Set Your Hearts

Over the summer months, we are going to dive into the letter to the church at Colossae. It is attributed to Paul, but most scholars agree that it was likely written sometime late in the first Century, after Paul’s death. The Colossian followers of Jesus were struggling with some false teachers. There were philosophers at the time who were teaching that there was secret knowledge, mystic, hidden knowledge that TRUE believers received. There were teachers who were condemning them for not being circumcised, for not following the food laws, not practicing the festival rituals, or the new moons, or the elemental spirits of the universe…all kinds of rules and regulations and appeasing and ways of trying to fit in or be good enough to belong….and the writer of Colossians says in response, “I have heard about these false teachers who have been challenging your faith. And I want you to know how much I am struggling for you. I want your hearts to be encouraged and united in love. I want you to have all the riches of being assured, of understanding. I want you to know Jesus Christ himself, because then you will know the mystery of God, because all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in him.” Set your hearts and minds on Christ.

Have you ever had your heart set on something? I mean REALLY set. So set it was all you could think about? I have. I’m sure you have. Maybe it was a car, or a ring, maybe it was a special day. You thought about where you would be, what you would do, how it would be. You picture it in your mind’s eye. You daydream about it. You have a countdown to it. Whenever nothing else has your attention, it does.

This kind of fixation; this kind of compulsion; this kind of passion…this is what it means to be live for Christ. Set your minds on higher things, not the things of earth.

The writer of Colossians says, “You have been raised with Christ. In baptism, going under the water, and being raised back up symbolizes dying to the old life and being born to new life in Christ. You have been raised with Christ. Now, Christ is seated at the right hand of God, adopt that perspective. Look at things from there…”

Donald Coggan, a former Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote, “I go through life as a transient on his way to eternity, made in the image of God but with that image debased, needing to be taught how to meditate, to worship, to think.”

Earth is not our final destination. We are migrants, transitory, on our way to eternity. We are made in the image of God, but that image has been marred by graffiti, soiled by filth, covered with pride and selfishness. And we need to be taught how to meditate, to worship, to think, to set our minds on higher things, to look at the world and see what God sees.

So how do we do it? The truth is that we don’t. We can’t. God does.

Richard Foster wrote in his classic introduction to Christian discipleship, Celebration of Discipline, “The needed change within us is God’s work, not ours. The demand is for an inside job, and only God can work from the inside…..[spiritual disciplines like prayer and study, worship and service] allow us to place ourselves before God so that GOD can transform us.”

We all struggle with temptations? Desires? Greed? Anger? Impurity? How do we resist? Put them to death, says Colossians. Not by a struggle of will. Not because you want to change enough. Pet them to death by setting your heart and mind on higher things. Whatever in you that is earthly will die when you set your heart and mind on Christ.

When you open yourself to God’s grace in service to others, your struggles die. When you open yourself to God’s grace by studying his Word, your heart is shaped. When you open yourself to God’s grace by praying for our world and your concerns and for God’s will to be done through you, your desires are replaced by God’s desires. When you open yourself to God’s grace by coming to the Lord’s Table and remembering Christ, you are fed and satisfied. Set your heart as you receive his body, broken for you. Set your heart as you drink the Cup of Salvation poured out for you. Set your heart on his love.