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Set
Your Affections On Things Above
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If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where
Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above,
not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with
Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye
also appear with him in glory. - Col 3:1-4
The devil is very subtle and one of his best devices is not to get us to do
evil, but simply to deceive us. He is at his best when it comes to
deception, he is the father of lies, according to the Lord himself, he is
the master deceiver. If he can simply make us think we are something we are
not or that we are right with God when we aren’t, then he has accomplished
what he wants. His desire is to tear down God’s name and Kingdom and raise
up his own.
Now almost everyone thinks in their own mind that they are not deceived
about themselves or their relationship and walk with God. They may admit
faults and even sins, but they find it very hard to accept the possibility
that they have been deceived about their Christianity. But when we read the
Word of God and realize the description there of the Christian life, and the
demands that God puts forth, and then begin to compare our lives, our
priorities, and affections, we must admit that most of us are living in
deception. The only way out of deception is light. Deception is darkness; it
is confusion. You’re not certain, you are confused on matters — that is
deception. When you have light, you see things clearly. There are no
shadows, there is no doubt or confusion. You can see in the light; it is
darkness that you can’t see in. The child of God is to walk in the light; we
are the children of light.
Colossians 3:1 starts out with “IF ye then be risen.” That is a conditional
statement. IF you are risen; IF you have been born into the family of God,
then the following applies to you. There is a great difference between the
lost and the saved. Before you were saved you didn’t care for the Word of
God or the things of God. They were foreign to you and didn’t affect your
life because you were dead to spiritual things. But after you were born into
God’s family the Bible came alive to you and you came alive to the Bible. It
speaks to you now and you respond to it now. You became a spiritual being
and you now develop a spiritual life and you communicate with a spiritual
being, which is God. After all, God can only be worshipped in spirit and in
truth. You begin a spiritual battle that cannot be fought with carnal
weapons. You cannot fight this battle with a fist or a knife or a gun. A
.357 Magnum won’t shoot down a devil, so throw your guns aside, you can’t
fight this battle with those weapons. So if you are going to accomplish what
the following verses say there MUST be a resurrection; there MUST be a real
change from one realm to the other. There MUST be a transition from the
kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light.
So then, IF there has been a resurrection in your life, IF there has been a
renewing of your mind, IF you are a new creature in Christ Jesus, and you
aren’t the same person as you were before, you have some responsibilities to
take care of. The old man is to die. You are not to help him, you are not to
feed, you are to make NO PROVISION for the flesh whatsoever. Notice what
verse 4 says, “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” IF
you are risen with Christ, then there is no more YOU. You are DEAD, and your
life is hid with Christ in God. It is not YOU, and YOUR personal interests,
and YOUR desires that you are supposed to pursue. All these things are
supposed to be DEAD, INACTIVE, and NOT CONTROLLING YOUR LIFE — IF you have
been risen with Christ. You are to be UNRESPONSIVE TO SELFISH INTERESTS. All
the selfish motives, and selfish desires, everything that is YOU, and
everything that YOU would like to have, that YOU would like to do, that YOU
would like to accomplish — all that is to be PUT TO DEATH. Your life is HID
WITH CHRIST, and YE ARE DEAD. The physical man is not to have preeminence in
your life now, it is to be the SPIRITUAL man.
The problem we all have is that we try to live in both realms at the same
time and God says we cannot do that. We can’t serve God AND mammon, or God
AND ourselves. We are not our own, but we have been bought with a price, and
we are to glorify God in our body and our spirit, which are the Lord’s.
(1Cor. 6:20) We gave our life to Christ when we got saved — that used to be
the terminology we used, and it is correct, by the way. You cannot get saved
and keep your life, your desires, your goals, your motives — Jesus said so.
Some might say, “well, I know some people who are saved who live that way.”
Not if they have been risen with Christ, they don’t; they can’t — not
according to the Bible. IF we have been risen with Christ, we have become a
spiritual being and we are to change our affections, our desires, and our
motives for living and doing what we do. IF we have been risen with Christ,
we are seek those things which are above, and to set our affection on things
above, NOT on things on the earth. IF you are a spiritual being now, your
main interest is not the things on the earth. The things that guide your
life and influence your decisions are not things on the earth, or your
selfish desires and motives.
Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we
drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do
the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of
all these things. (Mat 6:31-32)
The
“Gentiles” here represent the lost people of the world. We are told that
THEY seek after all these things. That is where their interests are, that is
the way they live, and that is what their minds are occupied with. That is
what they spend their energy and lives pursuing. Worldliness is not simply
going after pornography, drunkenness, immorality, etc. The most dangerous
kind of worldliness is not those things, but these same things that the
Gentiles seek after — houses, clothes, and everyday living. He doesn’t
mention bathhouses here, or houses of ill repute, but just the everyday
concerns of living and keeping up in the world that you spend more time
thinking on, more energy working toward, and have more interest in than the
things of God. These things should not control you or influence your
decisions or your walk with God. They should not be in the forefront of your
thinking or your interests.
The word “affection” in Colossians 3:2 means your interests. It means your
mindset; the things which you place your greatest desires to; your goals,
your greatest passion — set them on things above, NOT on things on the
earth. Yet we look around at each other and find that we are all caught up
in buying and acquiring material possessions. Most people who claim to be
Christians live almost exactly the same as the “Gentiles” in this respect.
They live from “new thing” to “new thing.” If you compared the time you
spend seeking after things on the earth to the time you spend seeking after
spiritual things, how would you rate? How much time have you spent in the
last week thinking on spiritual things compared to the time you have spent
thinking on things on the earth? “Out of the abundance of the heart, the
mouth speaketh.” That is, out of the overflowing abundance, whatever it is
full of, that is what will come out of the mouth. Now let me ask you, what
do most professing Christians want to talk about most, things above, or
things of this earth? How many Christians have pearls to cast before you
now? All they have is junk of this world: “Look what I’ve got,” “Look what
I’ve done,” “Look what I’ve bought,” or “Look where I’m at now.”
“Train up a child in the way he should go…” What do most Christians train
their children to set their affection on, things above, or things on the
earth? Do they not emphasize education and career, and all the things
necessary in order to acquire and achieve in THIS world? We point them in
that direction and give them a big shove and then wonder why they have so
little interest in the things of God. We teach our girls to look nice and
act right, but not to be spiritual. We teach the boys to work hard and gain
a position in this world, but we don’t teach them to be spiritual. We teach
our children to take thought on what they eat, what they wear, and wonder
why they don’t set their affection on things above.
The fact is, you really don’t have to give much thought to eating, because
you WILL eat. You won’t be hungry long and you WILL eat. You don’t have to
give much thought to what you will wear. IF you are risen with Christ the
Holy Ghost within you won’t let you put on things that are not right, and He
certainly won’t let you go without clothes.
Why are Christians defeated and empty of joy and excitement about the things
of God? They base their entire lives and invest all their energy and
strength on things that God says are going to rot and rust and decay, and
neglect the things that God said they should set their affection on. What do
you give your best effort to, things above, or things on the earth? Do you
get up a spiritual person in the morning or do you resurrect the old
physical man every morning? Is the main interest of your heart God, who gave
himself for you, or is it your own selfish desires and interests? Surely it
is a deceived person who lives for self and thinks himself a Christian on
his way to an eternity filled with things that he cares no more for now than
the lost people do.
Mike Miller
(5/15/2005)
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