The Essence of Life in Christ: Seek the Things Above (Colossians 3:1–4)

Here the holy Apostle first: A) presents Christian life as it ought to be in itself, without relation to the external circumstances of the believers (Col. 3:1–17); and then: B) indicates what it ought to be in Christians in their various external circumstances and conditions (Col. 3:18–25, 4:1–6).

A) Christian life apart from the external circumstances of Christians (Col. 3:1–17)

Here the holy Paul indicates: a) the essence of life in Christ Jesus—that it should be separated from all earthly things and absorption with Christ in God (Col. 3:1–4); in consequence of this, in reality it manifests itself as: b) the mortifier of passions and the acquirer of every virtue: this is its work, by laboring in which, it finally attains the ultimate limit of active perfection: love and peace (Col. 3:5–15); c) the means to advancement in such a life are offered as the enriching of the mind with knowledge of the word of God, prayer, and doing all things in the name of the Lord Jesus (Col. 3:16, 17).

a) The essence of life in Christ Jesus (Col. 3:1–4)

This essence consists: aa) in the seeking of what is above—the heavenly, the eternal, the divine, with separation from what is earthly, temporal, and created (Col. 3:1, 2); bb) the foundation why it ought to be thus—in the fact that believers die to all things and their life is hidden with God in Christ the Lord (Col. 3:3); and: cc) the incentive to such detachment is drawn from the conviction that otherwise one cannot appear in glory when Christ the Lord appears (Col. 3:4).

Col. 3:1. If therefore you were raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God.

“If” means if. The Apostle does not raise the question of resurrection with Christ with any doubt in his thought, but asserts it certainly and places it as the foundation for the conclusion—seek what is above, think on heavenly things. “Then” is a particle indicating conclusion. Whence is it concluded that we have been raised with Christ? From Col. 2:12, where it was said that in holy baptism we were buried with Christ and were raised with Him. From this position the Apostle previously drew: “If you have died with Christ” (Col. 2:20); but now he makes another conclusion: “if you have been raised.” But the first conclusion was concerning knowledge: if you died with Christ to all material things, why then seek supports for your convictions and hopes in anything material? But this second concerns the practical side—Christian life: if you have been raised with Christ, seek what is above. That we have been raised with Christ is derived from the power and significance of the mystery of baptism; from the same fact that we have been raised, a new conclusion is made: “seek the things that are above.”

What it means to seek what is above is determined by what it means to be raised with Christ. In the Epistle to the Romans the holy Paul defines resurrection with Christ thus: “As Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom. 6:4). To walk in newness of life will mean to seek what is above. But what does it mean to walk in newness of life? To walk in opposition to the old way of life. The old life began with the fall, when man departed from communion with God, for which he was destined, and descended into self-will, sensuousness, and love of creation. The renewal of life is to enter again into living communion with God through the rejection of self-will, sensuousness, and love of creation. To remain in this order of life will be to walk in newness of life, and further—to seek what is above. To seek what is above therefore means to strive with all effort to remain always in living communion with God. For what is higher than God? And having sought and found God, what higher can the seeker seek? Wherefore the prophet David cries out: “Your face, Lord, I seek; do not hide Your face from me” (Ps. 26:8); and invites all: “Seek the Lord, and your soul shall live” (Ps. 68:33).

The very word “seek what is above” means to seek that which is on high, to seek the heavenly; which is customarily expressed as seeking the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God. But what is this Kingdom? It is that when God begins to reign in the soul. Through the Lord Jesus Christ the communion of the soul with God, broken by the fall, is restored. Entering anew into communion with the soul, God dwells in it and, giving it life and directing all its movements, restores to it the lost wellbeing. And behold the Kingdom of God. It will also constitute eternal blessedness. Wherefore one may conclude that it embraces in itself all that anyone might conceive under the name of things on high.

