Charles Ellicott Commentary Colossians 3:1

"If then ye were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God." — Colossians 3:1 (ASV)

If you then are risen (or rather, you rose) with Christ.—These words mark the beginning of the spiritual life, evidently referring to baptism . It is a “resurrection with Christ” and in Christ; as such, it is dwelt upon in detail in Romans 6:1-14.

We may note that this phrase, implying a sudden passing from death to life, accords more exactly with the idea of adult baptism, accepted in conscious faith, and leading immediately to a new life. While the later phrase, “regeneration” (Titus 3:5), which speaks of the soul as indeed passing immediately into a new condition but as having only the undeveloped germ of the new life, corresponds more closely with the idea of infant baptism, which gradually superseded the other.

Here, this spiritual resurrection is taken for granted, and the Apostle goes on immediately to the next stage of the spiritual life.

Christ.—The name, repeated four times, has the article prefixed to it in all cases. Evidently, it is used emphatically to refer to our Lord as our Mediator—our Prophet, Priest, and King.

Seek those things which are above . . . set your affection on things above.—Here we have the spiritual life in its continuance. It is described:

1. As seeking the things above—that is, looking, and so growing, to perfection. This characteristic is dwelt upon with great fullness and beauty in Philippians 3:12-16.

2. In a still higher strain, as setting our affection on the things above, or, more properly, catching the spirit of the things above, being “heavenly-minded” already—anticipating heaven, not only in hope, but in tone and temper, seeing things as God sees them, and seeing all in relation to Him. On this we may again compare the great passage in Philippians 3:20-21, on our “citizenship of heaven.” Of such heavenly-mindedness, we have, perhaps, the most perfect specimen in the calm and loving certainty of St. John’s Epistles.

3. These two graces must be united. In the one is the secret of growth, in the other the present earnest of perfection. Moreover, the higher grace must follow from the former; for, where our treasure is, there will our heart be also.

Where Christ sits on the right hand of God.—The allusion is emphatic. Heaven is to us, in itself, a vague expression of unknown bliss. It is made definite to the Christian by the thought of Christ in His glorified humanity, there enthroned in majesty, preparing a place for us, and drawing us to be with Him. (Note a similar emphatic reference in Philippians 3:21; and compare Ephesians 2:6, He raised us up, and made us to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.)

This glorious idea of Christ in heaven, and heaven in Christ, runs through the whole book of the Revelation of St. John, from the opening Epistles to the last vision of glory.

On verses 1-4:

As the partaking of the death of Christ taught the negative lesson of death to the Law, so the partaking of His resurrection teaches the positive lesson of the spiritual life. We observe that this celebrated passage occupies a place at the close of the doctrinal portion of the Epistle, exactly corresponding to the even greater passage on the unity of the Church in God in the Epistle to the Ephesians (Ephesians 4:1–16).

It is unlike that passage because, summing up the main teaching of this Epistle, it dwells simply on the close personal relation of all souls to God in Jesus Christ, who is at once the image of God, and the one Mediator between God and man.

It is like it (and like other passages of the Epistles of the Captivity) because it passes on from Christ risen to Christ in heaven: it takes for granted our being risen with Christ and bids us in heart to ascend to heaven now and look forward to the bliss of heaven in the hereafter.