3 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Colossians 3:1–4.
Through the Bible: Colossians, Philemon
When Secret Service agents are trained to spot counterfeit currency, they don’t begin by studying counterfeits. Instead, they get so familiar with the real thing that the counterfeit becomes immediately obvious. In a nutshell, this is Paul’s approach in the short book of Colossians. Colossians carries a lot of theological weight in just four chapters, and it’s easy to read it the wrong way—either as a list of lofty doctrines, or as a set of moral instructions detached from everyday life. Paul won’t let us do either.
If you want to read Colossians well, here’s the key: everything in the letter flows from who Christ is and what is already true because of him.
A 30,000 foot view of Colossians
Unlike Ephesus, or Philippi, Thessalonica or Corinth, the church at Colossae was not planted by Paul, nor did he ever visit, as far as we know. Colossae was a small, declining city in the Lycus Valley, overshadowed by nearby Laodicea and Hierapolis. The most likely explanation is that the church was planted indirectly—through Paul’s extended ministry in Ephesus, where Luke tells us that “all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord” (Acts 19:10). Colossians itself points to Epaphras as the one who first brought the gospel to them (Col. 1:7).
That distance matters. Paul is not writing as their founding pastor or a familiar face. He is writing as an apostle responding to a report—and what he hears concerns him. The Colossians seem to have been influenced by a number of different philosophies and teachings that, while not rejecting Christ, were seeking to add to gospel. The letter hints at a mix of influences: Jewish legalism (food laws, festivals, sabbaths), ascetic practices (severity to the body), fascination with spiritual intermediaries (angels), and claims to hidden wisdom and deeper knowledge (Col. 2:8, 16–23). It wasn’t one clean heresy so much as a fog of voices suggesting that faith in Christ alone was not quite enough.
That explains why Colossians sounds the way it does. Paul does not begin with what Christians should do. He begins with who Christ is.
Start With Christ, Not Yourself
Colossians opens with one of the most expansive portraits of Jesus in the New Testament. Christ is the image of the invisible God. All things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together (Col. 1:15–17).
That matters because Paul is writing to believers who are being pressured to add something to their faith—extra rules, extra spiritual experiences, extra practices that promise fullness. Paul’s response is not to debate each rule individually. He simply says, in effect, Why would you add anything to the One who already fills everything?
When you read Colossians, always ask: What is Paul saying about Christ right now? Every command is downstream from that answer.
Read the Imperatives as Consequences, Not Conditions
Colossians 3 contains some of Paul’s most familiar instructions: put to death what is earthly, put on compassion and kindness, forgive as the Lord has forgiven you. But notice how chapter 3 begins:
“You have been raised with Christ.”
“You have died.”
“Your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
These are not goals to achieve. They are realities to live from.
Colossians is not telling you how to become someone new. It is teaching you how to live like someone who already is. The ethical commands of the letter only make sense when you read them as consequences of resurrection, not conditions for it.
Watch for the “Already” Language
One of the most important words in Colossians is a word we often miss: already.
Believers have already been transferred into the kingdom of the Son (1:13).
We already have redemption and forgiveness (1:14).
We have already died, and our life is already hidden with Christ (3:3).
If you read Colossians as a future-only letter—one day we’ll be raised, one day Christ will rule, one day we’ll belong—you’ll miss Paul’s urgency. He is not pointing us to a distant hope so much as calling us to live in a present reality. Christ reigns now. And that reign reshapes how we think, speak, work, forgive, and endure.
Look for the Sacred in the Midst of Ordinary
One of the surprises of Colossians is where it ends up. After soaring Christology and deep theology, Paul talks about households, work, speech, and relationships. Slaves and masters. Parents and children. Words spoken at the dinner table.
That’s not a shift in topic—it’s the point.
Colossians refuses to separate spiritual life from ordinary life. If Christ is Lord of all creation, then he is Lord of kitchens and workshops and conversations and conflicts. There is no corner of life where his reign does not matter.
If you read Colossians well, you won’t walk away with abstract ideas. You’ll walk away asking, What does the lordship of Christ look like right here?
Read It as a Letter About Fullness
Paul uses the language of fullness over and over again. The fullness of God dwells in Christ. And in Christ, believers have been filled (2:9–10). That’s the pastoral heart of the letter. Colossians is written to people who feel like they’re missing something. Paul insists they aren’t.
You don’t read Colossians to discover what’s lacking in your faith. You read it to remember what you already have in Christ—and to let that fullness shape the way you live.
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above—not as an escape from the world, but as a way of living faithfully within it.
So here’s the quiet question Colossians leaves us with: where are you looking for fullness right now?
Not in theory, but in practice. Not what you would say in a Bible study, but what you reach for when you’re tired, discouraged, lonely, or afraid. The Colossians were not abandoning Christ—they were supplementing him. And we are often tempted to do the same.
Paul’s invitation is not to strive harder, but to look higher. To set our minds on what already is: Christ reigning, Christ sufficient, Christ holding all things together—including us.
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above. Not because earth doesn’t matter, but because heaven’s King already does.
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