The Apostle Paul has an admonition for the Christians in Colossae, a mercantile center in ancient Phrygia, near Laodicea – a melting pot of religious influences and the center of a cult around the archangel Michael, who was believed to have created a curative water spring there. A city full of contrasts and confusing religious narratives.
He says to them:
“If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
Colossians 3:1-3
I don’t know about you, but I find that a helpful admonition for us today. With the rise of social media, online news and instant info, our world is abuzz with confusing narratives. Especially during the last six months, first with the COVID-19 pandemic and now with the unrest in the cities following the brutal death of George Floyd. News programs, websites, and social media are full of fast-flying instructions, predictions, analyses, opinions, sound-bites, feel-good stories, slogans, rallying cries and causes.
It is so easy to get lost. And tired. And depressed.
Most of the narratives flying around in our digital ecosystems are that of the world, and focus on external things. Even Bible texts are sometimes being thrown around on social media like slogans to hang onto, with little attention given to context.
Paul’s admonition to set our minds on things above is important for us as Christians. We have a Biblical narrative, a heavenly perspective that the world doesn’t have. It behooves us to keep our eyes on that, and filter all the information going around on worldly events through the lens of God’s Word. If there ever was a time to know your Bible well, it is now!
Being avidly interested in news, history and current events, I am as tempted as the next guy to get lost in worldly narrative and grab onto whichever perspective appeals to me the most. But then I hear God’s voice: “Keep your eyes on my narrative, not on that of the world.”
What is that narrative, you might ask? It is the one that flows forth from our True Identity – who we are in Christ and Who Christ is in us. Let me break that down for you into seven specific components that have helped me the most and that I remind myself of every day.
First: as a Christian I placed my faith in Christ. Because of His sacrifice on the cross, I was forgiven, redeemed, born again, adopted into God’s household, filled with the Holy Spirit, gifted by the Holy Spirit, made a citizen of heaven, and a member of God’s holy nation, royal priesthood, and people of His own possession. (Ephesians 1, 1 Peter 2:9).
Second: I was born again into a worldwide body of believers from every imaginable skin color, ethnic heritage, culture and language that is being built into God’s living temple. By God’s design we were all saved the same way, and are interdependent on each other as we employ the gifts of the Spirit to build one another up in our faith. ( 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4:1-16)
Third: As the worldwide Body of Christ, we were given a Great Commission for all ages: “to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19) That is still our primary mission. Our efforts are supposed to be about souls, more than social justice, poverty relief or world health. Though all are important and worth of care, concern and effort – they are in vain if a man gains more rights, more wealth or greater health but dies without Christ (Mark 8:36). Therefore they cannot be the ultimate goal of a Christian’s mission.
Fourth: We are a people of His own possession “that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9)
The significance of that in today’s context is that all human divisions are based on outward things like class, wealth, skin color, gender, age, and what have you. They are rooted in sin, which is our inner drive to be our own God and produces in us the need to compare ourselves to others and use whatever outward means to come out on top in our own eyes. In its subtlest form it is “keeping up with the Joneses,” in some of its most brutal forms it is racial discrimination, ethnic cleansing and slavery. We proclaim that in Christ, the dividing walls of hostility (the outward things) are broken down – He made one way for every human being to be saved and reconciled to God regardless of background, and once saved pours out His self-sacrificing, forgiving, reconciling, unifying love our into our sin-soaked hearts by His Spirit (Ephesians 2:14-22, Romans 5:5). Now that’s a hopeful, heavenly narrative!
Fifth: As the people of His own possession, it is upon us to show that we are His by our love (John 13:35). Love is made visible by unity and caring for one another’s needs (Acts 2:44-47, 4:32-35). If there is any group of people that has the power and the responsibility to model unity in diversity, it is God’s people.
Sixth: The turmoil we see is not a battle between left and right or black and white, but darkness and light (Ephesians 6:10-12). Therefore gird yourself daily with the armor of God (Ephesians 6:13-18). I start my day that way. Every day when I get dressed I pray through the six components of it that together give me the mindset I have to have in Christ throughout the day. We’re in the midst of unprecedented spiritual attack on the church and our nation, and as Christians we have a crucial role in its outcome through the power of prayer, in the authority we have in Christ over the forces of evil.
Seventh: Because of reminders one through five, the only answer to the unrest, division, hostility, deception, chaos and fear that appears to have gripped our nation, is spiritual revival. Starting with my heart, to ensure that I live out of God’s narrative instead of the world’s, then revival in the church – to cry out for an outpouring of His unifying love by the Holy Spirit. And then for our nation to come into its stated objective by being one nation under God which will enable all to have the same liberty and justice.
So pray, proclaim, love! If you don’t know where to start – just pray, and let God lead you into what He wants you to do.
Seek to know and live out of God’s narrative for us and the world. We live in the end times of which Jesus said that love will grow cold and lawlessness will abound (Matthew 24:12).
The nations are being shaken, the people’s rage. But if we want hostilities to end, we must proclaim to this divided nation that only Christ can end them – by calling all people to Himself and breaking down the walls of hostility inside the sinful human heart. Protests, slogans, causes, community initiatives, law changes cannot do that. Only the outpouring of God’s love into the heart reconciled to Him.