Colossians 3:2

Colossians 3:2, in plain English

Stop letting your thoughts be controlled by passing material concerns and instead direct your mental and emotional energy toward what truly matters—the eternal things of God.

Why it's here

Paul isn't saying physical life is evil or that you should escape the world. He's addressing where your heart settles—what consumes your thinking, worries, and desires. The Colossians faced constant pressure to value the same things their pagan neighbors valued: comfort, status, appearance. Paul is telling them their thought-life is the real battle.

Who's speaking

Paul

Where it sits in the story

This builds on the principle Jesus taught in Matthew 6:21: where your treasure is, your heart will be also. It's about the renewing of your mind that Paul describes in Romans 12:2—a complete reorientation of how you think.

The scholarly reading

Direct your mental focus and affections toward eternal heavenly realities—God's kingdom and Christ's reign—rather than toward material possessions and temporary earthly concerns.

Language and setting

In ancient Stoic and Platonic thought, the direction of the mind (Greek: νοῦς, nous) determined one's spiritual trajectory; Paul baptizes this philosophical insight into Christian theology. The Colossian errorists apparently emphasized bodily asceticism and mystical heavenly visions, creating a false dichotomy. Paul reframes Christian existence as fundamentally oriented toward the transcendent without requiring their particular disciplines.

Voice

Paul, employing a rhetorical strategy familiar from Greco-Roman moral philosophy but reoriented christologically.

Significance

This echoes Jesus's Sermon on the Mount teaching about treasures in heaven versus earth (Matthew 6:19-21) and anticipates Augustine's doctrine of ordo amoris—that spiritual health consists in properly ordering one's loves toward God as the highest good.

1Therefore, since you have been raised with Christ, strive for the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

3For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

4When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

Read all of Colossians 3 — You have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Strip off the old self like worn-out clothing and put on compassion, kindness, and love.