Here is the complete essay:
The Christian Who Forgot Heaven
Key Passage: Colossians 3:1-4 — “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”
There is something tragically strange about a Christian who believes he is going to heaven but lives as though this present world is all he will ever have. He can quote verses about eternal life, sing about the streets of gold, talk about the Rapture, praise God for a home beyond the skies, and then spend nearly every waking hour worrying about earthly comfort, earthly recognition, earthly security, earthly possessions, earthly politics, earthly pleasures, earthly offenses, and earthly applause. His doctrine may point upward, but his affection crawls along the ground. His Bible says he is seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, but his heart is camped beside the world’s garbage pile, arguing over which piece of temporary rubbish belongs to him. He is saved, sealed, justified, accepted, and bound for glory, yet he conducts himself like an orphan fighting over furniture in a burning house. That is the Christian who forgot heaven.
Colossians 3:1-4 does not speak in sentimental language. It does not say, “Think pleasant thoughts about heaven whenever life becomes difficult.” It says, “Seek those things which are above.” It says, “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” Those are commands. The Christian is not merely invited to admire heaven as a distant tourist destination. He is commanded to orient his present life around his heavenly position, heavenly Head, heavenly hope, heavenly treasure, and coming manifestation with Christ in glory. Paul is not telling lost sinners how to earn heaven by thinking celestial thoughts. He is addressing those who are already “risen with Christ.” Their heavenly affection is supposed to flow from their settled position in Him. They do not look above in order to become accepted; they look above because they are accepted. They do not seek heavenly things to obtain life; they seek them because Christ is already their life.
The earthbound Christian has forgotten not only where he is going but who he already is. He thinks of heaven as something future and forgets that his spiritual identity is already joined to the risen Christ. “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” The old life received its death sentence at the cross. The new life is hidden in Christ. The believer’s deepest reality is not his income, health, reputation, nationality, possessions, failures, achievements, age, wounds, or earthly condition. His life is Christ. Yet the devil works overtime to keep Christians staring downward. If Satan cannot cancel their destination, he will try to corrupt their direction. He cannot remove their life from Christ, so he tries to fill their earthly lives with enough noise, lust, fear, envy, bitterness, entertainment, ambition, and distraction that they forget to look up. A Christian who forgets heaven becomes easier to frighten, easier to tempt, easier to offend, easier to control, and easier to occupy with things that will burn.
Chapter One
The Earthbound Christian Forgets That He Is Risen With Christ
Colossians 3 begins, “If ye then be risen with Christ.” The word “if” is not expressing uncertainty about the believer’s position, as though Paul were asking the Colossians to check whether their spiritual resurrection paperwork had been approved. The sense is, “Since ye are risen with Christ.” Romans 6 teaches that the believer is identified with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection. Ephesians 2:6 says God “hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” The Christian’s standing is not merely improved humanity. It is union with a risen Saviour. He is not Adam polished, educated, baptized, and given religious manners. He is a new creature in Christ Jesus.
That truth should completely alter how a Christian views the world. A dead man does not need to impress the people standing around his coffin. A risen man should not spend his life decorating the tomb he left behind. Yet believers constantly return to the graveyard of the old life and start measuring themselves by earthly standards. They worry about whether the world considers them important, attractive, successful, sophisticated, relevant, and respectable. They compare houses, jobs, ministries, bodies, families, platforms, possessions, opportunities, and recognition. All the while, God says they are risen with Christ. The world’s ranking system cannot measure a resurrection position. Trying to calculate heavenly worth with earthly figures is like weighing sunlight on a bathroom scale.
A Christian forgets heaven when he forgets resurrection identity. He begins living as though the only reality is what he can see, feel, own, control, and display. Trouble becomes final because he forgets he is risen. Failure becomes identity because he forgets he is risen. Death becomes terror because he forgets he is risen. The opinions of men become chains because he forgets he is risen. But the believer who remembers his union with Christ can face earthly changes without losing spiritual balance. His circumstances may fall, but his life is above them. His body may weaken, but his position does not. His earthly name may be dragged through the mud, but his name is known in heaven. The world may count him finished while God counts him seated with Christ.
