The title comes from a question that was asked of Jesus at the beginning of His earthly ministry. Here John the Baptist is pointing his disciples to Jesus.
36 And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, “Behold the Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. 38 Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, “What do you seek?” They said to Him, “Rabbi” (which is to say, when translated, Teacher), “where are You staying?” 39 He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where He was staying, and remained with Him that day (now it was about the tenth hour). 40 One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. John 1:36–40 (NKJV)
Here two disciples of John the Baptist leave John to follow Jesus, and Andrew, who became one of the twelve apostles, recognizes right off that Jesus is the Messiah they have been seeking. Their key question was about where Jesus was staying as clearly that is where they wanted to be. Once they found out where Jesus was staying, they remained with Him.
Having presented the context I am going to make an application that isn’t obvious from the text. To get there we will go post resurrection to Paul. First however, we need to understand, these two disciples of John the Baptist recognized two things. They knew they needed to leave John and they knew they needed to be where Jesus was. Now on to Paul as He tells us where Jesus is now staying.
1 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Colossians 3:1–4 (NKJV)
Jesus is now staying in the heavenly realm and Paul informs us that we need to be there as well. More accurately, Paul says we are there, our ‘life is hidden with Christ in God.’ We are in Him. Paul, knowing the importance of this spiritual reality tells us that we need focus and set our minds ‘on things above.’ The Greek word translated as mind is phroneo, it means to think and is connected to our attitudes, intentions and purposes. The KJV translated phroneo as affections. While I prefer a more modern rendering in most cases, here the KJV captures something. We need to have an affection, a desire, set on our life that is hidden in Jesus.
In summary, we need to both want to know where Jesus is staying and we need our desires set there.
Next week we will delve into how to practically apply this idea.
