Colossians 3:1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God
Have you ever been driving down the road when a car coming the opposite direction is easing into your lane and at the last minute the driver looks up with a start and yanks the car back into the correct lane? As the car passes, you find the person looking at a cell phone instead of aiming for the right path. If you are driver, you have been taught that you are going to drift wherever you aim. If you are looking to the right, not paying attention, then your car is gradually drifting to the right. If you look to the left, then your car will gradually drift to the left.
The same is true about life as well. For what are you aiming? Where do you hope to be in five years? Maybe you have a master plan, or maybe you don’t have much of a plan. I am asking you about more than merely your plan. I am asking what you are aiming for. What is the main objective to which you are traveling in the next five year? What about ten years? What about twenty years? At that point it is kind of abstract. What does twenty years even mean? Well, what is your aim for the next one hundred years? You say, “I don’t think I’m going to be here in one hundred years.” Maybe you will not be, but your life will matter one way or the other in a hundred years. So, for what are you aiming?
An ancient maxim says, “Memento mori,” meaning “remember that you will die.” Isn’t that cheery? Well, you aren’t ready to live if you are not ready to die. You are not ready to live well now if you don’t have something beyond now for which to live. The Apostle Paul looked at a bigger, better world and a bigger, better life. He looked beyond merely the pleasures, troubles, and problems of the moment to something higher, nobler, transcendent.
In Colossians 3:1 he says, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.” Verse 2 says, “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” In verse 4 he says that Christ is our life. Sometimes young people have a car they are paying for because they have to get to their job. They have to have a job to pay for their car, and they have to have their car so they can get to their job. Someone says, “Wil, I’m not twenty years old. I have a better job and a bigger car.” Then what? The answer is, “Then I have vacation.” Then what? After you name all the pleasures of life you wish to receive, then what? The answer is that you die.
Paul is saying to look beyond the world so you will live better in the world. Aim high and you will live well.How high are you aiming? We should aim well with our time. “Redeeming the time because the days are evil.” If I am too bored or too busy, then I need to take stock. Time is the stuff of life. If I waste time, I waste life. So, aim high with your time.
Aim high with your priorities. What is most important to you? The Bible says, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal.” In other words, don’t knock yourself out for anything that can be stolen or rust. The Bible tells us that God has given us richly all things to enjoy, but if all I am living for are the things I can enjoy, then I am not going to enjoy them the way I could or should. I need to live beyond tomorrow and the pleasures of the moment. If I aim for something higher, I’ll live a better life.
I am in Christ. Christ is our life and we put our faith and trust in Christ. Aim high with your sensibilities, your sense of what is right and wrong. In Colossians 3:7 and following Paul basically says, “You used to live a trite way, as a child of disobedience, but now you are in Christ, so put off anger, wrath, malice, and blasphemy, the old man. Put on the new man, mercy, kindness, humbleness, meekness, longsuffering.”
Aim high with your sensibilities. You are more than an animal. The Bible talks about those whose god is their belly. It’s not wrong to enjoy the food God has given. The problem is when that is the sum and substance of life. They have nothing more for which to aim. Aim high with your sensibilities.
Aim high with your work. Colossians 3:22 says we are to obey those who are in authority over us “not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God.” I’m not merely serving my boss, my dad, or some person in authority; I am serving God by serving those around me.
Life is short. Remember you will die and remember that you will live. Remember that you live in Christ and Christ is to live in you. He wants to animate you, produce in you, and empower in you the things He would wish for your life. Do you want to enjoy life? Do you want your life to be meaningful? Do you want more than just tomorrow or this weekend? How do you do that? Aim high and you will live well. Look beyond this world and you will live better in this world.