Put On the New Self
3:1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7 In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11 Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Rules for Christian Households
18 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. 20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. 21 Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. 22 Slaves, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. 23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. 25 For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality. (ESV)
2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
We shouldn’t be focused on things on this world because they aren’t going to last. We are not going to be allowed to take anything with us from earth. Everything on earth is going to be destroyed. So let’s build up on treasure that we will receive from God in heaven!
Col 3:17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Practical instruction for our daily lives. Keep the focus on Christ, seek His plan and His pleasure and everything will turn out right in the end. This is the one thing for today.
13Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.
True, Biblical forgiveness is total and complete. It is not as the world says, “I will forgive you, but I will not forget what you did to me.” That doesn’t even make sense! God commands us to forgive others the way He forgave us. There is no one on the face of this earth, no matter how rotten they are to you, that could have treated you as badly as you treated God before you became a Christian. How much we have been forgiven needs to be at the forefront of our minds when we go to forgive someone else. Even if we don’t feel like forgiving someone or if we find it difficult, we must ask God to help us forgive and submit to His desire for us to have total forgiveness. Is there someone in your life that you have not forgiven? Let’s all search our hearts today and pray to the Lord to help us have total and complete forgiveness toward them.
1Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
This is so awesome. Salvation/being raised with Christ sets us free to live a life focused n heaven, and not on this world. That is the key thought that–as Paul explains in the rest of the chapter should have loads of practical application in our own lives.
And one important way that we can get our mind thinking more heavenly thoughts than worldly thoughts is in verse 16: Let the Word of Christ dwell in your richly! And one way we do that is SOTD! Ye-ah!
17And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Most of us spend most of our week outside of church. However, we can honor God throughout our week by the way we live our lives. We can honor and represent him at school, work, home, in our sports, and in the everyday mundane tasks of life. God is looking for us to depend and rely on Him throughout the day. To communicate with Him through prayer, to ask His direction, and to follow His lead. Let do everything in the name of the Lord!
5Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
6Because of these, the wrath of God is coming
Reading the Old Testment people had idols. Those people who had idols, God was not pleased at all. God punished people for having idols. God is going to punish those who have a problem with these types of sin. So we need to evaulate ourselves and if we have a check mark next to one of these things we need to pray that God will help us defeat this sin and we get rid of our idols!
9Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices
We shouldn’t lie or do as much sin as we used to do because we have been made a new person in Christ! We need to grow and be more obedient as we go on and get mature in our walk with Christ. So if we are still struggling with some sins, we need to repent.
23Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,
This verse is very hard to apply! Trying to work with all our heart, you get so tired. We need to do it because there is no excuse. I’ve notice some positive things of working with things with all my heart. I know it might sound like it’s to hard, but there is some positive things that I can relate too. I got 5 A’s on my last report card, my basketball coach gave me a lot of playing time on a really good team that won league and I’ve been a lot more sucessful!
5Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
6Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.
These are some of the things that are extremely prevalent in todays society. We, AS CHRISTIANS, should live above reproach and flee against earthly pleasures and traps. The Bible isour mine detector, it will save us from walking down the wrong path.
I love all of Colossians but one verse I reall like is:
14And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
Because when we show the love of God all things can and will come together in His name to form an awesome unity. :]
***SHOW HIS LOVE TO EVERYONE AT ALL TIMES!!!***
2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
People in general have such a hard time doing this. Because of sin we want to please other people and have them like us, and have them like how we dress and so on. especially for highschoolers this seems to dominate there lives, Christian or not we still long for the acception of others no matter who it is and we tend to think it is the end of the world if we dont get there “approval” We need to relize that we are just passing threw this world were not here for good just a little while in the eyes of eternity. So think about God and just like this verse so plainly puts, “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” all earthly things will burn in the end some of them we even lose now so why work for something were going to lose…work and strive for God and blessings in heaven (and earth for that matter) that will last a eternity!!
17And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
This is convicting to think that one little word or bending of the truth or action of anger is noticed by God. And, every moment of every day we are called as Christians to live in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Whether taking a chemistry test, getting cut off on the freeway, or just hanging with friends, we should be giving God the glory and thanking Him for the opportunity to glorify Him through our actions and speech.
1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
Wow! What an awesome chapter! So many verses that can be applied to our everyday lives. These two particularly stood out to me because they seem to encompass everything said here. When we’re living our daily lives, we should be asking ourselves – are our hearts set on earthly things, possessions, etc., or are we living for Christ? There’s a big difference between where our hearts should be, and where they often are.
2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
Its so easy to be focused on the earthly possessions that we come across everyday. That is not where out minds should be focused. We need to focus on God and on things above. There’s that quote “he who dies with the most toys wins.” This is what our world thinks. Then there’s that other quote “he who dies with the most toys, still dies.” Thats how we should be viewing these worldly things. We can’t take any of that stuff to heaven.
2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
The only way that we are going to keep out of sin is if we are constantly thinking about Godly things. If we are thinking about the things of this world, then there is no good that will come out of that.
8But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.
People always say that it says no where in the bible not to cuss…..well what is the end of this verse saying then!! It is basically saying just that; Cussing is filthy and we shouldnt do it. Im going to go tell someone at my school this verse!
