The reason we can love those whom we could never love naturally is that hope is being laid up for us in the heavens. If I had been the writer of Colossians, I would have said “because of the hope in the heavens.” Paul, however, inserted the words “being laid up for you.” This matter of hope being laid up for us in the heavens is actually very subjective. It has very much to do with our daily living. According to the context, the laying up of hope in the heavens has a great deal to do with how we live today. The more we love the saints, the more hope is laid up for us in the heavens. However, if we do not love the saints, there will be very little hope laid up for us.
Suppose a certain brother loves all the saints, no matter what their nationality or cultural background may be. Another brother, on the contrary, loves the saints selectively, according to his taste and preference. The one loves all who have faith in Christ, whereas the other loves only a select number of the saints. When the Lord Jesus comes, which brother will have the greater hope? Certainly it will be the one who loves all the saints. This indicates that how much hope Christ will be to us depends on our living Christ today.
The more we live Christ now, the more hope will be laid up for us in the heavens for our glorification. However, if day by day we do not live Christ, Christ will be there in the heavens, but He will not be laid up as a glory for us. For example, if you deposit a certain amount of the money you earn in the bank, some savings will be laid up for you in your bank account. But if you fail to earn money and have nothing to deposit in the bank, there will be no savings laid up for you. In the same principle, the amount of hope that is being laid up for us in the heavens depends on how much we are living Christ. We need to be those who love the saints without partiality because of the One who is our hope. Such a living is the laying up for ourselves of hope in the heavens.
In this Epistle Paul seemed to be saying, “Dear Colossians, if you follow the Jewish observances or the Gentile ordinances, you will not lay up anything for yourselves in the heavens as a hope. You need to live by Christ. One day, Christ who is our life will appear in glory. At present, both you and Christ are hidden in God. He is your inner life. But He will appear in glory, and you will appear with Him. However, I must warn you of the importance of living by Christ today.”
Yes, in 3:4 Paul says that Christ is our life and that when Christ is manifested, we shall be manifested with Him in glory. But suppose we do not live by Him; instead we live by the self and by our preferences, loving only those saints who match our taste. To love the saints selectively is to live by the self, not by Christ. If we have this kind of living, we shall not be happy when the Lord Jesus Christ appears in glory. Once again I say that how much we shall enjoy Christ as our hope of glory depends on how much we live Him out today. Therefore, the laying up of the hope in the heavens depends on our living.
If we live Christ and are one with Him, we should be able to say, “Lord Jesus, I love You, and I take You as my life and as my person. Lord, I want to be with You in Your glory and see You face to face. I want to enjoy Your presence, even Your physical presence, in a practical way. Lord, I’m waiting for this and I’m expecting this.” If you contact the Lord in this way day by day, you will be very happy at His coming.
Suppose, however, that you do not care for the Lord or contact Him. You may not sin or go into the world, but you continually live by the self. You respect the Lord Jesus as the Savior and as the Lord. But although you honor Him, He is not dear or precious to you, and you do not have intimate fellowship with Him. You neither live Him nor take Him as your person. Do you think that, if this is your daily living with respect to the Lord Jesus, you will be excited and shout praises at His coming? Certainly not! Rather, you will withdraw from Him in shame. Whether or not Christ’s coming back will be glory to you depends on how much hope you have laid up in the heavens by living Christ today.
To lay up hope in the heavens is to live Christ and to take Him as our person. Colossians 3:4 is the only verse in the Bible which says that Christ is our life. In John 14:6 the Lord Jesus says, “I am the life.” But in 3:4 Paul says that Christ is our life, an expression which is very subjective. Since Christ is our life, we must live by Him and thereby lay up hope for ourselves in the heavens. This is what it means to love all the saints because of the hope which is laid up for us in the heavens.