Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Colossians 3:1-4
As followers of Jesus, our life, our priorities, and all that we have and do have changed meaning. Paul says that because we have been raised with Jesus, we should set our hearts on the things above.
What does it mean that we are raised with Jesus? By committing ourselves to him, we have committed our lives to the one who purchased us, and saved us, from God’s wrath for the sin that we have committed. Therefore, since we have been purchased, we are no longer our own. We no longer should concern ourselves with the things of this life. Instead, we have died to the concerns of this life. We left those things behind when we committed ourselves to Christ.
Instead, we have been given a new life. We have died to the old life and we have been born again, resurrected into a new life with Christ Jesus. This means that we no longer need to worry about the things of this life. Instead, we need to look forward to concerns that are much greater, and of much more significance.
What will I eat? What will I wear? Jesus said that God will take care of these things for us.
This also reminds me of the parable that Jesus told about the treasure hidden in the field and the precious pearl. I wrote about it recently, which you can see more here, but as we remove our gaze and the time that we spend worrying about the things of this life, we prove what Jesus has said about the preciousness of the Kingdom of God.
In the parable, Jesus said that the Kingdom is like a treasure or a precious pearl, and when someone finds those things, they sell everything that they own to buy the treasure or to buy the pearl. That is because they recognize the value of what they have seen. In the same way, we must recognize the value of the Kingdom of God.
As we recognize the value of the Kingdom, we should fix our minds on those things. We must concern ourselves with the things that our King has in mind for us, no longer looking back to the old things, the old ways of life, the things of this world. We must continue to look forward, fixing our eyes and training our hearts and minds on the important things of heaven.