Lesson 16 – Seeking the Right Passion, part 1 (3:1-4)
Read Colossians 3 - www.bible.com/bible/59/col.3
We’ve studied how being stable in our Christian life begins with setting the right foundation, struggling for the right goal, submitting to the right authority – and now we come to seeking the right passion. If we were building a house, we might say the foundation is what we’re putting our house onto, the goal would be our architectural plans, the authority would be our building contractor, and the passion would be the reason we’re building the house. If, for example, our reason is needing a house in a hurry, we might sacrifice quality for speed; but if our reason is to make a showplace, we might sacrifice a lot of unnecessary money just to make it look good.
Our passion in building a stable life in God is what drives us to do what we’re doing. If we’re using the wrong passion, our life will not be as stable as we would want it to be.
Verse 1 begins with “if then you have been raised with Christ” – meaning, we have the right foundation, the right goal, and the right authority – here is the next step. We are to seek the things that are above, where Christ is. Time after time the Bible promises us that seeking His kingdom first results in good things for us (see Psalm 37:3-5, Matthew 6:33, and Luke 12:31 as just a few examples). Our motivation for all we do must be God. Not even such “good” motives as helping our family, making a better life for people in general are good enough to make our life stable – only God can be sufficient motive for us.
Verses 3 and 4 begin to give us the purpose behind setting our passion in heaven, on God, by reminding us of the life we now have in Him. We are given more detail in 2 Corinthians 5:17 – we are a new creation in Jesus Christ. But when it says the old things have passed away, does it mean we no longer have to battle temptations of our flesh? No, of course we know we still have those battles. The Apostle Paul talked about his own battles with fleshly desires in Roman 7, and finally cried out, “who can save me from this?” His own answer, Jesus Christ! And some of the greatest words written in the Bible follow in Romans 8:1 – there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus! We will fail at times, we will fall to the passions of our flesh – but we need never fear condemnation, for the price of our sin has been paid in full by Jesus Christ.