If you try your hardest, then you can do anything you want.

If you make enough money, then you will be happy.

If you go on this type of diet, then you will look good.

If you have this type of job, then you will be successful.

If you attend enough church events, then you will be holy.

These are just a few of the “if – then” statements we might hear flying about our culture today. Often times these conditional statements can be defined as pragmatic approach. Some of you might hear them in your churches. If you do these four things for your marriage, then….etc. While some of these statements can be true, many of them are not true, or are often misconceived or not Biblical.

Over the past nine weeks I have had the pleasure to walk with nine other men, as a part of our men’s ministry, on Tuesday nights through the book of Colossians. This truly has been a great study and has really opened my eyes to a new way of reading Scripture. I am learning that as I read I need to do more than just the “so what is he really saying here” and staying in the head knowledge, but moving to sanctified wisdom. I am now learning to read with a lens that let the indicatives, what God has done for me, and let the imparities shape my sanctification and pursuit to holiness.

The Apostle Paul in Colossians 3:1-3 starts off with a profound “if – then statement”. He says, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above…”. Paul says this because he has just finished telling the church to stay away from the philosophy (2:8), empty deceit (2:8), and asceticism (2:18). Paul beautifully and powerfully contrasts their cultural way of doing life with the life Jesus has called us to live. We are to not seek the patterns of this world, but the things above, where Christ is. This can only be true for those who are in Christ. Paul is using a conditional statement here. If we have been raised with Christ, (then) seek the things that are above.

If you have ever read Colossians 3, you will know that Paul gives a list of things that we are take off if we have been raised with Christ (Colossians 3:5-11), and there is a list that we are to put on (Colossians 3:12-17). The list we are to take off is not what God has called us to be, however, they directly benefit us. The list that Paul gives us on the other hand, is the Christ-centered way to live.

This list however, does not benefit us in the least bit – the way we think it should. Being kind, having a compassionate heart, and being patient (to name a few) do not benefit me. If anything, these things are burdensome. However, if we have been raised with Christ, we have no choice but to do these things. After all, they are imperatives – things are to do because we are now in Christ.

So what do we do with this? I will simply end by stating what Paul tells us to do with this,

“Put on then as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved:

• compassionate hearts
• kindness
• humility
• mekness
• patience
• forgive one another
• put on love
• let peace rule in your hearts
• let the Word dwell in you
  
  
• Wives, submit to your husbands
• Husbands, love your wives
• Childen, obey your parents
• Fathers, don't provoke