NOTES for Col 3:11

Continuing the discussion of spiritual life, Paul touches on the question of the Kingdom's formation in our transforming world. Of course, this theme appears in the apostle's letter not by chance, but in connection with the spiritual path of specific people who had become partakers of the Kingdom and were living in it. It is certainly no accident that he writes to the Colossian Christians that their life is hidden with God, in the same place where Christ is hidden (v. 3). When he says "hidden," the apostle uses a Greek word that designated something concealed for a time from outsiders' eyes, something that will surely be revealed when the time comes. And this hidden thing will evidently be revealed on the day of the Savior's return, when everything secret becomes manifest (v. 4). In this case, as it appears, he is speaking of that fullness of the Kingdom which will be revealed to the world only at the end of time, on the day of Christ's second coming. Until that day, the life of Christians remains for the most part unnoticed by the world, especially as regards its spiritual foundation: it is as invisible to the world that is still not transformed as the Savior Himself is invisible to it, and people who live according to the laws of this untransformed world are quite sincerely certain that He is not with us.

In such a situation, the only testimony to the reality of the Kingdom for people who have not become partakers of it remains the spiritual life of Christians in those manifestations that are visible even in our world, still not transformed. This is what Paul speaks about when he calls the Colossian Christians to think not so much about observing religious norms and rules as about the witness that is the chief task of Christians as citizens of the Kingdom being disclosed in a transforming world. That is why the apostle calls the Colossian Christians to think of heavenly things ("the things above"), and not earthly things (vv. 1-2): for they, like all Christians in general, have to live according to the laws of the Kingdom in a world that does not yet live by them. Paul describes in considerable detail and with great force what such a life means in practice (vv. 5-11), and this description allows us to understand especially well what kind of witnesses to the Kingdom the apostle wanted to see. But he also understands that witness to the Kingdom is unthinkable without the transformation of human nature itself, without "putting off" the old humanity wounded by sin and replacing it with the new, free from sin and transparent to every breath and action of God (vv. 9-10). And for this new person all earthly distinctions move into the background, so that only Christ and the Kingdom remain significant (v. 11).