For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3:3 (TPT)
In Him – Thinking High Series – Part 5
Go to PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 | PART 6 | PART 7
The Ancient Hebrews lived a tribe/family/community-centered life. Rarely did they think of themselves singularly. They were a part of something, and that ‘something' had form and life that was created by those that belonged to it. It included love of neighbor, love of God, love of earth.
Nowadays, we tend to think self-centered, through the lens of singularity. I’m not even talking about what we would typically call “selfish.” We don’t have a tribe-like attitude towards each other and life, these days. We are ego-centric. And most of the time, we don’t even realize it. That is until Christ reveals to us a new way of thinking and being in the world. A higher way – a way that transcends the ego, the false self, the separateness that we think rules the world, and brings us closer to each other and to God.
We began in him, and we belong in him. God, the Divine, the Essence of Life, the Ground of Being, the Glue of all humanity and existence.
Earlier in his letter to the Colossians, Paul wrote:
“We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body. He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—he is supreme in the end. From beginning to end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.” (Col 1:15-18 MSG).
Heaven is within us, around us, among us, and beyond us. It is wherever God is. And God is ultimate presence. Our connection with him, and with each other, is of a heavenly nature. We are divinely and heavenly connected. God. Me. Others. A trinity of connection.
So when Paul says to his friends, “set your mind on things above, not on things of earth,” he is encouraging us to enter into the life of Christ where “all the old fashions are now obsolete.”
Words like Jewish and non-Jewish, religious and irreligious, insider and outsider, uncivilized and uncouth, slave and free, mean nothing. From now on everyone is defined by Christ, everyone is included in Christ. (Col 3:10-11 MSG.)
It gets our eyes off the singularity of ourselves, and on to our connection with God and others. Life becomes not a race to win or a ladder to climb, but a community to heal, and a peace to pursue.
What about the parts where it talks about not sinning?
Am I saying that it doesn’t matter how we live as long as we are aware of our connection to God?
YOUR TURN! Feel free to leave us a comment below.
Go to Part 6 – Think About This »
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