Summary of the Sermon
We live in a society and at a time that places a great deal of value on discovering ourselves, on being authentic, and not letting ourselves be placed into boxes by others. In Scripture, we find a different emphasis. We are encouraged away from self-invention or even deep soul-searching to find out who we “really” are, and instead are told to set our hearts and minds on Jesus Christ, “who is your life.”
In the dense passage at the beginning of Colossians 3, the apostle Paul encourages the Colossians to set their hearts and minds on “things above, where Christ is.” The Colossian believers have been searching for fulfilment in other ways. They have emphasized ecstatic spiritual experiences and visions (2:18), and have begun following rigorous routines and rules (2:21). Paul tells them that these are not able to truly transform their lives, and in fact will take them away from the life God wants for us (2:19, 2:23). They need to give up the old search and start to focus on Christ.
Both we and the Colossians tend to look in the wrong place for fulfilment. We need to look to Jesus Christ, because we now belong to him. “You died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” We will discover our real life as we get closer to Jesus. Rather than moving deeper into ourselves and finding no real help, as we move more intently toward Jesus we will find ourselves at last.
We might worry that if all of us are to find our true life in Jesus, we might lose what is distinctive about each of us. But in fact this is the only way to become what we were made to be, to really see ourselves as God intended us to be. C.S. Lewis compares this to the use of salt in food. Far from making everything taste like salt, salt brings out the true flavour of every food. Jesus does this for us as we let our lives rest in his hands.
Questions for discussion
1. Personal reflection: How much have you been motivated in your life by questions about finding yourself or cultivating your individual identity? Have you found it to be a helpful search and a positive experience? What have been the advantages of this search? What have been its difficulties?
2. Examining the passage: Read Colossians 2:20-3:4. What questions arise for you? Are there any particular phrases or words that intrigue you or confuse you or cause you to pause? Why?
3. “Set your hearts… minds on things above…” What are the obstacles that get in the way of you “setting your heart and mind” on Christ and on God’s Word? Have you found any strategies that are helpful for making room in your life for this?
4. Verse 4 says that Christ “is your life” and that “when he appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” As you think about your life today, to what degree and in what ways is it evident that Christ “is your life”? Can you see ways in which this is truer now than it was a year ago? Five years ago?
5. Read Romans 8:28-30 and Romans 12:1-2. What do these two passages have to say about “conformity” and how might you connect their teaching to Colossians 3:1-4?
6. In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis tells a parable invented by his favourite author, the 19th century writer George MacDonald. It goes like this:
Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in. a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.
(The idea of God coming to live in the “house” that we are comes from Ephesians 2:19-22 and 1 Corinthians 3:16 and 6:18-20.)
If your life belongs to Christ, are there parts of your life that you are protective of, areas where you resist letting him start doing renovations and repairs? If so, why do you think you are resistant to him?
7. Prayer activity (aloud or silent). Underlying this passage is the idea that God knows us better than we know ourselves, and that what we think is “the true me” may not be so. Read Psalm 139:1-6, 13-15, 23-24. After reading these verses, move into a time of prayer and reflection in which we can deepen our trust that God knows us best, and commit ourselves to seeking his direction in “finding ourselves” in Christ.
For further reflection:
In the book After You Believe: Why Christian Character Matters, N.T. Wright writes the following, which relates well to the challenges of both the Colossians and us:
Do we have to choose between a system of Rules (which we then just need to hammer out and agree on) and a system of Finding Out Who I Really Am (and being true to it)? Are there other ways not only of discovering how we should live but of actually living that way? What happens, not only individually but also corporately, after you believe?
…Jesus himself, backed up by the early Christian writers, speaks repeatedly about the development of a particular character. Character—the transforming, shaping, and marking of a life and its habits—will generate the sort of behaviour that rules might have pointed toward but which a “rule-keeping” mentality can never achieve. And it will produce the sort of life which will in fact be true to itself—though the “self” to which it will at last be true is the redeemed self, the transformed self, not the merely “discovered” self of popular thought. (After You Believe, p. 7)
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