Colossians 3:1

εἰ οὖν συνηγέρθητε τῷ Χριστῷ : “if then [as is the case] you were raised together with Christ”. It is not their resurrection when Christ rose of which he speaks, but their personal resurrection with Him at the time of their conversion and baptism. This is the counterpart to death with Him, and as that breaks off the old relations, so this initiates them into the new. They must now work out to its consequences that which they then received in union with Christ. Alford denies that there is any ethical element in this resurrection, on the ground that if there were there would be no need to exhort to ethical realisation. But this is to misunderstand Paul's idealistic language. Resurrection implies that the death has already taken place, and the death is ethical. τὰ ἄνω ζητεῖτε. The reference is not, as Meyer characteristically makes it, eschatological. It is present fellowship with the exalted Lord, a life in heaven, of which he speaks. The true explanation is suggested by Ephesians 2:6, συνήγειρεν καὶ συνεκάθισεν ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ (cf. καθήμενος). Those who have risen with Christ must realise ascension with Him. οὗ ὁ Χριστός ἐσστιν, ἐν δεξιᾷ τοῦ Θεοῦ καθήμενος : “where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God”. Two statements are made: Christ is in the region of the things above, and He is seated at the right hand of God. These facts supply the motive for τ. ἄνω ζ. Our home with Him is not simply in the region of the things above, but in the highest position there, at God's right hand.