Chapter Two
He Seeks What Is Below Because He Has Lost Sight of Who Is Above
Paul says, “Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.” The Christian’s attention is directed upward because Christ is there. Heaven is not precious merely because it has gates of pearl, streets of gold, angels, music, mansions, light, glory, and no funeral homes. Heaven is precious because Christ is there. The supreme attraction of glory is not scenery but the Saviour. A man who wants heaven only because it is more comfortable than earth has not yet understood heaven very deeply. The redeemed will rejoice because the One who loved them and gave Himself for them is present, visible, enthroned, and worshipped without interruption.
The earthbound Christian often speaks of Christ while seeking everything else. He seeks financial security, emotional comfort, public approval, physical pleasure, social influence, personal vindication, and worldly success, then asks Christ to bless the pursuit. Christ becomes the heavenly sponsor of an earthly agenda. Prayer becomes an order form. Church becomes a support group. Scripture becomes a motivational quotation service. The believer still uses the Lord’s name, but his heart is really seeking the same things the world seeks with a thin layer of religious varnish brushed over them. That is not heavenly-mindedness. That is worldliness wearing a choir robe.
To seek things above means Christ’s interests become the believer’s priorities. What honors Him? What pleases Him? What advances His gospel? What strengthens His saints? What will matter at His judgment seat? What survives the fire? Those questions are foreign to a heart buried in earthly ambition. An earthbound man asks, “How much can I gain?” A heavenly-minded man asks, “How can Christ be magnified?” One asks, “What will people think?” The other asks, “What will the Lord say?” One seeks a platform. The other seeks faithfulness. One wants to be noticed on earth. The other wants to hear, “Well done.” The believer who sees Christ above does not become useless below. He becomes useful for the right reasons.
Chapter Three
He Sets His Affection on Things That Cannot Last
“Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” Affection is deeper than a passing thought. It includes the mind, inclination, concern, interest, and settled direction of the inner life. God is not commanding the believer to float through the day imagining clouds and harps while ignoring work, family, bills, responsibilities, and practical duties. Scripture condemns laziness, irresponsibility, and disorder. The issue is not whether Christians live on earth; obviously they do. The issue is whether earth possesses their hearts. A ship belongs in water, but when water fills the ship, the ship is in trouble. The Christian belongs temporarily in the world, but the world does not belong inside the Christian.
Earthly things are not all sinful, but they are all temporary. Houses decay. Cars rust. Clothes wear out. Beauty fades. bodies age. Businesses close. Governments change. Markets fall. Crowds move on. Technology becomes obsolete before the instruction manual gets cold. The world’s newest treasure is tomorrow’s landfill. Yet men give their strongest affection to things with expiration dates. They polish what will burn, protect what they cannot keep, envy what will vanish, and sacrifice eternal usefulness for temporary ownership. The devil does not have to make every Christian openly immoral. He only has to make earthly things feel important enough to crowd out eternal things.
Affection reveals worship. What occupies the imagination when the mind is free? What loss would make life feel meaningless? What gain produces the greatest excitement? What subject receives the most conversation, energy, money, planning, and emotional investment? Those questions expose the heart faster than religious slogans do. A man may say Christ is first while his schedule, spending, anxieties, and dreams testify under oath that Christ is somewhere near the luggage compartment. The answer is not to despise every earthly blessing. It is to hold every blessing beneath the lordship of Christ. Enjoy the gift without confusing it with the Giver. Use the world without letting the world use you. Own possessions without allowing possessions to own the affections.