14And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
If we love on another and love God, then we will have all the fruits of the spirit and we will be obeying Christ. So we should love everyone with a sincre love!
22…….. but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.
THis is the hardest thing to do. We can obey, yeah thats easy BUT doing it with a servants heart and wanting to do it, that is hard. The way we can have this kind of heart is by digging deeper into Gods word because this is the kind of heart Jesus had!
2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
Jenae, you’re so right! If we want to set our minds on things above, we need to keep out of sin. To do this we need to stay in the word every single day and pray pray pray throughout the entire day. The people we hang out with, the music we listen to, and the daily things we do all factor into what we keep our mind focused on. This is such an encouraging chapter! Enjoy the rest of your Sunday, everyone!!
2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
Beautiful comments everyone, I also found this verse to be very applicable!! It made me think about what my mind was focused on throughout the day. I realized that a main portion of it was around schoolwork. Of course, we do need to pay attention to getting it done, but in reality my schoolwork is not going to matter when i’m in heaven!! What I should be focused on instead are eternal riches in heaven, and glorifying the Lord more in my schoolwork. :D
6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.
This is definitely NOT the way that the world views sin. And sadly, it is not even the way most people in the Church view it either. Sin has become something that unfortunately is highly acceptable today – even though there are obvious sins which Christians all seem to condone, there are many grey areas in which people tend to twist the Bible and ignore it, if necessary, to suit their own needs. The problem is that we do not have the right view of God; if we elevate out view of Him, it will elevate our view of sin, as we will see it more as He does, and flee from it accordingly.
23Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,
This verse isn’t just telling us to work in all things for the LORD, but it’s also telling us to do it with all our hearts. When we think about it, that’s really hard to do. Always at all times, not only looking to glorify God but also doing it with all our effort and focus on Him. For me, I know that I am not always looking to glorify God in everything, let alone doing it wholeheartedly and with a right attitude. But one of the ways that makes this possible is verse 2 which says not to set our minds on earthly things, but rather on things above. If our desires are on God and not earthly things, then we will have a desire to serve Him; everything else will seem worthless compared to Him and we will have a desire to serve Him with all our hearts. And this desire comes from throwing of our old nature and rather putting on the new which is set on God rather than sin. I pray that God will produce a whole-hearted desire for Him in me as I seek to put sin to death in my life and rather obey His commands for His glory.
2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
Our mind and heart should only be focussed on God and we should not let things get in the way and fall off track. Keep ur eyes on God not on materials
Oh man how are there only 18 comments so far?? This is depressing…
2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
It can be really easy to get caught up in earthly things…not even really bad things, but things that don’t ultimately matter. Sports or school or a play or anything else aren’t really gonna make a difference in heaven, unless we’re doing it all to glorify God. We need to make sure EVERYTHING we do is for Jesus, and not to make us look good on earth.
2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
This is so true(as is the whole Bible). We aren’t apart of this world any longer. I feel like I’m an alien sometimes because I am so different. I hate when I sin. I actually care for others. I have a purpose. I know God is out there and He is good. I know true love because of Christ’s sacrifice. I know why. If you’re a christian, this is true for you as well.
Great comment Snowman!
5Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
The term “put to death” is so crucial. If we do not understand that we are dead to sin and alive with Christ then sin will continue to have a strong grip on us. We need to crucify our sin and put a final end to it so that we can live a life that glorifies God (Rom. 6:1-4)
23Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,
This is one of my favorite verses ever! Especially in sports to bring glory to God by bringing 100% to the table. I think this is such an important verse to remember and to know that we are not working for people and trying to please them, but to always give everything our best doing it for the Lord
14And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
LOVEEEE…..now that i think about it love really does bind everyting together, becasue when you truly love, you are patient, watch what you say, not jealous,not angry, you put those people above yourself!! I am going to work on loving all those in my life, with that i can improve on all of the fruits of the spirit.
2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
There remains no treasure to be found upon this earth that even comes close to the greatness of seeking first “things above”. The desires of this earth pass away, but what is unseen lasts forever… God in his upmost glory and holiness saving us. Lets make it a point, in all occurances to seek first God’s kingdom, and everything else will be provided.
Great comments Mike and Chris!
2 “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.”
These four verses are some of my favorite in the whole Bible.
By telling us to set our minds on “things above,” Paul means that we should not be thinking about earthly things, but rather heavenly things. Most people would say that commands like this aren’t as important as the ones telling us to *do* stuff (actions, not thoughts), but they would be wrong. Where does what we do start out? In our minds. We think the thought, then carry out the action. This is why it is so important to be thinking of “things above.” If we’re constantly thinking of how we can please God, our life will be radically different and glorifying to Him.
Paul goes on to say that we should live like this because we “died,” in the sense that we no longer are slaves to our sinful nature. He says the only life we have is in Jesus Christ! So obviously we need to put to death any remnant of sin in our lives!
This is such a perfect chapter for a teenage high schooler. It teaches us not to be overcome by this earthly world but to look forward to heavenly things. It tells us to put anger and sexual immorality and deceitfulness to death. It also commands us to obey our parents and other authority. So let’s do it.
5Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
This is is so true that we need to put our earthly nature to death. if we don’t than we will sin and i don’t want to do that so we must put it to death before it gets a hold of us