Sabbath School Week

Read for This Week’s Study

Col. 3:1–17, Rom. 1:18, Rom. 6:1–7, Eph. 4:22–24, Deut. 7:6–8, 1 Sam. 16:23.

Memory Text:

“But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection” (Colossians 3:14, NKJV).

It’s commonly urged not to be so heavenly-minded; otherwise, we’ll be of no earthly good. While true in some sense, there’s an equally important concept that Paul highlights in Colossians 3: if we are too earthly-minded, we will be of no heavenly use to the Lord.

Paul draws our attention to many practical, real-life principles that are born of heaven and can be understood only by those who are “risen with Christ” (Col. 3:1).

Paul’s counsels are very down-to-earth principles that will enhance all our relationships, and not just within the church.

Jesus said, “ ‘Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you . . . that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust’ ” (Matt. 5:44, 45, NKJV).

Sound impossible? It is, humanly speaking. We need to die before we can really live for God. It’s why we must be heavenly-minded if we hope to be of any earthly use to our heavenly Father.

This week we’ll see ways in which living with Christ can make a difference, now and eternally.

*Study this week’s lesson to prepare for Sabbath, March 14.

Supplemental EGW Notes

We must rise to a higher standard on the subject of faith. We have too little faith. The Word of God is our endorsement. We must take it, simply believing every word. With this assurance, we may claim large things, and according to our faith it will be unto us. . . . If we humble our hearts before God, if we seek to abide in Christ, we shall have a higher, holier experience. . . .
True faith consists in doing just what God has enjoined, not manufacturing things He has not enjoined. Justice, truth, mercy, are the fruit of faith. We need to walk in the light of God’s law; then good works will be the fruit of our faith, the proceeds of a heart renewed every day.
We must not in any way make self our god. God has given Himself to die for us, that He might purify us from all iniquity. The Lord will carry on this work of perfection for us if we will allow ourselves to be controlled by Him. . . .
The work of righteousness cannot be carried forward unless we exercise implicit faith. Move every day under God’s mighty working power. The fruit of righteousness is quietness and assurance forever. If we had exercised more faith in God and had trusted less to our own ideas and wisdom, God would have manifested His power in a marked manner on human hearts. By a union with Him, by living faith, we are privileged to enjoy the virtue and efficacy of His mediation. Hence we are crucified with Christ, dead with Christ, risen with Christ, to walk in newness of life with Him.
We are not to hold ourselves in our own hands. We are to drop self into the hands of God. . . . Our lack of faith is the reason that we have not seen more of the power of God. We exercise more faith in our own working than in God’s working for us. God designs that everything possible shall be done to enable us to stand heart to heart, mind to mind, shoulder to shoulder. This lack of love and confidence in one another weakens our faith in God.
We need to pray as we never have prayed before for the baptism of the Holy Spirit, for if there was ever a time when we needed this baptism, it is now. There is nothing the Lord has more frequently told us He would bestow upon us, and nothing by which His name would be more glorified in bestowing, than the Holy Spirit. When we partake of this Spirit, men and women will be born again. . . . Souls once lost will be found, and brought back.—The Upward Look, p. 346.

The above quotations are taken from Ellen G. White Notes for the Sabbath School Lessons, published by Pacific Press Publishing Association. Used by permission.

Read Colossians 3:1–4. What condition does Paul indicate is necessary for us to be heavenly-minded? What do you think that means?

From a mountaintop, it is possible to survey a vast landscape that is all around you. From time immemorial, mountains have been frequented by those seeking a closer experience with God (see Ps. 121:1, 2). Even human-made mountains, called ziggurats, have been constructed by pagans for a similar purpose—to meet with the gods. Interestingly, the city of Ur, which Abram was called to leave, had a very large ziggurat visible from miles around. But changing one’s elevation will never by itself draw anyone closer to heaven in a spiritual sense. Human effort never could.

Instead, only through a miracle of grace, whereby we died with Christ and were raised with Him (figuratively pictured by baptism [Col. 2:12, 13]), is it possible to draw nearer to heaven.

Notice that from the beginning of Colossians 3, the repeated emphasis on what is above, that is, what there is in heaven: “those things which are above,” “where Christ is,” “things above,” “with Christ in God,” “with Him in glory” (Col. 3:1–4, NKJV).

Admittedly, there is much in the Christian life that defies explanation. How can a person really “die” and “be raised” when, to all ap­pearances, he or she is the same person and has had no such life-and-death experience? There is much that does not make sense to the natural mind, uninfluenced by the Holy Spirit. But to those who are spiritually-minded, because they have received the new heart promised by God, death to sin and being raised with Christ are genuine realities. As the hymn affirms: “You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart.”

Nevertheless, Paul gives these commands because there is a constant need for this spiritual life to be renewed (see 2 Cor. 4:16). We can, indeed, fall away and be lost! And we are never safe from temptation in this life.

We must, therefore, choose daily to “seek those things which are above” (Col. 3:1). Our eternal life is safely “hidden with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3, NKJV), but the outward expression of that life will be anything but hidden.

Where are your thoughts: usually above or usually below? If the latter, how do you change their direction?