Chapter Four
He Lives as Though Earthly Loss Can Touch His Real Life
Paul says, “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” That is one of the most secure statements in the New Testament. The believer’s life is hidden with Christ in God. To reach that life, an enemy would have to break through God, remove Christ, undo the cross, reverse the resurrection, cancel justification, unseal the Spirit, and overturn every promise of Scripture. The devil cannot do it. The world cannot do it. Death cannot do it. The believer’s real life is safer than the throne of God because it is joined to the One sitting there. The Christian may lose earthly goods, health, relationships, opportunities, reputation, liberty, and physical life, but he cannot lose Christ.
The earthbound believer forgets this security and begins living in constant fear of loss. He is terrified of losing money because money has become his peace. Terrified of losing approval because approval has become his identity. Terrified of losing comfort because comfort has become his god. Terrified of losing control because control has become his substitute for faith. The world threatens to take something, and he panics as though his life were stored in a bank account, medicine cabinet, political office, family reputation, or property deed. His theology says his life is hidden with Christ; his anxiety says it is hidden in the stock market.
A heavenly-minded Christian can suffer real grief without surrendering ultimate hope. Paul did not teach Stoic numbness. Christians weep. They feel loss. They bury loved ones. They endure pain. They groan in mortal bodies. But they do not sorrow “even as others which have no hope” (1 Thessalonians 4:13). Earthly loss is painful, but it cannot reach the hidden life. The persecutor can burn the house but not the inheritance. Disease can touch the body but not the righteousness of Christ. Death can separate the believer from earthly company but ushers him into the presence of the Lord. The Christian who remembers heaven can say with Paul, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). The earthbound man cannot say that honestly because dying feels like losing everything he actually loved.
Chapter Five
He Measures Success by Earthly Results Instead of Heavenly Reward
The Christian who forgets heaven begins using the world’s scoreboard. Bigger means better. More means blessed. Visible means valuable. Popular means powerful. Rich means favored. Comfortable means approved. He judges ministries by crowds, preachers by fame, churches by buildings, believers by income, and success by measurable results. But heaven’s accounting system has never matched Wall Street, Hollywood, or the religious marketplace. The widow’s two mites outweighed public gifts. The poor church at Smyrna was called rich. The rich church at Laodicea was called poor. The first shall be last, and the last first. God has a habit of overturning earthly rankings.
First Corinthians 3 teaches that every believer’s work will be tried by fire at the judgment seat of Christ. Wood, hay, and stubble can be stacked into impressive piles. Gold, silver, and precious stones may appear small by comparison. Fire reveals the difference. A ministry may look enormous on earth and become smoke in heaven’s examination. A hidden act of obedience may pass unnoticed by men and shine in eternity. The issue is not merely how much was done, but what sort it was. Motive matters. Doctrine matters. Faithfulness matters. Obedience matters. Christ’s approval matters. Earthly success can become eternal failure if it was built for self, applause, money, power, or pride.
The heavenly-minded believer works with eternity in view. He does not become careless about earthly responsibilities; he becomes more faithful because he knows he serves the Lord Christ. Colossians 3:23-24 says, “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance.” That changes ordinary work. The unseen task matters. The unthanked service matters. The quiet prayer matters. The faithful witness matters. The refusal to compromise matters. Men may never recognize it, but God keeps exact books. The Christian who remembers heaven can labor without constant applause because his reward is not dependent on the crowd’s memory.
Chapter Six
He Becomes Comfortable in a World He Was Supposed to Pass Through
The saints of Hebrews 11 “confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” A pilgrim has a destination beyond his present location. He may work, build, serve, raise a family, fulfill duty, and engage responsibly in the place where he travels, but he never mistakes the roadside inn for his permanent home. The earthbound Christian has lost pilgrim consciousness. He drives tent stakes into the ground as though the lease were eternal. He settles emotionally into a world God has already sentenced. He becomes more excited about improving Babylon than leaving it. He sings, “This world is not my home,” then spends the week remodeling it like he owns the deed.
