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 in 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.

The letter to the Colossians was written by the apostle Paul while he was in prison in Rome for preaching the gospel. Word had come to Paul about persistent heresies in that city and he was writing to encourage the faithful to remain steadfast in the doctrine he preached.  In Colosse the heresies were that Jesus was less than God; that Jesus Christ did not take on a true human nature; that higher and secret knowledge was accessible only to a few and this knowledge was necessary for salvation. There was also a cult of asceticism and an insistance on maintaining  the rites and rituals of the Jewish faith.  In another words, in Colosse there was an undercurrent of Jesus plus.

Paul preached justification by faith alone in the completed and wholly acceptable sacrifice of Christ Jesus. He rejected the inventions of man – the rites and ceremonies of human tradition which are dead to the faithful through the death of Christ Jesus. The Colossians were warned not to convert New Testament principles into the establishment of rules as the approved standard of godly life.  This practise tended to pride and self satisfaction – and the rules  he rejects concern morally indifferent things.

In faith we die with Christ and in faith we are reborn; we have been transformed as new men and women.  Our manner of life is now in Christ.  Paul urges them, and us, to be preoccupied with the divine and that to guide our earthly responses. The faithful should take care not to be sidetracked or intimidated by human philosophy – human rules, ritualistic or legalistic. Christ alone is sufficient.  That is the message of Easter; the miracle of the resurrection.