Carlton G. McPeak
Guest Columnist
As a result of our commitment to die with Christ and God raising us “up with Christ,” there are some things we must do. Because of our action and God’s action, we now have a different focus. We are now making it our purpose to make Christ our life (Colossians 3:1-4).
The reason we died with Christ and sought to be “raised up with Christ” was because we were “seeking the things above.” Paul encourages the Colossians, and us, to keep that focus of “seeking the things above,” which he defines as “where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.”
When he says, “not on the things of this earth,” he references the everyday things in life. It is important that we focus on things like our families, our jobs, our health and our communities. But, while doing all of these things, our focus must be, “Are the teachings of Christ and His standards influencing all of these activities?”
Is my life “hidden with Christ in God?” Meaning, when people see my actions, are they seeing what Christ would be doing in this particular situation? Are my actions reflecting the life that Christ would be living?
This is not to say that we completely give up what we want to do in life. However, what it means is that “what we want to do” is to live with the attitude of Christ and the lifestyle He would display. That mindset becomes our focus in life. In that sense, it is what we want to do with our lives.
The motivating factor for this type of attitude and behavior is that when Christ is revealed in His glory, then we “also will be revealed with Him in glory.” The results for our life being characterized by and influenced by Christ are that we will be with Him for eternity.
When Christ returns, there will be praise, honor and glory for the things He has done for our lives. With Paul saying, “you will be revealed with Him in glory,” then he is saying Christians will be praised and honored. At that moment in time, God will honor us because of the achievements we have obtained, because we not only thought, but practiced in our lives, “things which are above” and not on the “things of this earth.”
Living our lives as Christians allows us to have good families, accomplish great things concerning our jobs, to have the best health possible and to influence our communities for Christ. If our life is not focused on Christ, on the things above, on allowing ourselves to be hidden with Christ, then we will not be living God’s way.
Carlton G. McPeak (carlton_mc@msn.com)
is an evangelist working in the Florida Gateway region.
Scriptural quotations from the NASB.