Seeking the Things That Are Above

The first two chapters of Colossians have centered on what it means to die with Christ, to be buried with him in baptism.  Now, as we begin the second half of this letter, Paul turns to what it means to live as one who has also been raised with Christ.  Now in this text, Colossians 3:1-11, appointed for the 8th Sunday after Pentecost in the Year of Luke, instead of centering on our life before Christ, and the overpowering event of Christ's death and resurrection, Paul centers on what life is going forward.  How then does one live? is the question.  The question for the preacher will be how to preach a law and gospel sermon, when this text is primarily a call to obedience.

(The following questions have been developed as a way of getting at some of the fundamental concerns for Law and Gospel preachers around the function of the Word.  These questions are not meant to be exhaustive, but meant to be used with other fine sets of questions which lift up other issues.  To learn more about Law and Gospel preaching, see my brief guide, Afflicting the Comfortable, Comforting the Afflicted, available from wipfandstock.com or amazon.)

1.  How does the Word function in the text?  Right out of the gate, the writer assumes that the Gospel has done its work:  You have been raised with Christ!  So then, says Paul, "Seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God." This then is purely a call to obedience.  We are exhorted to live in a certain way in response to what God has done for us in Christ.

2.  How is the Word not functioning in the text?  There is really no word of Gospel here, no word which announces what Christ has done; all of that has been thoroughly proclaimed in chapters 1 and 2.  Also there is only a glancing blow from the Law, where Paul reminds his readers that "on account of these [sins] the wrath of God is coming upon those who are disobedient." (vs. 6)  Besides that there is little mention of our need for a Savior.

3.  With whom are you identifying in the text?  Clearly we are those to whom this word is addressed.  In our baptism we have been buried with Christ, and by the power of God we have also been raised with him.  We are the ones being called to seek the things that are above, and not set our minds on the things of the earth.

4.  What Law/Gospel couplet is suggested by this text?  Since this is almost wholly a call to obedience, we must improvise in coming up with couplets for this text.  Some ideas:  dead/raised; life hidden/life revealed.

5.  Exegetical work:  It is telling that in Luther's extensive commentary on Psalm 51, he refers explicitly to Paul's words here:  "This is the Christian life, as it is marvelously described in Colossians 3:1-3, that we seek the things that are above, as [those] who are dead to the world and whose life is hid in Christ; and in 2 Corinthians 7:1, that we 'cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit.'  He means that in him and in all Christians there remain such defilements of the spirit, that is, evil opinions about God, and defilements of the flesh, that is, vicious lusts; and that it should be our labor and effort to clean these out with the help of the Spirit... You can readily say, 'I believe in Christ.' But it takes the hardest kind of work to keep this faith fixed and sure and permanent in the heart." (Luther's Works, Vol. 12, Selected Psalms, p. 329-330)  It becomes evident in looking at the grammar in this passage that our death and rising in Christ is an accomplished fact, but our ongoing life is a continual struggle.  The present tense imperative instructs us:  "Seek (and keep on seeking) the things that are above."  "Set your minds (and keep setting them) on the things that are above."  The aorist form in verse 5, however, gives us a new command:  "Put to death (once and for all!), therefore, whatever in you is earthly."  Similarly in verses 8 and 9, we have the aorist form:  "You must get rid of all such [evil] things..." (once and for all!) and "seeing you have stripped off the old self with its practices..." (once and for all).  It seems that Paul wants us to be seeking the things above continually, while ridding ourselves of our death-dealing habits, once and for all.

6.  How does the Crossings community model work with this text?  Betty Krafft, in her analysis, raises up one of the issues for Law and Gospel preachers with a text like this, which is primarily a call to obedience:  what if all this text is doing is proving to us the truth of Romans 7?  "The evil that I wish not to do, that I do, and that good which I would do, that I do not."  She suggests that the first half of the equation ends for us in the wrath of God which "is coming on those who are disobedient."  The second half of the equation is that we have died and been raised in Christ.  We will have to decide if this text functions this way for us. See her entire analysis, archived under the reference at crossings.org/text-study.

Blessings on your proclamation!