Colossians 3:1-4
Hidden with Christ
1Therefore, since you have been raised with Christ, strive for the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
3For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
4When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
Berean Standard Bible
Four verses, and they turn the letter. What Paul has been saying is true of them becomes the ground for what he asks of them, and these four sentences are where the weight shifts.
Therefore, since you have been raised with Christ, strive for the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.
Since you have been raised. Not so that you may be, and not if you can manage it. Paul said in chapter 2 that they were buried with Christ in baptism and raised with him through faith in the power of God, and he is now building the instruction on top of that as an accomplished fact. The command comes second and it depends on the fact.
Strive is an active word and so is set your minds, so this is not a call to sit still. What has changed is where the effort points. He does not tell them to try harder at the rules he has just demolished. He tells them to want what is up there, where Christ is, and the reason given is that a person who has been raised with somebody belongs where that somebody now is.
Then the strangest sentence in the letter.
For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
You died, he tells them, and the life that followed is not described as improved or restored. It is described as hidden. That is an odd thing to be told about your own life, and it is meant to be a comfort rather than a puzzle: a hidden thing is a kept thing. Nobody can reach it, damage it or take it, because of where it has been put and who it has been put with.
It also explains something a family will feel. If your real life is hidden, then what other people can see of you is not the whole of it, and neither is what you can see of yourself on a bad day. The evidence is not all in.
When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
Which is where the hiding ends. Paul does not promise that the hidden life will be explained or proved. He says it will appear, at the same time as Christ does, because it was never a separate thing from him. Christ, who is your life, is the phrase to carry out of these four verses.
Questions
1 Paul says strive for the things above. Is that the same as ignoring ordinary life?
AnswerNo. This is about what we want and where we look, and it does not stay abstract for long. He says set your minds on things above, and then he gets to the kitchen and the workshop.
2 Why does the command come after "since you have been raised" rather than before it?
AnswerBecause it rests on it. Paul is not telling them to climb toward something. He is telling people who have already been raised with Christ to live toward where they now belong.
3 Your life is hidden with Christ in God. Is that a good thing or a worrying one?
AnswerA hidden thing is a kept thing. It cannot be reached, damaged or taken, because of where it is and who it is with. What other people can see of us is not the whole of it.
4 What happens at the end of the four verses?
AnswerChrist appears, and everybody who was hidden with him appears too. Paul calls him our life, so the two cannot show up separately.
What This Means for Us
Somebody in this house is being judged by what can be seen of them. A school report, a mistake that everybody remembers, a version of themselves other people settled on years ago. These verses say the real life is not on display yet, and that the day it is will be the day Christ is.
That also cuts the other way, gently. If our life is hidden with Christ, then the version of ourselves we work hardest to display is not the important one either. A good deal of family effort goes into managing appearances, and Paul has just said the thing that matters is out of sight and safe.
So ask each person what they think other people see when they look at them. Take the answers without correcting them. Then read verse 3 over the room, and say plainly that it is not the whole account and that the rest is being kept somewhere safe.
Prayer
Father, thank you that our real life is not on display and not at risk, because it is hidden with Christ in you. Set our minds up there, where he is seated, and keep us from spending ourselves on what people can see. We will wait for the day he appears, and us with him. Amen.