Audio Transcript

Welcome back to the podcast on this holiday week for us in the States. The Fourth of July, Independence Day, is tomorrow. It’s always good to invest some time in these slower months to step back from life and to think about the big questions, like: What is the purpose of my life on the planet? Why do I exist? What am I here to do? What does it mean to be productive? How should I respond to my most unproductive days? And how do I fight my own lazy tendencies that impede my productivity? All super important questions on your minds over the years, as evidenced in the APJ book on pages 85–94.

Today we return to purpose and productivity, as we enter July and we begin to read Paul’s epistle to the Colossians, a book that brings all this together for a college student who writes in today: “Pastor John, I’m a twenty-year-old female college student trying to figure out what it really means to follow Christ in all areas of life. I know I’m saved by grace, but I constantly feel the pressure of worldly expectations. In Colossians 2:20, Paul interrogates me with a question that often resonates in my mind: ‘Why [do you live] as if you were still alive in the world?’

“This question hits me especially hard right now, in a season where I feel so entangled in the world’s values. Everything in my life seems focused on success, dating relationships, and career ambitions. As a college student, I’m bombarded with messages about what it means to succeed — landing the right job, climbing the social ladder, achieving goals. But when I read this passage, I wonder: Should I even care about these things? What does it mean to be alive in the world but dead to the world? Does it mean I should ignore my future, my friendships, or even career aspirations? How do I live in the world without getting caught up in its temporary distractions, especially when everything around me urges me to chase after them?”

Let me restate the key sentence that I hear, and then relate it immediately to Colossians. Here it is: “Should I even care about these things [success, dating relationships, career ambitions]? What does it mean to be alive in the world but dead to the world? Does it mean I should ignore my future, my friendships, or even career aspirations?” That’s the key sentence. (And the short answer to that last question about ignoring all these things is no, you shouldn’t.)

Dead and Alive

Let’s go to Colossians and see what it means to be dead. What is that reality? Here’s Colossians 3:1–4:

If then 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. For you have died, and your life is hidden [so, you died, but you have a life] with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life [Christ who is your life] appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

When God united us with Christ through our faith in Jesus, we died with him. His death became our death. Our old unbelieving self has really been dealt a death blow. That old self is not the true us anymore, and a new self of faith has come into being — we rose with Christ. And the true glory of our new self — as a child and heir of the Creator of the universe — is hidden with Christ in God and will be manifested like a blazing sun when he comes.

So, the question that we all ask is this: How then do we live as those who have died to sin and unbelief and self-exaltation? That old person is dead. The impulses of this fallen world are pushing at us, and they will not have dominion over us, Paul says in Romans 6:14. How do we live as those who have come alive in Christ, indwelt by the Holy Spirit?

“Success is trusting Jesus for his help — doing things his way and for his glory. Nothing else ultimately matters.”

And that’s what Colossians chapter 3 and chapter 4, all the rest of Colossians, is about. And the absolute key — this is what I’m going to spend all my time on here, a few minutes — the absolute key statement in those two chapters of Colossians 3 and 4 that will guide a college student as he (or she) is bombarded with all kinds of ideas about how to make choices in careers and relationships and entertainments, that absolute key statement is Colossians 3:17: “Whatever you do,” college student, “in word or deed” — so, whatever you say, whatever you do — “do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.”

Does somebody present you with a career path? You ask, “Can I do it in the name of the Lord Jesus?” Does somebody suggest you date this young woman or man? You ask, “Can I do it in the name of the Lord Jesus?” Somebody says, “You should watch this movie.” You ask, “Can I do it in the name of the Lord Jesus?”

How to Live

So, what does that mean, to speak and act “in the name of the Lord Jesus”? I think it means at least three things.

First, you do it in the strength of the Lord Jesus (1 Peter 4:11). That is, you do it by trusting that he is the one who, by his majestic and authoritative name, will give you the help you need to do it. That’s number one: strength — in the strength of the Lord.

Second, you do it in the way that the Lord Jesus prescribes. You might say, “Pastor John, the Bible doesn’t give me any detailed instructions about how to study for this history test, or about that particular guy I’m interested in, or about this particular engineering path as a career.” Well, that’s true. It doesn’t give detailed guidance for which of those things you do, but it does tell you many things about the way to go about a thing — to go about studying, to go about dating, to go about career choice. Will you do it honestly, humbly, purely, wisely, joyfully, mercifully, lovingly, meekly, generously, thoroughly, zealously, and on and on? The Bible is not silent on the way to do a thing. That’s number two. So, first, do it in the strength that God supplies. Second, do it in the way the Lord prescribes.

And third, do it for his glory (1 Corinthians 10:31). To do something in Jesus’s name means to do it with a view to his glorification — that is, in order to make much of him in the way you do it and what you do, so that he looks great in your life. That’s your goal: making the Lord Jesus Christ look great. Your choices of relationships and entertainment and career make Jesus look great, true, beautiful, as he really is.

One Important Thing

I remember (and you remember this, Tony; we’ve talked about it) standing in front of thirty thousand students back in 2000 at OneDay, saying, “You don’t need” — I can hear myself doing it because I’ve watched that video. “You don’t need to know a lot of things in order to be a faithful Christian and make a great impact in your life. You need to know one or two or three really important things, and be willing to die for them.”

And I feel this very strongly because I, personally (just like the typical college student, I think), tend and have tended for fifty years to feel overwhelmed at the number of things that come at me, telling me how to do everything. Oh my goodness, everybody and his brother has an idea for what you should be eating and exercising and reading and watching and doing with your life. And I have survived as a Christian for seventy years — more than seventy years now; I was saved when I was six — under that tidal wave of advice by saying to myself, “I don’t need to know a lot of things, but I know one thing: Absolutely everything in my life I should do in the name of Jesus my Lord.” Or, if you want to call it “I need to know three things,” then it’s this: “In everything I do, I should trust him for the strength to do it. I should do it in the way he prescribes. I should do it in order to make him look glorious.”

O my dear college student friends, this will serve you well. You do not need to feel like you are drowning in an ocean of conflicting advice. It is an ocean, and they are conflicting, but you don’t need to drown. You know one great, all-decisive fact: God made you and everything for the glory of Jesus Christ.

True Success

So, when this college co-ed says, “I’m bombarded with messages about what it means to succeed,” I respond, “That’s true. And now you don’t need to feel overwhelmed, because you know exactly what it means to succeed.” Yes, you do. You do. Success, which simply means achieving your goals, is doing everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. Success is trusting him for his help, doing things his way, doing it for his glory. Nothing else ultimately matters.

I’m going to say that again. I’m saying it with confidence because of what the Bible teaches: Nothing else ultimately matters. That’s what you will be judged for on the last day. Did you do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus?

With that single truth, it will become obvious to you what paths in life are out of bounds. On those paths, you would be ashamed to ask for his help, his strength. He will make plain what paths you can’t take and act in his way. You will see what you can’t do for his glory. There are things that don’t glorify him. He would be dishonored, not glorified, if you went on that path.

So, I urge every teenager and every college student to nail this down. Why do you exist? Nail it; get it; settle it. If it takes a year, settle it. It’s the most important thing you can settle. Why do you exist? And I’m saying that the Bible answers: You exist — indeed, the universe exists — so that everything would be done in the name of the Lord Jesus, by his strength, in his way, for his glory. Let that be the lodestar of your life.