Comfort is not automatically sin. God gives homes, families, food, rest, friendship, and lawful enjoyment. The danger is not having comfort; it is when comfort removes longing for Christ. A church becomes Laodicean when it says, “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing.” Nothing kills spiritual appetite like believing the present world can satisfy it. Persecuted believers often long for heaven because earth has reminded them that they do not belong. Comfortable believers may forget because the hotel has soft pillows, good food, reliable internet, and enough entertainment to make departure feel inconvenient.
The Church is supposed to be looking “for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13). Looking implies expectation. Expectation affects conduct. A bride awaiting the bridegroom does not marry the furniture in the waiting room. A soldier expecting orders does not build a retirement resort in enemy territory. A servant expecting his Lord does not treat the master’s delay as permission for drunkenness. The Christian who remembers heaven can enjoy today without worshipping it because he knows the best has not yet begun. The Christian who forgets heaven demands earth provide what only glory can give, then becomes bitter when dust behaves like dust.
Chapter Seven
He Forgets That Christ Will Appear and Everything Hidden Will Be Revealed
Colossians 3:4 says, “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.” The Christian’s future is inseparable from Christ’s appearing. The world now sees weakness, obscurity, mortality, and sometimes humiliation. The believer’s true life is hidden. But it will not remain hidden forever. Christ will appear. The One rejected by the world will be manifested in glory. The Church joined to Him will share in that manifestation. What is hidden now will be revealed then. The world that dismissed the saints will discover their connection to the King.
This promise should purify earthly living. First John 3:2-3 says, “when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself.” Biblical hope is not escapist laziness. It produces holiness. The believer expecting Christ does not say, “The Lord may come, so responsibility does not matter.” He says, “The Lord may come, so faithfulness matters more than ever.” The blessed hope is not a sleeping pill. It is an alarm clock. It wakes the Christian to the brevity of time, the reality of accountability, and the urgency of service.
The earthbound Christian avoids the appearing because it interrupts earthly plans. He wants Christ to return eventually, preferably after the vacation, promotion, retirement, family milestone, and every other scheduled event has been completed. Heaven is welcome as a future benefit but inconvenient as a present interruption. That reveals the affection. Paul said, “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness,” not for him only, but “unto all them also that love his appearing” (2 Timothy 4:8). Loving His appearing means Christ is more desired than the continuation of earthly comfort. The Christian who remembers heaven does not fear the trumpet as the cancellation of life. He hears it as the beginning of life unveiled.
Conclusion
The Christian who forgot heaven has not necessarily denied the doctrine. He may still believe every verse about the Rapture, resurrection, judgment seat, New Jerusalem, eternal life, and appearing of Christ. His failure is practical. Heaven no longer governs his affection. Earth controls his emotional weather. Possessions determine security. Public opinion determines confidence. Circumstances determine peace. Comfort determines obedience. He believes in heaven as a destination but not as the controlling reality of present life. His passport says heaven while his heart has applied for permanent residency in the world.
Colossians 3:1-4 calls the believer back to the truth. You are risen with Christ. Seek what is above. Christ sits at God’s right hand. Set your affection above. You are dead to the old identity. Your life is hidden with Christ in God. Christ is your life. Christ will appear. You will appear with Him in glory. Every phrase lifts the eyes away from dust and toward the throne. The cure for earthbound Christianity is not neglecting duty, despising creation, or becoming useless in practical life. It is bringing every earthly duty under heavenly truth.
So remember heaven. Remember it when money tightens, when the body weakens, when the world applauds evil, when obedience costs, when faithful service goes unnoticed, when loved ones depart, when temptation offers temporary pleasure, and when earthly success tries to seduce the heart. Remember that Christ is above. Remember that your life is hidden. Remember that He will appear. Hold earthly things with an open hand because the hand that clutches dust cannot receive a crown. Live responsibly below, but keep your affection above. A Christian looking for Christ will never be fully at home in a world that crucified Him.