SET YOUR MIND ON THINGS ABOVE
LIBERTY AND LOVE #99
To be a devoted believer in Christ, one should appreciate that the most significant thing about them is their mind. It is the mind that directs the conduct and the course of one’s life. We could hardly give too much emphasis to the importance of the mind of man and its need to be controlled by the Spirit of Christ “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:1). The mind of Christ becomes the mind of the believer through an act of the will. We decide that we are going to consider the natural man dead with Jesus, so that we may have the Spirit’s power released in our souls to control our minds, which in turn controls our behavior.
“Seeing, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” (Col. 3:1-2) In this passage, the apostle tells us where our minds should be focused. The things of the world are in constant clamor for our mental attention, but the believer is called to set his mind on things above. The reason is given: that is where Christ is. Since Jesus is our life (Col. 3:4), and he is seated at the right hand of God in proof of our accomplished salvation, then it is sensible that we would have heaven dominating our thoughts.
The things above are the things of the spirit; the spiritual realities associated with Christ. The things below, here on earth, represent all that is of the natural man. Our attention is in heaven because our acceptance is in heaven. Jesus “now appears in the presence of God for us” (Heb. 9:24). He is at the Father’s right hand, and our salvation is there with him. He represents the finished work which sets sinners right with the Father, and all that is true of him is true of us. We are seated with him in the heavenly places (Eph. 2:6).
There is no reason for us to continue to dwell on the things below, for we have died with Christ and our lives are hidden with Christ (Col. 3:3). We have left the old way and the old life behind. Through the faithfulness of God, we are living the ascended life. This is not true in the experience of the natural man. It is only experienced by faith.
Faith is our only connection to the things of the Spirit. We are now the possession of God, and our only aim is to be well-pleasing to him. Like a young man who is separated from the woman he loves in time of war, but whose heart is continually back home with her, we are fighting our battle in this present world for the Lord, all the while homesick for heaven where our Savior and Lord is forevermore enthroned.
Wherever the heart is, the mind will be. Let us endeavor to see Jesus through the eye of faith seated in heaven, even as we ourselves are on the journey homeward to be with him forever. And more than that, we are living in the heavenly realms right now; so certain in fact, it is as though we were already there. In God’s divine perspective, we are seated with Christ. So having our affection set on things above, where Christ is seated at the right of God, is simply a matter of believing in the promise of God concerning our position with Christ. It is recognizing the spiritual reality of our union with Jesus. And from this perspective—although it makes no sense when analyzed from the natural perspective—we enjoy the experience of the things of Christ, both now and forevermore.
Dewayne Dunaway