Another thing that determines in the Apostle the sought-for thing on high is shown by the words: “where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” Ambrosiaster writes that the Apostle also calls “those raised with Christ in baptism” those who seek what is beyond heaven, where the throne of Christ is, where God the Father gave His right hand to His Son, that He might reign and judge. “Where has he led our mind! with what a great thought has he filled us!” exclaims the holy Chrysostom. The seeking of what is above will be therefore the seeking of that to which the seating of the Lord Saviour at the right hand of the Father directs us! The seating of the Lord Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father is the holding of all things in His power or the actual manifestation of what He Himself said concerning Himself: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me” (Mt. 28:18). Together with this it is the abiding in glory and divine fullness of joy, or blessedness. Here is what the seating of the Lord at the right hand of the Father directs us toward! Our seeking can here have as its object only the last two—glory and blessedness. As for the almighty rule of Christ, seeking in relation to it can have this meaning only: that the Almighty Christ might hold dominion over us as well. This is the same as seeking to be obedient and most devoted servants to Christ the Lord or for Him to make us such. We are enrolled as servants to Christ the Lord when in baptism we renounce Satan with all his works and are joined to Christ. But we become truly servants when we fulfill His commandments with all zeal and are zealous not to depart in any way from His holy will. This sets us on the right path and toward the other two goods to which the seating of Christ at the right hand of the Father directs us, that is, to His glory and blessedness and with Him. For He has promised: “Where I am, there My servant will be also.” And His servant He has determined thus: “If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me” (Jn. 12:26). And to follow Him means to walk in His will and commandments to the laying down of life. Thus the glory and blessedness of Christ already belong to His servants, by His promise. One need only show himself a true servant to Him, walking in His commandments. And this is the same as seeking the dominion of Christ the Lord over us. It turns out that all three objects of seeking, pointed to by the seating of the Lord at the right hand of the Father, converge in one—in seeking to walk unswervingly in the commandments of Christ. This is not far from that which was pointed out to us by resurrection with Christ. Resurrection with Christ pointed out to us the seeking of what is above in the seeking of communion with God; the means to this that cannot be neglected is the walking in the commandments of Christ. For the Lord speaks thus: “Whoever has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and reveal Myself to him.” And a little later: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our dwelling with him” (Jn. 14:21, 23).

Thus the sought-for thing on high is not far from us. But as concerning the Kingdom of God the Lord said: “Behold, the Kingdom of God is within you” (Lk. 17:21); so also the thing on high which the Apostle commands us to seek is within us. When we hear the Apostle saying: “Seek the things that are above,” we ought not direct the gaze of the mind toward an undefined height, but enter within ourselves and there in our heart establish an ascent to the living God, through the Lord Saviour, in the Holy Spirit. In a word: by “things above” is indicated not place, but dignity.

Col. 3:2. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things of the earth.

The previous commandment is repeated with a small addition. Having raised the Colossians on high, to the right hand of God the Father, the Apostle “gave them to understand that from there they should not look upon the earth. Your present life, he says, is not yours; your life is another. He already hastens to carry them away from the earth, strives to show that they are in heaven, making it clear that they should not seek what is here. If you are in heaven, then you ought not to seek what is earthly” (holy Chrysostom). “To set one’s mind,” φρονειν, means to think, to hold in one’s thought, to consider, to reflect on how best to arrange something. Two objects offer themselves for this—heaven and earth. So long as a man lives in self-will, all his thoughts are only about how to arrange his earthly wellbeing better, or his earthly happiness. But when the grace of God awakens in him the sleeping spiritual needs, then his thoughts too move to another realm, are torn from the earth and turned toward considering how more surely to arrange his eternal wellbeing, or to attain eternal blessedness and be accounted worthy of the inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven. The latter is to set one’s mind on things above, while the former is to set one’s mind on things of the earth. The latter occupies true Christians, while the former occupies those who are not Christians in spirit, though they are called so. These two frames of mind draw a sharp line of distinction between them.

