Living in the Real World

Text: Colossians 3:1-17

How often have we been encouraged to remember the things that really matter? We hear people who have undergone substantial loss of property to fire or storm damage say such things when they note that every person survived the incident. We might hear it when someone has died, and perhaps even in a sermon. Paul says it, too, by telling us to keep on seeking the things "above," where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

So what are the things that really matter? What are the things above? And could it be that finding and pursuing these things is the same as finding and living in the real world? Is this what truth means?

The reason we are not to focus on either special exercises on one hand or on restraining from meeting certain bodily needs on the other is that either option puts the attention on things which have no intrinsic meaning in and of themselves. Their "telos"--their goal, purpose, end--is entirely for and in this space-time world we live in. Christ did not come to make us more successful or fulfilled in the satisfying of any such needs, much less any wants related to the same bodily desires. Instead, he came to free us from being so caught up in the pursuit of these things that we lose sight of our true telos. So he opens the way to things above the satisfaction of everyday needs, to things that we are intended to seek and express--truth, love, justice, goodness, righteousness, joy, knowledge of God.

It is in this light that things such as anger, malice, slander, abusive speech, sexual immorality, etc., must be removed from our lives. Each one of them is a denial of the things which belong to our true end and purpose. Conversely, those things which contribute to the learning and practice of our telos are to be fostered in our lives together as God's people--compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience. It's hard to live that way in a culture obsessed with self-indulgence. So we are to encourage one another in the new, Christlike way, the way that is the truth, and is life, and prepares us for the real world.