Supplemental EGW Notes

Even Christians of long experience are often assaulted with the most terrible doubts and waverings. . . . You must not consider that for these temptations your case is hopeless. . . . Hope in God, trust in Him and rest in His promises.
When the devil comes with his doubts and unbeliefs, shut the door of your heart. Shut your eyes so that you will not dwell upon his hellish shadow. Lift them up where they can behold the things which are eternal, and you will have strength every hour. The trial of your faith is much more precious than gold. . . . It makes you valiant to fight the battle of the Lord. . . .
Satan connects with everyone that will connect with him. If he can get those that have had an experience in religion, they are his most effectual agents to reach just such men and compass their souls with unbelief. You cannot afford to let any doubts come into your mind. Do not please the devil enough to tell about the terrible burdens you are carrying. Every time you do it, Satan laughs that his soul can control you and that you have lost sight of Jesus Christ your Redeemer. . . .
We are to show forth Him who hath called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. It is by living faith that we rest in that light. It is by living faith that we rejoice in that light every day. We are not to talk our doubts and trials, because they grow bigger every time we talk them. Every time we talk them, Satan has gained the victory; but when we say, “I will commit the keeping of my soul unto Him, as unto a faithful witness,” then we testify that we have given ourselves to Jesus Christ without any reservation, and then God gives us light and we rejoice in Him.
The soul that loves God, rises above the fog of doubt; he gains a bright, broad, deep, living experience, and becomes meek and Christlike. His soul is committed to God, hid with Christ in God.—Our High Calling, p. 86.

Cultivate a kind, tender, sympathetic heart, and never call these attributes weakness, for they are the attributes of Christ. Be careful of your influence. Let it be of so pure and fragrant a character that you will never be ashamed to have it reproduced in others.
As drops of water make the river, so little things make up life. Life is a river, peaceful, calm, and enjoyable, or it is a troubled river, always casting up mire and dirt. In this life you may place yourself under the discipline of the Holy Spirit. Through the sanctification of the Spirit you will thus grow more and more like Christ.—That I May Know Him, p. 209.

The above quotations are taken from Ellen G. White Notes for the Sabbath School Lessons, published by Pacific Press Publishing Association. Used by permission.

We hear many slogans today: “End war!” “End deforestation!” “End nuclear weapons!” But one we have probably never heard is “End earthliness!” That just doesn’t fit with the sensibilities of our world. Not that any of the other slogans are wrong or what they advocate is wrong. They’re just very shortsighted, considering the nearness of eternity. Our focus needs to be higher, eternally higher.

Read Colossians 3:5, 6 (see also Rom. 6:1–7). How do we experience what it means to be dead to self and to earthliness and alive to “those things which are above” (Col. 3:1)?

Even though spiritually we have died with Christ, our “members”—that is, the temptations that our body and mind present us—need to be put to death.

But we should realize two things in connection with this command.

First, in Colossians 3:1, the Greek form that Paul uses assumes that we have, in fact, been raised with Christ. Second, the command in Colossians 3:5 is a consequence of that fact (“Therefore”). We can put to death earthly things (fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, covetousness, etc.) only because we have been raised with Christ and have His spiritual life and power to put these things out of our minds and lives.

Interestingly, the only other occurrence in Greek of the exact phrase that appears in Colossians 3:6, “the wrath of God,” is in Romans 1:18. God “gives” people up to their own wicked ways, and so His wrath is also “coming” (see Rev. 6:16, 17) “on those who are disobedient” (Col. 3:6, NRSV). In Romans 1:18, Paul refers to “ungodliness and unrighteousness,” equating “uncleanness” (using the same Greek word found in Colossians 3:5) very specifically with people who indulge “the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies” (Rom. 1:24, NKJV).

How do they dishonor their bodies? First, because they refuse to recognize the Creator but also by “vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful” (Rom. 1:26, 27, NKJV).

How do we follow the words “mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth” (Col. 3:5)?

Supplemental EGW Notes

Praise the Lord, that we have a compassionate, tender High Priest that can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. We do not expect rest here. No, no. The way to heaven is a cross-bearing way; the road is straight and narrow, but we will go forward with cheerfulness knowing that the King of glory once trod this way before us.
We will not complain of the roughness of the way, but will be meek followers of Jesus, treading in His footsteps. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He for our sakes became poor that we through His poverty might be made rich. We will rejoice in tribulation and keep in mind the recompense of reward, the “far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”
We will not have a murmuring thought because we have trials. God’s dear children always had them, and every trial well endured here, will only make us rich in glory. I crave the suffering part. I would not go to heaven without suffering if I could, and see Jesus who suffered so much for us to purchase for us so rich an inheritance; and to see the martyrs who laid down their lives for the truth, and the sake of Jesus. No, no. Let me [be] perfected through sufferings. I long to be a partaker with Christ of His sufferings, for if I am, I know I shall be a partaker with Him of His glory. Jesus is our pattern. Let us study to have our lives as near like Christ’s as possible.
My soul cries out after the living God. My very being longs after Him. Oh, for to reflect His lovely image perfectly! Oh, for to be wholly consecrated to Him! Oh, how hard it is for dear self to die. We can rejoice in a whole Saviour; one who saves us from all sin. We can be shut in with God where we can daily say, “I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” “to will and to do of his good pleasure.” Glory be to God. I know that my life is hid with Christ in God.
The curtain has been lifted. I have seen the rich reward laid up for the saints. I have had a taste of the joys of the world to come, and it has spoiled this world for me. My affections, my interests, hopes, my all is in heaven. I long to see the King in His beauty, Him whom my soul loveth. Heaven, sweet heaven. “I long to be there; and the thought that ‘tis near, makes me almost impatient for Christ to appear.” Praise the Lord for a good hope through Jesus Christ of immortality and eternal life.—Reflecting Christ, p. 350.

