SET YOUR AFFECTIONS!

Colossians 3:1-11 NLT

Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God's right hand. [2] Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. [3] For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. [4] And when Christ, who is your life, is revealed to the whole world, you will share in all his glory. [5] So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don't be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world. [6] Because of these sins, the anger of God is coming. [7] You used to do these things when your life was still part of this world. [8] But now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. [9] Don't lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. [10] Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. [11] In this new life, it doesn't matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.


Affection is the feeling or emotion, the quality, the condition, and the state of the body, mind, and heart. Whatever our affections are, we need to set them on the right things.

Colossians 3 talks about a new life or putting on a new self and exhorts Christians to set their affections on things above, that is, on heavenly things. Misguided affections lead to misguided motives, which lead to misguided actions. Our affections are indicative of what we care about the most. What do you or your friends say you care most about?

Apostle Paul exhorts us, as he did the Colossians in his days, to be heavenly-minded after the example of Christ, that we may be prepared to appear with Him in glory. He encourages us in verses 5-7 not to continue in our former state but to change our minds and lives.

From our conversion, we didn’t only share in Christ's death but also in His resurrection, to then enjoy heavenly life with Him, where He is and has made room for us at God's right hand. This means we must let our whole thought be set on heavenly, not earthly things. Our lives should always remain hidden in Christ, as we too will be revealed at His second coming because Christ’s manifestation involves ours.

We must kill and deprive our lives and bodies of anything with the power to destroy our spiritual strength. Kill any sensual appetite, deprive it of the nourishment by which it lives, thrives, and keeps active because the body may suffer from excessive sensual indulgences as the appetite increases with indulgence.

We must not set our minds on inordinate affection, unnatural and degrading passion, or bestial lust according to Romans 1:26-27. Selfish and ungodly affections create a system of idolatry that produces all kinds of impurity.

The list of ungodly and earthly affections includes both acts and motives. If the affection is yours, then you can set it on the right things, godly things, and heavenly affections rather than allow it to meander to the wrong things. According to Psalm 145:16, God will open His hands and satisfy only His people’s pure and godly desires.

Paul described what is positionally true of us, directing our attention to the practical influence of the truth of God’s word over our mindsets. According to Romans 6:11, we are to reckon ourselves to be dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. It means to accept what God says about us as true and to live in the light of it. It means we must believe what God says in Romans 6:6, that the power of sin over our lives has been broken. This demands a definite act of faith, which results in a fixed attitude toward “our old self.” We will see our old self where God sees him, on the Cross, put to death with Christ.

There is a distinction between natural and spiritual or gracious affections. The affections of the world are strong, but they are not spiritual, they are not born of the Holy Spirit, nor are they awakened by the New Testament, and they are not the affections of God as sovereign God. When we incline our hearts to seek the Lord and desire only Him according to 1 Kings 8:58, we begin to set our hearts on things above and not earthly things. Set your affections and tune them until aligned with God’s desire and affections.

PRAYER: Lord, God, may I words be an evidence of my affection for you and your people, both in what I say and what I don’t say and never on the wrong things in Jesus’ name, amen.

https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/womenoflight/episodes/SET-YOUR-AFFECTIONS-e2vbj27

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