Colossians 3:2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. I. THE FOLLY OF SETTING OUR AFFECTIONS ON THINGS ON THE EARTH. 1. They destroy while they please. (1) Take riches; there is no harm in preferring them to poverty; but thousands are destroyed by the pleasure of their accumulation, bodily, spiritually, and eternally. Men demean themselves, defraud, and lie for money, and think of nothing else. You have not got so far as that? But you will acknowledge that during the week if you hewed away all that was given to earthly things there would not be much left. (2) Take the approval of the world. A good name is, of course, an immense power for good: but thousands have gone down under worldly applause. Beauty, genius, everything that men and women have have been sacrificed for this, and as they went up in fame went down in character. Think of Byron, Sheridan, Burns, etc. The approval of the world while it pleases it damns. 3. They are unsatisfactory. (1) Where is the man who has been made happy by temporal success. First a man wants to make a living, then a competency, then a superfluity, then he wants more. The husks of this wilderness can never satisfy the hunger of the soul. How is it with you now with your large house of twenty rooms sumptuously furnished; are you any happier than when you had only two? If you have never found out the true secret of life — the love of God and His service, you are not so happy. Besides, if they had all that they profess, we cannot keep them. How many dollars is Croesus worth now? (2) We cannot depend on friend ships. Some play us false; the truest leave us. (3) We cannot build on domestic enjoyments, pure and holy though they be. II. TRANSFER, THEN, YOUR AFFECTIONS TO THINGS ABOVE. 1. We ought to do so. We have a throne there, a multitude to greet us, and Jesus. 2. If we did so it would change everything in us, and make us more gentle, loving, hopeful, and when we come to die we should need no Jacob's ladder or angel's wing. 3. The apostle had such an idea of heaven that it made the troubles of life seem insignificant. "This light affliction." (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.WEB: Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth. |
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