You Are Free. Live Like It.

Colossians 3:1-3 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above . . . Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

If I have been set free, why do I not always feel like it? In my addiction, I did not understand how I could struggle so badly if I was a Christian. I knew my old self was supposed to have died and been raised again with Christ. Why then, was I such a mess? Why was I hopelessly addicted to pills if I was free?

The Christian life is a bit of a paradox. Because of Christ’s death and resurrection, I have, in my spirit life, been set free. I have died and risen again with Christ, in my spirit life. This is a reality which I should experience daily, but it is not necessarily the reality that I know here and now. Though I have this perfect spirit life, God still allows me to dwell in the defective flesh life.

Paul, in today’s passage, explained the duality of this life. He insisted that I have been set free, and I must choose to live in that freedom. This is not automatic. I want to live as a disciple, but the life of the flesh still pulls with a gravity that grows as I feed it.

I did not set out to be addicted to pills. I started with smaller, harmless indulgences. As I followed the things of earth, I ignored the things above. Then, as my appetite grew and came to control me, I felt betrayed. But God, I’m a Christian. I thought you set me free from this kind of thing!

If I find myself addicted to the things of Earth, it is because I have not been willing to do what it takes to abandon them to pursue the things above. Paul insisted that I have been set free. Now, I must choose to live like it.