Colossians 3:1Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

You ascended for Paul. It was not enough for him to follow You himself. He also taught us how to cleave to You and where to find You: "If you have risen with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ sits at the right hand of God."

Their Christian spiritual life must be alive, yet not evident either to the ascetic himself or to an outside eye, especially to one not initiated into the hidden life in Christ.

But when Christ appears on the bright day of His full glory, the truly Christian life of those who struggle in it will be revealed in all glory.

Conversely, the inglorious and sinful life will also then be revealed, though before it did not seem such to its very authors. Here it is especially worthy of attention that the Apostle places Christian life in the closest connection and dependence on Christ.

In the first verse he makes the renewal of our life dependent on Him (cf. Rom 6:4). In the third verse he says, “your life is hidden in Christ.” In the fourth verse he calls Jesus Christ Himself “our life.”

Explaining this mystery of life in Christ, Bishop Theophan says: “Believers in Jesus Christ put Him on and become one spirit with Him. And He is one with God the Father.

Consequently, through Him and to Him they again enter into union and communion with God. Such is the mystery of life in Christ. The Lord expressed it thus: ‘I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you’ (Jn 14:20).

Such is the golden chain. The Lord also explained how it is joined: ‘No one comes to the Father except through Me’ (Jn 14:6). God the Father draws all to the Son, and the Son brings them to the Father.

The communion of believers with God is established. Their life becomes hidden with Christ in God. St. Paul recalls this mystery of Christian life to confirm that Christians should always set their mind only on the things above.

You have died, he says, to everything, to yourselves, to the world, and to every creature. You have no need to think of all this. You have come alive with a new life.

Your life has become hidden with Christ in God. Think of God and set your mind on what is divine. Where your life is, there your heart and mind should also be.”

“That we shall appear in glory when Christ the Lord appears, St. Paul places in direct dependence on the fact that Christ the Lord is our life.

Having life in Him, we stand in an essential bond with Him, inseparably. Thus where He is and as He is, there we are also, and such are we also.

He will appear in glory. His appearance in glory will draw us all into His glory. From this it follows that, if this appearance in Christ’s glory is glorious and desirable, we must zealously struggle for one thing only.

We must have our life in Christ and from Christ. Then glory will come of itself. What the Apostle calls Christ the Lord being our life is not different from what he said about our life being hidden in God.

For it is hidden in God because it is Christ’s, not by origin alone, but by an essential living union with Christ the Lord, who is one with the Father.”

