Bible Study

The Gift of Eternal Life Berean Bible Study Course

Part II--The Process Of Reconciliation With God

F. Lesson 12--We Must Be Faithful In Serving The Lord

12. READ: COLOSSIANS 3:1-17

a. What must we set our hearts and minds on?

Answer: We must set our hearts and minds on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Our hearts should not yearn for, and our minds should not think about, earthly things, (verses 1 and 2).

MORE INFORMATION AND/OR OTHER SCRIPTURE REFERENCES:

• The reason that we cannot go back to thinking about and yearning for earthly things--the pleasures of this world, the gratification of self--is that we DIED to that old life of sin and death in our death and burial in baptism:

Romans 6:1-4: "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life."

• By that same baptism, we were resurrected with Christ by God. God has seated us with Christ in the heavenly realms in Christ. We are now hidden WITH Christ IN God, (verse 3).

Remember what Colossians 2:11-12 says: "In Him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, having been buried with Him in baptism and raised with Him through your faith in the power of God, Who raised Him from the dead."

Ephesians 2:6: "And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus..."

Since we are with Christ in the heavenly realms, our minds and hearts must be set on things above.

• Any Christian who returns the intent of his heart and mind to earthly things, and causes other Christians to do so, is like a dog returning to eat its own vomit, or a pig that is washed going back to her wallowing in the mud. Peter describes such people in 2 Peter 2:17-22:

"These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity--for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: ‘A dog returns to its vomit,' and, ‘A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.'"