"Since then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Put to death, therefore whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you have a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. "
Colossians 3:1-15 NKJV
It is easy for most of us as Christians to look at the above passage and merely dismiss this as a long moral list of do's and don'ts. However, that couldn't be further from the truth. We are not perfect and we will never be perfect, but perfection is not what He is asking from us.
While it is important to be principled in God's law and follow His commandments, we have to remember that God is a loving God and He wants to capture our hearts first so that He can therefore call us to Himself. He wants to have an intimate relationship with us so that He can continue to mold us into His image. However, if we continually try to do things our way and in our flesh, we put a barrier between ourselves and God. Furthermore, pride takes root, and man-centered gospel then rules supreme. In this case, we cannot grow in Christ-likeness and maturity. In contrast, if we have our hearts set on Him first and we believe with faith what He says is true and who He says He is, we can lay down our desires for His. When this happens, our hearts overflow in abundance with gratitude, joy, recognition of His love for us, and our love for Him. Finally, an outpouring of His Holy Spirit within us then carries over, thus changing the hearts of those around us. It is not easy to put down our earthly desires, if anything this practice is an everyday thing. Sometimes, we will not understand why. However, we must not let that discourage us from acting in obedience to Him so that we can live the life He has called us to live. He loves us so and not only does He want the best for us, He wants us. He wants every single last part of us.
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