If you do not set your mind on things above, you will not ascend to the things above, there “where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.” But if you do not ascend there, where Christ is at the right hand of God, then consider, earthborn man, what will become of you. The visible heaven and earth will pass away. Outside the heavenly kingdom of Christ nothing will remain except Hades. Behold how the earth beneath you collapses and Hades opens. There is no other means of salvation than to cling with all your strength to what is above. We must learn to “set our mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” Learn to set one’s mind! Let no one be frightened by this demand. Let no one think that he is being subjected to the many difficulties joined to acquiring what on earth is called wisdom. Among these difficulties must be counted the very instruments of worldly wisdom: many teachers contradicting one another, and many books. These often act on both eye and mind only as harmful dust. Do not be afraid. Learning to think according to the Gospel is not the same as learning worldly wisdom. The heavenly mind does not depend so much on outward means. It does not require so many helps. It is not hedged about with difficulties as worldly wisdom is. Yet it does use outward means, does not reject helps, and is not exempt from difficulties of its own kind. The Apostle who wrote to us the commandment to set our mind on things above used the means and helps of earthly wisdom. He was “brought up at the feet of the learned Gamaliel.” But afterward he rejected all this, together with other advantages, as “loss” and “refuse,” “for the surpassing knowledge of Christ Jesus,” and “that he might gain Christ” (Phil 3:7-8). Therefore he rose in the heavenly mind even while he rejected the means and helps of earthly wisdom. The other Apostles learned only to mend fishermen’s nets, not to untangle learned arguments from books. Yet this did not hinder them from advancing in the heavenly mind for themselves, and from becoming teachers of it even for the sages. So it was also after the Apostles. Basil the Great acquired the wisdom of Athens and handed it over as a servant to the mind of the Gospel. Arsenius, also called Great, possessed Greek and Roman learning. Yet he found himself ignorant enough, and an uneducated Egyptian elder learned enough, that he might learn from him the rudiments of spiritual wisdom. Thus the heavenly mind, though still lofty for sages, is also simple enough for babes. For Thou, “Father, Lord of heaven and earth, hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them unto babes” (Mt 11:25). What then does it mean to set one’s mind on things above? I repeat: if you do not understand this, it is evident that you do not do it. If you do not set your mind on things above, then there is no doubt that you set your mind on earthly things. Therefore you already know this. What do you do when you set your mind on the earthly? For example, what do you do when you devise how to become rich? You desire riches. You often think about them. You invent means for acquiring and increasing them. You actually use these means. Whatever you do, you do with the intention of acquiring and increasing riches. You place your welfare in possessing riches. By this example one may say generally that to set one’s mind on earthly things means to desire the earthly, think of the earthly, do earthly things, intend the earthly, and place one’s welfare in the earthly. Change the object, and it will appear what it means to set one’s mind on things above. It means to desire what is above, that is, what is heavenly, or otherwise spiritual and divine. It means to think of the heavenly, to do heavenly things, or, according to the Gospel saying, “to do the works of God” (Jn 6:28). It means to intend the heavenly and place blessedness in the heavenly. How difficult, some will think. In order to have the heavenly in thoughts, desires, and works, an earthly man must change his deeds, his desires, and even his thoughts. I do not dispute that this is necessary, or that it is not altogether easy. But what is to be done? To ascend a height is harder than to fall into an abyss. Is it therefore better to fall into the abyss? It is difficult to set one’s mind on things above. But is it not also difficult to set one’s mind on earthly things? For example, is the chosen mindset easy for a covetous man? He labors day and night. He deprives himself of food and rest. Sometimes he leaves home. He withdraws from those dear to his heart. He crosses dry land. He launches into the sea. He descends into the depths of the earth. He is tormented now by hunger for acquisition, now by care to preserve, now by fear of possible loss, or by despair over actual loss. If the thought of becoming rich on earth with corruptible treasure, for a little time, makes one endure such hardships, is the thought of acquiring heavenly treasure not worth an ascetic struggle? Is incorruptible treasure forever not worth it? It is difficult for an earthly man to set his mind on things above. Yet does not a grain of wheat, buried in the earth at your feet, set its mind on things above in its own manner? It opens. It breaks upward through the earth with its sprout, struggling against the earth’s weight and its own. It grows higher and higher. Striving ceaselessly upward, it blossoms and bears fruit. Do you think that an earthly man has been given less strength than a grain of wheat to arise into the higher realm according to his kind? It is difficult for an earthly man to set his mind on things above. But are you wholly earthly, O man? Is man properly that which is taken from the earth and returns to the earth? Is this not only your garment, or, if you will, your prison? You yourself, the true man, are the breath of life that proceeded from the mouth of God Himself. For it is written: “He breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul” (Gen 2:7). Thus, if it is difficult for you as earthly, is it not easy for you as heavenly to set your mind on things above? Is it hard for fire to go upward, where its natural realm lies? Is it hard for a stone to fall to the earth, where it was born? Is it hard for the human spirit to strive toward the things above and draw near to the Most High? If the fall of the old Adam turned man’s striving away from the things above toward the lower and nether regions, did not the Resurrection and Ascension of the new Adam, the God-man, Jesus Christ, restore this striving with double power to its first direction? Did it not set up a ladder to heaven? Did not the descent of the Holy Spirit kindle in mankind a spiritually burning fire? Does this fire not naturally go upward and draw upward that in which it dwells? After this, is it still difficult to set one’s mind on things above, even if deeds, desires, and thoughts must be changed for this? But how can one leave earthly deeds, desires, and thoughts, when earthly things surround us and are necessary for earthly life? Watch yourself, how you leave what is above for earthly thinking, and you will find a very simple way to leave the earthly for the heavenly. You shorten for yourself the time of works of piety, in order to have more time for worldly affairs. Sometimes you go to the temple of God, yet meanwhile you still think of what occupies you at home. Sometimes, even while you stand bodily in the temple of prayer, your thought departs where earthly thinking or the passion ruling in you draws it. Your very spiritual exercises are damaged by earthly recollections coming into their midst. Act in the opposite way. Do the works necessary for earthly life, but try not to extend them beyond necessity. As far as possible, free yourself from this labor for the liberty of works of piety. Do not only, while standing before God in the temple, restrain your thought from turning aside to earthly things. Outside the temple also, when necessity occupies you with earthly things, draw your thought and desire away from them and raise them to heaven and to God. When you go to worldly work, remember God and ask His blessing and help. When you enter into rest from this work, remember God and thank Him for His help in labor and for the gift of rest. Thus one may join spiritual thought to every earthly occupation that is not contrary to the law of God. One may, so to speak, turn everything earthly and visible into what is heavenly and spiritual. “When thou lookest at the sun,” teaches Saint Macarius, “seek the true Sun, for thou art blind. When thou stretchest thy gaze toward the light, turn thence with thine eyes toward thy soul, and see whether thou hast in it the true and good Light, that is, the Lord” (Homily 33). May the light of our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten us. May His Spirit strengthen us. May following His word and His life raise each of us to the heavenly mind on earth, and thereby to the blessed vision of Him in heaven, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Amen.

