text for today, to me, are (1) that it isn’t enough only to set our hearts on things above, we must attend to our minds as well, and (2) the simple contrast between things above and earthly things.

The mind is critical. Paul writes in his letter to the Romans, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” As C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity, God wants us to have “a child’s heart, but a grown-up’s head. He wants us to be simple, single-minded, affectionate, and teachable, as good children are; but He also wants every bit of intelligence we have to be alert at its job, and in first-class fighting trim.” Our discipleship includes the heart and the mind, converted to Christ and continuing to mature in Him by setting them on “things above.”

The contrast of “things above” versus “earthly things” is powerful in its plainness and directness. You may have heard the saying that some people are so heavenly minded they’re of no earthly good. On the one hand, we can think of a certain sort of person who sees heaven as God’s plan to help us escape earth. So, the critique is good as far as it goes. But an escape-based view of heaven is impoverished and inadequate.

A scriptural understanding of heaven is represented well in the prayer Jesus taught us: “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” That prayer promotes a picture of heaven and earth as realms intended to overlap, where God’s will is lived out by His people. It turns out that we can’t be of much earthly good without being heavenly minded!

Setting our minds on things above and not on earthly things welcomes God to cultivate our kingdom imagination. With our renewed minds set on things above, we are able to discern and work for His “good, pleasing, and perfect will” to be done “on earth as it is in heaven.” With our minds set on earthly things, we have no kingdom vision.

Application: What helps you renew your mind in Christ? How have you experienced God growing your “kingdom imagination” as you set your mind on things above?

Prayer: Lord, set my mind on things above, that my it might be renewed and that my imagination might be formed for faithful service to you. Amen.

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“But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:23)

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