Colossians 3:1-4 If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. At the close of the preceding chapter St. Paul exposes the error of those who would bring back Christians to the rudiments of the world; but with that rapidity of thought which is characteristic of him, he passes on to other rudiments — everything that is loved and cultivated by the flesh- and makes no distinction between rites and worldliness, resting on the similarity between them. I. THE DIVINE LIFE PRODUCES DYING TO THE WORLD. It would be wrong to hold the reverse, of course. If you are risen with Christ, your life is no longer here below, but where Christ is. Here comes a series of transformations. 1. Spiritual death. You wore dead in sins, but Christ has raised you (see Colossians 2:12, 13; Ephesians 2:5, 6; 1 Peter 1:3). 2. In the very act of raising you Christ has subjected you to a new death — to the world. These two facts correspond as the projections of a coin do with the depressions of the mould. Resurrection is the relievo of the coin; it produces the void which is death: for our life cannot be everywhere; if it is in heaven it is not on the earth (ver. 4). II. It is true that WE LIVE HERE BY OUR NECESSARY LIFE, BUT THE BEST PART OF OURSELVES IS ELSEWHERE. We live where our heart is. The prisoner lives nowhere less than in his cell. You say of the person you passionately love, "She has stolen my heart." When any one is indifferent to his surroundings we say, "His heart is elsewhere." It is with the heart we live our real life; "out of it are the issues of life." It can restrict itself to earthly things, but it can also have its conversation in heaven. III. WE MUST BE QUITE CLEAR AS TO THE MEANING OF THE WORDS "ABOVE" AND "BELOW," "HEAVEN" AND "EARTH." Earth and heaven here are not exactly places and times, but principles called after the place and time of their perfect realization. To detach ourselves from earth is not to detach ourselves from activity, but to detach our hearts from earthly principles, and attach them to the principles to be realized in heaven. To fulfil social duties, etc., under God's eye is not to do earthly but heavenly things. And so the Christian becomes attached to the place and time, where the true principle finds its realization, and detached from that where the false principle is realized. Nevertheless, we must not be drawn into a false spirituality, a selfish separation from earth while attached to it in affection. It is an admirable thing when he who is weaned from life appreciates it; for he despises what in it is contemptible, and esteems in it what is really worth esteem. IV. THE LIFE WEANED FROM EARTH IS HIDDEN from the world, and does not seem life. For life does not consist in the involuntary fact commonly called by the name. The world judges, and rightly from its premises, that visible things are alone worthy of attachment, that a man who does not attend to them does not live. And yet every thing is not obscure in regard to the Christian. He is unknown and yet known. It is impossible to see a Christian without saying, "There is something peculiar there! His life declares him to be a Christian." But because this life is not understood it is denied. The natural man sees something, but he does not regard it as life. And yet the Christian lives; he is not an anchorite. He has everything that others have as men, but as a Christian more. Worldlings may consider sin as essential to humanity; but it mutilates a man, Christianity increases him, and faith takes away sin. As a man the Christian mixes himself up in the business of life, for the earth belongs to his God; but in spite of this he is not understood, because the common aim which all pursue is with him only a means of attaining a higher end. And from misunderstand ing to contempt and calumniation the distance is not great. Whatever we may do in order to have peace with all men we shall never succeed unless we walk on the same footing. Thus the Christian is treated as dead, and with the same repugnance as is felt towards a dead man in the physical sense. V. WHAT MOTIVES HAS THE CHRISTIAN TO CONSENT TO THIS, AND TO ACCEPT THE CONSEQUENCES? 1. In reality he lives, and God knows that he lives, and that is enough. Those small and charming flowers which bloom in the desert or on the mountain-top will fold up their leaves without being seen by any human eye. God sees them, that is enough. In the Middle Ages unknown workmen spent their lives in rearing glorious cathedrals; some, working in positions dangerous and difficult of access, carved wonders of art and patience which are not seen except as you climb to the tops of columns. It was enough that God saw their work. and that throughout the ages a continual hymn should rise to Him from the midst of the stone. So with the Christian. 2. What grand compensation. Obscurity does not hinder greatness. (1) A great work has been wrought for and in the Christian. He is a king, although disguised. (2) There is greatness in what he does by the strength of God, subjugation of passions, resignation, etc. 3. But the Christian will appear when Christ appears, and under what glorious circumstances (Philippians 2:10, 11; Matthew 10:32; Matthew 13:43; Daniel 12:3). (A. Vinet, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. |
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