Seek and set

If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. – Colossians 3v1-2


‘Don’t love the world or the things that are in the world.’ I was looking over the passage this week in preparation for an upcoming message. When I read this passage today I was reminded of the connexion between these two scriptures and a few others.

The allure of the world is strong. We have to see the world and its system every single day, and all day long every day. It is there when we watch the news, it is there when we turn on the telly, it is there when we logon to the internet, and it is there as we go though our daily lives. It is so visible that it seems like we can’t get away from it. It manifests itself in the lust of the eyes, in the lust of the flesh, and in the pride of life.’ That is why God tells us to ‘look not on the things that are seen, but the things that are not seen.’

God must know that this is going to be a problem for us because He warns us of the same problem here. Those of us who have been raised with Christ have to decide what we are going to seek and where we are going to set our affections. Are we going to set our hearts and minds on those things that we see every day? Or are we going to set our hearts and minds on the things that are above; the invisible, eternal things that we cannot see?

So much of what we do every day is based on the wrong thing. Instead of basing decisions on what really matters, we base decisions on our circumstances. Sometimes I look around me and see all the ‘stuff’ going on. When that happens the problem is not with the ‘stuff’ is it because I am seeing the stuff and setting my heart and affection there.

When I love the world, I am always going to look in the wrong place. When I look in the wrong place it is because my affections are misplaced. My affections are misplaced because I love the world.

What problems we cause when we set our affections in the wrong place.