If by “things above” we understand the same as we defined to understand by “things that are on high”—that is, living communion with God through walking in His commandments with rejection of self-will, sensuousness, and love of creation—then here are the subjects of constant and careful Christian thoughts: the Christian reflects on how not to slip again into self-will and sensuousness and not to cleave to any creature more than to the Creator; how to fulfill more precisely the will of God in all the course and in all the contacts of his life; and especially on how to remain inseparably with the Lord in thought and heart, and with fear and trembling before Him to work out his salvation. These are the subjects worthy of the Christian’s thinking! The earthly is not worthy of occupying him. It goes with him as something external—an appendage, not the main work.

Col. 3:3. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Here are the reasons why Christians should seek what is above and set their minds on things above, not on earthly things! The first is that they have died; the second is that they have a life hidden with Christ in God. “On both sides he urges them not to seek what is here—both from death and from life. You have died, he says, to what is below; wherefore you should not seek it. Again, your life, he says, is on high; therefore set your minds on things above. The Apostle strives to show that they abide on high and live another life, which is in God and invisible to the eyes of the flesh” (blessed Theophylact).

“You have died,” that is, in baptism. Here Christians die to sin—to self-will, to passions, to love of creation; they die also to all the objects that satisfy them, so that all these ought to be as though non-existent for them. How then could there be reason to occupy oneself with such things? Holy Chrysostom says: “The present life is not our life. We are strangers and pilgrims. ‘You have died,’ he says. But who would be so foolish as to buy slaves for a dead and buried body, or build houses, or prepare precious garments? No one. Therefore we too should not act so. We ordinarily wish only one thing: not to be naked; and here we will seek only this one thing. Our old man has died and been buried; not buried in the earth, but in water; death did not conquer him, but the Conqueror of death buried him. And nothing is more blessed than this burial. All rejoice in it: the Angels, men, and the Lord of the Angels. For this burial there is need neither of garments nor of a coffin nor anything of the kind.” Do not raise up again, we add, this so beneficially buried one with your unprofitable thoughts and cares about something self-willed, passionate, and creature-loving.

“Your life hidden with God” can be understood in two ways: both because it is such by its very nature, and because it is invisible to others until its time, often even to those who share in it. The preceding discourse requires the first thought, and the following one requires the second.

That our life should be hidden in God is determined in the very creation itself. For such is our purpose, to remain in living communion with God, for us to be in God and God in us—which properly means the hiddenness of our life in God. Into such communion man was placed at the very moment of his creation through the breathing into his face of the spirit from God. Sin broke this communion and became a wall between man and God. The Son of God came through His incarnation and tore down this barrier. Those who believe in Him receive the forgiveness of sins and are clothed with the power to overcome sin—both through union with the Lord. Those who believe in Him are clothed in Him and become one spirit with Him. And He is one with God the Father. In consequence of which they too through Him and with Him enter again into unity and communion with God, from which they had fallen away—or, what is the same thing, their life becomes and is hidden with Christ in God. Such is the mystery of life in Christ Jesus. The Lord set forth this mystery thus: “I am in My Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you” (Jn. 14:20). Such is the golden chain! The Lord also explained how it is linked: “No one comes to the Father except through Me” (Jn. 14:6), and again: “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him… Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me” (Jn. 6:44, 45). God the Father draws all to the Son, and the Son brings them to the Father. And the communion with God of those who believe is established; their life becomes hidden with Christ in God. The holy Paul reminds us of this mystery of Christian life in confirmation of the fact that Christians should always set their minds only on what is above. You have died, he says, to all things—to yourselves, to the world, and to every creature; there is no reason for you to think about all such things. You have come alive with a new life—and your life has become hidden with Christ in God; think about God and set your minds on things divine. Where your life is, there your heart and your mind should also be.

