Colossians 3
Colossians 3:1-17, Ephesians 4:20-24, Galatians 5:16-24
Take a second to identify and think about a moment in your life that changed everything. Identify a moment that afterwards life was not the same. Identify a moment that redefined your life or how you lived. One of these moments for me was moving away from my college town and into a new city to begin my career. The differences in the season of life and location I was in redefined the way I do a lot of things. Life after college has not been the same in many ways and I am learning how to live under this new direction and time of my life.
This is a pretty small example compared to the redefining moment of following Christ.
Christ redefines.
This passage of scripture begins with Christ “If you have been raised with Christ….”. Through these we see the very statement being made that if you have been raised with Christ something must happen. The rest of the passage highlights three major shifts in the way Christ redefines our lives.
We set our minds on the things of Heaven, not things of the earth.
We put away our old self and put on our new self.
The Lord will continue to change us.
The first part of this passage identifies that before Christ our minds were set on things on the earth. This could be any object that you have made an idol in your life. But in Christ we are not to live this way, he redefines where we set our sets, we set our sites on Heaven and the things of Heaven. This helps us center on God and process what is holy and honoring to Him.
In the next part of the passage, between two lists of sin that exist verse 7 and 8 say “In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away..”. Verses 9-10 continue on to highlight this very point: we must put off the old self and put on the new. We were walking in the way of sin and selfish motive, not we must put on living for Christ and pursuing his likeness. Christ redefines the motive for our lives and who we live for. Put on the new self in Christ.
Lastly, throughout the entire passage we can see a few examples proving to us that God is not done. He was not finished when He rose Christ from the grave. Christ was not done when he left earth. The Holy Spirit is moving. Read again verses 4, 10, and 15-16. Christ is not done. We are being renewed. God’s Word is living and active. The Trinity is active and working, changing us every day. Praise God.
Christ redefines. Take a moment to thank him for how he has moved, and process how he may be continuing to redefine your life.
