Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Colossians 3:2
What are the most important things in your life? When He was delivering His Sermon on the Mount, the Lord Jesus presented to us a method for determining what are the most important things in our lives: Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also (Matthew 6:21-23). If you answer the following three questions honestly, you will know what things are the most important to you: What three things are you putting the most effort into? What three things do you love the most? What three things do you think about the most? Ah! Now you know what your priorities are! Do they match the instructions in our text?
We have all probably heard somebody tell us to get our priorities right. It’s good advice, and it is the advice of our text. Think about it, one hundred years from now, what will have happened to the three things that you put the most effort into, the three things that you loved the most, and the three things that you thought about the most? If our affections are on the things on the earth, those things will all be long gone, at least long gone from our experience. But that is the attitude of the world, as the apostle Paul reminds us in Philippians 3:19: ‘Whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things’. For the world, they can’t help it. But for the Christian, there is a conflict because of our old nature that is still with us. ‘This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would’ (Galatians 5:16-17). Yes, the Christian gets to make a choice between the things above and the things on the earth.
Our text is telling us that we need to make some changes from our old life. Firstly, we need to change our desires. We should learn to want the things that our Lord wants, a life of holiness and compassion, just as Jesus lived. Next, we need to change our thoughts. Paul puts it so clearly when he says: ‘Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things’ (Philippians 4:8). Finally, we need to change our actions. Our labour and efforts should be directed toward the things that pertain to our Lord, and not on the things that provide for our own comfort and pleasure.
It may not be easy to always set our affection on things above, not on things on the earth, but it is what our Lord wants us to do. – Jim MacIntosh