What Does Colossians 3:1 Mean?
If then you were raised with the Anointed One, seek the things above, where he sits at the right hand of God.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.THE KEY
Your seeking above begins from a life already raised with Christ.
THE MEANING
“Risen with Christ” names the reader’s present footing: shared life with Christ is already the premise. From there, attention turns toward what is above, where Christ sits at God’s right hand. The verse presents seeking as the expression of that shared placement.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that you must climb toward God to earn a place with Christ: the seeking begins after the verse names you as raised with him.
THE ROOT
συνηγέρθητε
synēgerthēte
GROWS FROM
ἐγειρ-
To wake, rouse, or raise.
“risen with” in this verse is synēgerthēte. The verb joins σύν (syn, “together with”) to ἐγείρω (egeirō, “wake, rouse, raise”), so the raising is shared with Christ. The verse treats that shared raising as the ground for seeking what is above.
ALSO GROWS
egeirō: To wake, rouse, or raise.
ἐγείρω
This root gathers waking from sleep and raising from death into one image.
synegeirō: To raise together with another.
συνεγείρω
This is the compound verb used here: the raising joins the reader’s life with Christ’s.
egersis: A rising or resurrection.
ἔγερσις
This noun carries the same rising into the language of resurrection.
THE PATTERN
In Scripture, being raised by God establishes a new place from which life is lived.
He raises the bowed one from the dust, and lifts the one in want from the ash heap; That he may settle him with the generous ones, with the generous ones of his people.So we were laid in the ground with him through immersion into death, that as the Anointed One was raised from the dead through the weight of the Father, so also we might walk in newness of life.And he raised us up together and seated us together in the places of the heavens, in the Anointed One, Jesus.THE THREAD
And he raised us up together and seated us together in the places of the heavens, in the Anointed One, Jesus.“Raised us up together” translates συνεγείρω (synegeirō), the same word family as “be risen with” here. Ephesians adds the image of shared seating, showing that the raised life is already positioned with Christ.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us