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Jun-Soo Lee

“Christian Default Setting”
(Colossians 3:1-11)

A friend of Soviet Physicist and dissident Andrei Sakharov tells this story. Some friends were holidaying with the Sakhorovs on the Black Sea, when they jokingly asked Andrei’s wife, Elana, what she thought was in her husband’s mind while wandering along the waterfront. She said “Here, in this romantic setting, he thinks only of me.” That evening they were all walking along the harbor as the palm fronds rustled and the stars twinkled. “Ask him,” whispered Elana, anticipating her triumph. “Andrei,” the friends inquired, “What are you thinking about?” His reply was “Radiation in outer space.”

Andrei Sakharov being a dedicated physicist, no wonder he was always thinking about something related to physics. He might sometimes think about his wife, sometimes his friends, sometimes ideological conflicts between the USA and the USSR. But in normal times his mind was always directed toward one constant thing, physics. This kind of constant orientation or coming back to the original set of mind is called, if I use a computer term, default setting. Default setting is what the machine naturally returns to when there is a power shut-down or something similar. Then in Sakharov’s case, we may say, his default setting is physics because except some special times his mind was always turning back to physics.

What about us Christians? What do you think our current default setting is? Is it money, friendship, health, or job? Or is it Jesus Christ? Romans 8:9 says, “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ,” which means a Christian is called such primarily because he has the Spirit of Christ and because his mind is always oriented to Him.

Martin Luther once challenged one of his students by saying, “I’ll get you a new horse and carriage if you can pray the Lord’s Prayer and concentrate on every phrase without losing your train of thought.” The young man said, “No problem.” After he had prayed the prayer, however, he confessed to Luther, “All I could think about was the horse and carriage.” As much as he tried to concentrate on the Lord’s Prayer, his mind was drawn elsewhere. That is in fact the typical behavioral pattern of the human mind. It is very hard for us to focus on what is essential in the midst of other attractions. Rather than focusing on the divine and the spiritual, we tend to turn easily to the visible and the material and lose our sense of direction, that is, lose the sense of where we have been from originally and where we are headed for ultimately.

This subject of Christian default setting is well discussed in today’s scripture reading from Colossians chapter 3. Verses 1 and 2 read, “If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” Here are described two things: 1) Christians have a new identity through Jesus Christ; 2) Therefore, they should have a new default setting in their mind. To consider this issue of Christian identity, we need to first begin with Colossians 2:20 which explains the meaning of the death of Jesus Christ: the verse reads, “Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules?” If anyone died with Christ, it means that he doesn’t have to follow the rules of the world, the lifestyle of those without Christ. Now Colossians 3:1 establishes the connection between the meaning of Jesus’ death and the meaning of his resurrection: if we’ve been raised with Christ, we have a new status and a new way of life. We now have a power source for living. We can break free from the past and march toward the future with Jesus.

We are exhorted to set our minds not on things below but on things above. I’m sure you’ve heard the phrase, “He’s so heavenly minded that he’s no earthly good.” While I guess that’s possible, it’s more likely that people today are so worldly minded that they’re no heavenly good. But if we truly set our hearts on things above, we will truly experience power and freedom not only in the spiritual world but also in this material world. The word “set” means to seek something out with a desire to possess it. The word is in the present tense, which implies that we’re to continue to seek the things above. It’s not just a one-time decision; it is to be a daily activity.

Jesus put it this way in Matthew 6:21: “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” If our focus is on things that will ultimately rust, tarnish, break down, or burn up, our energy and emotions will be misplaced. But if we seek out Christ and allow Him to become our ultimate treasure, our hearts will follow. So we need to keep on thinking, as a matter of habit, on things above. Our feet must be on earth, but our minds must be in heaven. Thoughts can influence actions, so if we place our thoughts above and not on the earth, our behavior will reflect those things that matter to God. Of course, this requires tenacious effort on our part because instead of looking up we tend to look down by nature.

Now you may raise a question. What does it mean practically to set our minds on things above? What does it mean to have a right set of mind or right default setting for Christ? Verse 5 and the following verses explain it this way: “Put to death, therefore, whatever earthly: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desire, greed (which is idolatry), anger, rage, malice, slander, lie, and abusive language from your mouth.” What do you think? Is there anyone here who is totally free of those things? Maybe not! How hard it is to get rid of or even suppress them? But we need to know that it is not practically useful to try to get rid of each of them; rather we need to kill the root from which all those things spring forth, that is our sinful nature. Then how can we kill it? We ourselves cannot do it because we have no ability to do it. But thank God, Jesus did it for us. He killed the sinful desire within himself and benefited us by providing us with hope and ability to get over the problem of sin. It’s like bringing light into a dark forest. It is useless for us to try to get rid of darkness by ourselves. We cannot do that because there is nothing within us that can produce light. But the simplest and the most efficient way is to let Jesus bring His light for us. Whenever there is light, darkness disappears. Likewise whenever Jesus is, darkness in our soul disappears, and whenever our mind is focused on things above, all earthly things disappear.

Then there remains this question. Yes, we can have Jesus in our hearts. Yes, we can set our minds on things above. But how long can we do that? How firmly can we do that? Is it ever possible for us to have the so-called permanent Christian default setting? In other words, can we really change into a new being in Christ?

A long time ago, a man married a catholic woman and converted to Catholicism. This man had a lot of problems with eating fish on Fridays. This man loved his steaks and did not like fish. On Fridays, he would sneak into his backyard and barbeque a nice, thick, steak. His wife reported him to the priest. The next Friday the priest hid in the bushes by the man’s backyard. When the man was just about to finish with his steak, the priest popped out of the bushes and said, “Ah-ha! Caught you! Just what do you think you’re doing?” The man felt really guilty but was honest, “I’m cooking a steak.” The priest said to him, “You were born a sinner, you lived a sinner, but now, you’re a Catholic.” The man said, “Oh, now I understand.” The priest went off with smiles on his face. But just to be sure, he repeated his little trick the next week. To his surprise, the man was out in his backyard with his barbeque grill all fired up. As he picked up the steak, he pronounced these words over the steak: “You were born a cow, you lived as a cow, but now you are a fish.”

What do you think? Are you with this man denying any possibility of change? Do you think it impossible for you to have a new default setting in your mind so that from now on your mind is set on things above instead of things below? Of course, we cannot do that with our own strength. We have no such power within ourselves. But we need to know that if we have really died with Christ and been raised with Him, we have the spiritual power to slay those sinful desires that want to control us. We know that we don’t have to listen to them anymore. We know that if Christ is inside our hearts he can help us to live a new Christian life according to the new Christian default setting. So let us not be discouraged when we find ourselves coming back to the life before Christ. Let us not be deceived by the devil who always says that we cannot change. But knowing that we have died with Christ and been raised with Him and that we are given the power to implement our new Christian default setting in our life, let us continue to struggle, let us continue to fight, let us continue to get closer to where God has originally planned us to be.

[Prayer] O heavenly Father, we glorify your name and praise you for the word of inspiration and the word of encouragement. Lord, how many times do we find ourselves going back to the old ways? How often do we grieve over our die-hard nature of sin? Lord, we believe that we have died with Christ and have been raised with him to a new life. We believe that you have put inside us a new Christian default setting. Lord, let us never forget the gift but implement it for our Christian life. Let us consciously set our minds on things above and progress daily towards the perfection of Jesus Christ, in whose holy name we prayed. Amen.