But this life, hidden in God through the Lord Saviour, remains hidden—concealed, invisible—to others. Men do not see it, for it is wholly accomplished in the spirit and heart. The “spiritual” one, though, according to the Apostle, “judges all things” (1 Cor. 2:15), yet he certainly only determines whether someone is of God, and sometimes at what stage he stands, but the very working and movement of this life, as well as its meaning and power, he does not see. Not everything does the one who has partaken of this life see either. He does not see how it began, for the Lord says: “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit” (Jn. 3:8). Once begun, this life grows also unknowingly to him, until the palpable workings of the grace of the Holy Spirit begin to appear. But even after this he does not see everything and know everything, for, according to the Apostle, those who have received the Holy Spirit—that Spirit makes intercession for them before God with groanings too deep for words, and they do not even know it (Rom. 8:26). They do not know either how and in what way it will all end, for “what we will be has not yet been revealed” (1 Jn. 3:2). And much here is hidden even from the Angels; only the general condition of souls is clear to them, not the very essence of life according to God in each one. Only God alone knows “those who are His” (2 Tim. 2:19). For all others it will be revealed at the second coming of Christ, when, to the great astonishment and irreversible sorrow of many, even those who considered themselves God’s and were held as such by others will learn that they are not God’s—for they will hear: “I never knew you” (Mt. 7:23).

This other aspect of hiddenness, or concealment and invisibility of life according to God, moved the Apostle to add to what had been said.

Col. 3:4. When Christ, Who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

Now it is not seen how you are in God and how glorious this is; but then it will be revealed, and all will see it. By this assurance the Apostle kindled a fire in those who were eager to live in God and removed much that might weaken the power of his words. They might have thought: Leave all things, think of nothing earthly, be God’s; but what is our position in the meantime? The Apostle assures them: This is only for a time; your triumph too will come—you will also be revealed in glory. Be of good courage and do not cease to set your minds only on things above and to keep your life hidden in God. But this same assurance also aroused the thought: We will be revealed—and nothing hidden will remain; but what if it is revealed that we are not what we think we are and what others consider us to be! Let us therefore make every effort to truly have our life hidden with God in Christ the Lord. “Now we have the promise of good things in hope only, but then what is invisible now will be made visible” (blessed Theodoret). “Christ is not yet revealed; therefore your life has not yet begun—it is in God, in heaven. So then, what? When will we live? When Christ is revealed, your life; then seek also for glory, and life, and joy. So if we will be revealed then, we will not grieve if we do not now enjoy glory. If the present life is not life, if life is hidden, then we ought to live the present life as the dead. ‘Then,’ he says, ‘you also will be revealed with Him in glory.’ He said ‘in glory’ not without purpose; for even a pearl is hidden while it is in its shell” (holy Chrysostom).

That we “will be revealed in glory” when Christ the Lord is revealed, this the holy Paul places in direct dependence on the fact that Christ the Lord is our life. Having our life in Him, we are in an essential, inseparable connection with Him, so that where He is and what He is, there we are and such are we. He will be revealed in glory; this revelation of Him in glory will draw us all into His glory. As what belongs to the head passes over to the whole body, and as the condition of the vine is at the same time the condition of all the branches; so those on the Vine—Christ, as branches, or those of His flesh and of His bones, will be revealed in glory at His revelation in glory. From this it follows: if this revelation in Christ’s glory is glorious and desirable, then one must be zealous and strive for one thing only—to have one’s life in Christ and from Christ; and glory will then come of itself. By this conclusion the Apostle’s word turns attention back to what he impressed before—to seek what is above, to set one’s mind on things above. It is very fitting at this point to recall: “You have heard about him and were taught in him, as truth is in Jesus. You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:21–24).

That the Apostle here calls Christ the Lord our life is not inconsistent with what he said before about the hiddenness of our life in God. For it is hidden in God precisely because it is Christ’s, although it is in us and belongs to us. But it is Christ’s in us not merely by origin, but also by an essential living union with Christ the Lord, who Himself is one with the Father.