In Colossians 3:5-11, the Apostle Paul instructs Christians on how to live out their faith by “putting to death” and “put away” the sins in his or her life. Paul specifically instructs the believer to put to death sins of immorality and put away sins of the tongue because they have died in Christ and are now hidden in Christ. We are to put on the new self, which is being renewed in the knowledge of God who is our creator.

Having extolled the Gospel and provided some necessary warnings to the Colossian believers in chapters 1-2, Paul now is ready to instruct this local church on the Christ-like behavior that ought to characterize their ordinary Christian living in chapters 3-4. Doctrine must always lead to stirred affections and holy obedience. In these opening verses, the call is to look up to the things above – Seek them and Set your minds on them. You died to the earthly, ‘below things’ and you belong to the ‘above things.’

What do we want people to say about our local church? Our prayer is that above all they recognize a group of people who are committed to holding high the beauty of our Lord Jesus Christ. We want others to see that our main preoccupation is not to make a name for ourselves, but to make the name of Jesus famous. These are other ways of simply saying – We want to be all about the glory of God!