The above quotations are taken from Ellen G. White Notes for the Sabbath School Lessons, published by Pacific Press Publishing Association. Used by permission.

Read Colossians 3:6–11. How does Paul continue with this train of thought?

The initial words of Colossians 3:8 signal the dramatic and decisive change from death to life: “But now.” The word “now” in Greek is emphatic. Now, that is, because you are risen with Christ and seek those things that are above, your present life is to show a marked contrast with your former life. Having put to death “what is earthly in you” (Col. 3:5, ESV), “now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth” (Col. 3:8, NRSV).

Both anger and wrath can describe God’s righteous response to sin (touched on yesterday) as it can for Jesus (Mark 3:5, Rev. 6:16). By contrast, we are urged to “be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:19, 20, NKJV). Malice wishes misfortune on another. Slander is designed to defame. Paul also condemns language that is abusive and obscene. Finally, lying to one another is forbidden (compare Lev. 19:11, 18), “since you have put off the old man with his deeds” (Col. 3:9, NKJV).

What does Paul mean by the “old man” in contrast with the “new man”? See Romans 6:6 and Ephesians 4:22–24.

The verbs Paul employs for this transformation from the old to the new allude to clothing, as if one took off old filthy garments and was clothed with new white garments (compare Zech. 3:4). A similar old/new distinction is made in regard to the old and new covenants, which are characterized respectively by the external letter of the law and by the law inscribed by the Spirit in the heart (2 Cor. 3:4–18).

These metaphors describe conversion and its effects, which Paul calls a “new creation” (2 Cor. 5:17, NKJV). We are “renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him [Christ]” (Col. 3:10, NKJV), who is the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15). Gaining a knowledge of Christ through His Word transforms us “into the same image from glory to glory” (2 Cor. 3:18). This places us above all ethnic, geographical, and social boundaries (Col. 3:11), because we are citizens of a higher kingdom.

Supplemental EGW Notes

When Adam came from the Creator’s hand, he bore, in his physical, mental, and spiritual nature, a likeness to his Maker. . . .
Through sin the divine likeness was marred, and well-nigh obliterated. Man’s physical powers were weakened, his mental capacity was lessened, his spiritual vision dimmed. He had become subject to death. Yet the race was not left without hope. By infinite love and mercy the plan of salvation had been devised, and a life of probation was granted. To restore in man the image of his Maker, to bring him back to the perfection in which he was created, to promote the development of body, mind, and soul, that the divine purpose in his creation might be realized—this was to be the great work of redemption.
Though the moral image of God was almost obliterated by the sin of Adam, through the merits and power of Jesus it may be renewed. Man may stand with the moral image of God in his character; for Jesus will give it to him.
It was a wonderful thing for God to create man, to make mind. The glory of God is to be revealed in the creation of man in God’s image and in his redemption. One soul is of more value than a world. . . . The Lord Jesus Christ is the author of our being, and He is also the author of our redemption, and everyone who will enter the kingdom of God will develop a character that is the counterpart of the character of God.
The Lord, by close and pointed truths for these last days, is cleaving out a people from the world and purifying them unto Himself. Pride and unhealthful fashions, the love of display, the love of approbation—all must be left with the world if we would be renewed in knowledge after the image of Him who created us.
By the transforming agency of His grace, the image of God is reproduced in the disciple; he becomes a new creature.
It is the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, which Jesus said He would send into the world, that changes our character into the image of Christ; and when this is accomplished, we reflect, as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord.—God’s Amazing Grace, p. 246.

Christ’s love in the heart, revealing through the life its wondrous power—this is the greatest miracle that can be performed before a fallen, quarreling world. Let us try to work this miracle, not in our own power, but in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose we are and whom we serve. Let us put on Christ, and the miracle-working power of His grace will be so plainly revealed in the transformation of character that the world will be convinced that God has sent His Son into the world to make men as angels in character and life.
Those who truly believe in Christ sit together with Him in heavenly places. Let us accept the badge of Christianity. This is not an outward sign, not the wearing of a cross or a crown, but it is something that reveals the union of man with God. Let us “put off the old man with his deeds; and . . . put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him” (Colossians 3:9, 10). The beauty of holiness is revealed as Christians draw near together, blending in Christlike love.—Our Father Cares, p. 306.

The above quotations are taken from Ellen G. White Notes for the Sabbath School Lessons, published by Pacific Press Publishing Association. Used by permission.