Hiding Our Lives In Jesus Christ

If then you were raised with Christ,

seek those things which are above,

where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.

Set your mind on things above,

not on things on the earth.

For you died, and your life is hidden

with Christ in God.

When Christ who is our life appears,

then you also will appear with him in glory.

Therefore put to death your members

which are on the earth:

fornication, uncleanness, passion,

evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.

Colossians 3: 1 -- 5

            These words of the apostle Paul are often ignored, which is to be expected by those who do not, and have not converted to our Savior Jesus Christ.  If a person has not set their minds on things which are above, we who are converted to our Lord Jesus Christ should not be amazed.  What is amazing is that for many who claim to be converts to the Lord Jesus Christ are doing much the same things as those who are unconverted.  This failure of converted Christian to set their minds on things above is cause for the calumny used by the unconverted to chide the profession that is made by some Christians because they say but do not do those things which are true Christianity, which are not an actual part of their life.  Many Christians write and post Scripture and give some credence to the Lord Jesus Christ.  This may be a sincere effort to spread the gospel and that must be commended and applauded; yet for many it is only a means to hide the actuality of what is occurring in their lives.  To say that you have love for Jesus Christ may be the truth.  Is this love based on the fact that your life is hidden in Jesus Christ and God or have you died to Christ which is to die from the things on the earth?  Is your love of Jesus Christ more than just the notion, or some hope, that Jesus Christ will appear a second time upon the earth and His children will appear with Him in glory?  Have you put to death those things on the earth which is to be found among the unconverted which are fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness?  If not then what you are doing is condemned in God's Word and that condemnation is idolatry.  There are two things mentioned by Paul mentioned in the. above scriptures which: first you must die to yourself in a hide your life in Jesus Christ; secondly you are to put to death your members which are on the earth.  A person may say they'd love Jesus Christ and yet their lives are lived as though they our adherence to Satan for they have accepted worldly cultures.  Some of those things which are worldly and accepted by some Christians are such things as; same sex marriage, homosexuality, abortion, passion for self-realization by attempting to reach out and "find themselves," and this done by being entertained by those who act and dress without respect for another and only to claim that they have the right to do what ever they want and covet to be a celebrity or to have those things which are considered by the world to be successful.  Many have fallen prey to movies and television shows that promote those very things that Paul as stated in the above opening Scripture.  Out of such desires to be led by the cultures, philosophies, ideologies, and her false theologies come heresies; many have not yet died to Christ and have accepted heresies. 

            This problem is not new for this was the fight that the early church had to fight against those who would promote philosophies and ideologies that were not founded upon the truth of God's Word or any of the teachings of the apostles that is, they design for themselves what would be pleasing to their minds their presuppositions and those things which they attempted to draw people away from the truth and this is going on in our world today.  Reading the books of Irenaeus, Against Heresies, show us how numerous were the Gnostic groups and how varied where of their ideas.  Marcion who became influential in the Roman Church (not the Roman Catholic Church as we know it today) and gave much money to the church around the year 138 A.D. posited two gods, the first God was considered evil which was the God of the Old Testament and the other God was created to be good in order to be able to read being man.  What Marcion was doing was simply pandering to the anti-Semitism that could be found in some churches.  Marcion rejected the deity of the human Jesus Christ.  Arius would hold to that belief as well and at the Council of Nicaea in 325A.D was condemned for such and can be found today in such religious groups as Jehovah Witnesses.  This is to ignore the writings of Paul to the Colossians Church which was inspired by God for us today and all who will go after us: "For it pleased the Father that in Him the fullness should dwell...  For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (Colossians 1: 19; 2: 9).  Marcion gave developed his own canon of Scripture which included the gospel of Luke, Acts, and that 10 letters associated with Paul.  Due to his heresy he was expelled from the church and then he founded his own church.  Many churches today are founded on false teaching and heresy as was with this man Marcion.  With men such as Marcion made cause for the early true Christians who had died to Christ, who set their minds on things above and not on this earth, who had a love for Jesus Christ and the Church that nothing of this world, its teachings, would keep them from helping Christians to avoid heresy. 

            The question for all of us who say we have the love for our Lord Jesus Christ is this: Will we die to this world and hide our lives in Jesus Christ who is God the second person of the Godhead who will come in his own time on the last day to redeem His bride?  Due to these many heretical teachings came the need to have scriptures which are the other for taking doctrine for our lives and four creeds by which we can test orthodoxy in all this was for the events to Christian then and now this will be the thrust of the upcoming blogs.

Yet in deed I also count all things

            loss for the excellence

of the knowledge of Christ Jesus

            my Lord, for whom I have

suffered the loss of all thing, and

            count them as rubbish,

then I may gain Christ and be

            found in Him, not having

my own righteousness, which is

            from the law, but that which is

through faith in Christ, without righteousness

            which is from God by faith;

                                    Philippians 3: 8 -- 9

The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.  Amen

Richard L. Crumb