Life in the Heights

‘“< If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above.’’ — CoL. iii. 1.

Tuis chapter in Colossians, which begins in this exalted communion, ends in describing the Christian life of a slave. I think it was Spurgeon who used to say that the chapter begins in the heavenlies and ends in the kitchen. But it is not so much the wide sweep of the thought which is so startling as the fact that the thought never descends. The heavenly places and the kitchen are at the same elevation. The apostle did not come down from the mount to talk about employers and employed. He was still “in Christ Jesus,’’ and all these human fellowships were regarded in the lofty relationship of the Lord. All earthly interests were lifted up into the heavenlies; everything was adjusted in divine communion, and so everything became one ot the things which are above.

And so it happens that Paul’s evangelical life is not at one height and his practical life at another. We sometimes divide his letters into the doctrinal and the practical, and we regard the doctrinal as mountainous alpine country, while the practical life finds a meaner symbol in the valleys and the plains. I do not think that this symbolism expresses either the Apostle’s thought or feeling. He gets up into the high mountains even when he is dealing with a matter of seemingly comparative indifference. In his letter to the Corinthians, and after the magnificent unveilings of the fifteenth chapter, we are confronted with the sudden transition, ““Now as touching the collection!’ But that is not a precipitous descent, it is only a sharp turning on mountain heights, keeping the same elevation. The Apostle does not say, ‘‘ Now to leave these great themes, and to descend to something practical! I am very sorry, but we must attend to these material things! We cannot at the shrine remain!’’ No, that was not his reasoning. The common life was raised to the height of the resurrection-life in Christ. An ordinary collection formed part of the retinue of the glorious ministries of redemption, and shared the power of the resurrection.

We are never vitally right, and we never enter into robust spiritual life, until we have something of this magnificent inclusiveness, and make everything part of the glorious mountain-country of the risen life in Christ our Lord. We must regard the lowly concerns of our daily: walk and conversation as being vitally related to the heavenlies, and we must daringly believe that we can discharge the humblest duty while still breathing the air of the mountain-tops.