The first conclusion concerned the cognitive side. If you died with Christ to everything material, why seek supports for your convictions and hopes in anything material?

The present second conclusion concerns the active side, the Christian life. If you were raised with Christ, seek the things above. That we have risen with Christ is derived from the power and meaning of the mystery of baptism.

From the fact that we have risen, a new conclusion is drawn: seek the things above. What it means to seek the things above is determined by what it means to rise with Christ.

In the Epistle to the Romans, St. Paul defines resurrection with Christ thus: “As Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life” (Rom 6:4).

To walk in newness of life means to seek the things above. But what does it mean to walk in newness of life? It means to walk in a way opposite to the old life.

The old life began with the fall, when man fell away from communion with God, for which he was appointed, and descended into self-pleasing, sensuality, and love of created things.

The renewal of life is the entrance again into living communion with God through the rejection of self-pleasing, sensuality, and love of created things. To abide in this order of life is to walk in newness of life.

Further, it is to seek the things above. Therefore to seek the things above is to strive with all strength always to abide in living communion with God. For what is higher than God?

And he who has sought and found God, what higher thing can he still seek? Therefore the prophet David cries: “My heart said to Thee: I shall seek the Lord. My face has sought Thee. Thy face, O Lord, I shall seek” (cf. Ps 26:8).

He invites all: “Seek God, and your soul shall live” (Ps 68:33). The very phrase “seek the things above” means to seek what is on high, to seek heavenly things.

This is more commonly expressed as seeking the Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God. But what is this Kingdom? It is when God begins to reign in the soul.

Through the Lord Jesus Christ, the soul’s communion with God, broken by the fall, is restored. Entering again into communion with the soul, God dwells in it.

By giving it life and governing all its movements, He restores to it the well-being it had lost. This is the Kingdom of God. It will also constitute eternal blessedness.

Therefore one may say that it contains within itself everything anyone might imagine under the name of the higher goods. Another indication of what the Apostle means by the things above appears in the words: “where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.”

Ambrosiaster writes that “the Apostle calls those raised with Christ in baptism the ones who seek what is above the heavens, where the throne of Christ is, where God the Father has given His right hand to His Son, that He may reign and judge.”

“To what heights he has raised our mind! With what a great thought he has filled it!” cries St. John Chrysostom.

Therefore, seeking the things above is seeking what is suggested by the Lord and Savior’s sitting at the right hand of the Father. The sitting of the Lord Jesus Christ at the Father’s right hand means His holding all things in His power.

It is the actual manifestation of what He said of Himself: “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Mt 28:18). Together with this, it is His abiding in glory and divine all-sufficiency, or blessedness.

This is what the Lord’s sitting at the Father’s right hand suggests. Our seeking here can have as its object only the last two: glory and blessedness.

As for Christ’s sovereignty over all, seeking in relation to it can have only this meaning: that Christ the Almighty would also rule over us.

This is the same as seeking to be obedient and most devoted servants of Christ the Lord, or seeking that He make us such. We are enrolled as servants of Christ the Lord when in baptism we renounce Satan and all his works and unite ourselves to Christ.

We become servants in deed when we fulfill His commandments with all zeal and strive not to depart in anything from His holy will. This sets us on the sure path to the other two blessings.

These are His glory and blessedness, and glory and blessedness with Him, to which Christ’s sitting at the Father’s right hand points. For He promised: “Where I am, there shall My servant be also.”

Before this He defined His servant thus: “If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me” (cf. Jn 12:26). To follow Him means to walk in His will and commandments, even to the laying down of one’s life.

Thus Christ’s glory and blessedness already belong to His servants, according to His promise. One need only show oneself His true servant by walking in His commandments.

This is the same as seeking that Christ the Lord rule over us. It follows that all three objects of seeking, indicated by the Lord’s sitting at the Father’s right hand, converge in one thing.

They converge in seeking to walk unwaveringly in Christ’s commandments. This is not far from what resurrection with Christ showed us to seek.

Resurrection with Christ showed us the seeking of the things above as the seeking of communion with God. The indispensable means to this is walking in Christ’s commandments.

For the Lord says: “He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father; and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”

A little later He says: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word. My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him” (cf. Jn 14:21, 23).

Thus the things above that are sought are not far from us. As the Lord said of the Kingdom of God, “Behold, the Kingdom of God is within you” (cf. Lk 17:21), so the things above which the Apostle commands us to seek are within us.

When we hear the Apostle saying, “Seek the things above,” we must not direct the mind’s gaze into an indefinite height. We must enter within ourselves.

There, in our heart, we must establish the ascent to the living God, through the Lord and Savior, in the Holy Spirit. In a word, “the things above” does not indicate place, but defines dignity.