How do we live for Christ?
We often miss the point of Holy Scripture. We tend to think that it was written for people apart from Christ. Of course, it’s just the opposite. God gave us Scripture to bless, guide, and encourage the people of God.
With that in mind, Colossians three was written to help believers know how to live for Christ.
When Paul wrote to the Christians at Colossae, he was writing to people who had come straight out of paganism. He wrote to teach them how to live for Christ.
What did he say to the church?
First, he taught that we are one in Christ. While the world has distinctions and barriers, in the church – – the body of Christ – – those distinctions do not exist. “Here there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free man, but Christ is all and in all” (Colossians 3:11).
When Christ created the church, He established a community and a fellowship. As we live in Christ, We live out that community. As Christians, we live as brothers and sisters.
Second, to live for Christ is to live with a different way of thinking. Repentance means to change the mind. It describes a transformation in thought and behavior.
Paul encouraged the Colossians to think differently from their neighbors. He wanted these new believers to seek the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
The world is always trying to conform us to its image. The world constantly seeks for us to adopt its ways and its behaviors.
Instead of thinking like the world, Paul wanted the Colossians to think like Christ and to seek to be conformed to His image.
Third, to live in Christ is to fill our life with good things and put away those things that are destructive and opposed to the ways of God.
Paul described both sensual sins and social sins. Paul affirmed that because of these sins, the wrath of God is coming (Colossians 3:6).
Finally, to live in Christ is to put on His new nature “which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator” (Colossians 3:10).
As we emphasize the positive in those things which are worthy, we will less and less live according to earthly ways.