3:1 If {1} ye then {2} be {a} risen with Christ, {3} seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
(1) Another part of this epistle, in which he takes occasion by reason of those vain exercises, to show the duty of a Christian life: which is an ordinary thing with him, after he has once set down the doctrine itself.
(2) Our renewing or new birth, which is accomplished in us by being partakers of the resurrection of Christ, is the source of all holiness, out of which various streams or rivers afterwards flow.
(a) For if we are partakers of Christ, we are carried as it were into another life, where we will need neither meat nor drink, for we will be similar to the angels.
(3) The end and mark which all the duties of Christian life aim at is to enter into the kingdom of heaven, and to give ourselves to those things which lead us there, that is, to true godliness, and not to those outward and physical things.
3:1 The New Life in Christ
SUMMARY OF COLOSSIANS 3:
Fellowship with the Risen Christ. Our Lives with Him. Hence, All the Evil Deeds of the Old Life Must Be Put Away. All Distinctions Done Away in Christ. Hence, Brotherly Love Must Be Cherished. The Indwelling of Christ's Word. Concerning Songs. Various Duties.
If ye then be risen with Christ. The Revised Version is correct: If then ye were raised together with Christ. A definite act, not a state, is referred to. The definite act is named in Col 2:12. When they were buried with him in baptism, they were also raised from this burial with him through faith, quickened. Hence here he says, If then ye were raised with him, if your obedience was from the heart and in faith, if you rose therefore with him (these are the emphatic words), then
seek those things which are above. The risen Christ ascended; let your aspirations ascend also.
Where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. See PNT Eph 1:20.
3:1 If ye are risen, seek the things above - As Christ being risen, immediately went to heaven.
3:1-4 As Christians are freed from the ceremonial law, they must walk the more closely with God in gospel obedience. As heaven and earth are contrary one to the other, both cannot be followed together; and affection to the one will weaken and abate affection to the other. Those that are born again are dead to sin, because its dominion is broken, its power gradually subdued by the operation of grace, and it shall at length be extinguished by the perfection of glory. To be dead, then, means this, that those who have the Holy Spirit, mortifying within them the lusts of the flesh, are able to despise earthly things, and to desire those that are heavenly. Christ is, at present, one whom we have not seen; but our comfort is, that our life is safe with him. The streams of this living water flow into the soul by the influences of the Holy Spirit, through faith. Christ lives in the believer by his Spirit, and the believer lives to him in all he does. At the second coming of Christ, there will be a general assembling of all the redeemed; and those whose life is now hid with Christ, shall then appear with him in his glory. Do we look for such happiness, and should we not set our affections upon that world, and live above this?
