May 24

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. — Col 3:2 BSB

Everything on earth, as viewed by the eyes of the Majesty of heaven, is base and insignificant. Earth is, after all, nothing more than a large clod of dust. Apart from being the place where the Redeemer suffered and sacrificed Himself, now inhabited by His suffering people, and to be the scene of His glory in the future, it is as insignificant in the eyes of its Maker as the small dust of the balance or the drop in a bucket.

What, then, are earth’s highest achievements, its loftiest goals, its grandest pursuits, or its noblest employments—without the grace of the gospel—compared to Him who inhabits eternity? They are base and worthless. Isn’t there one truth that makes this clear to us all? That everything on earth, no matter how grand or accomplished, ends in death? The breath of God’s displeasure soon lays low all that is rich and mighty, high and proud, for “the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon everyone that is proud and lofty, and upon everyone that is lifted up, and he shall be brought low” (Isaiah 2:12).

Thus, the effectual work of grace in the heart, by which God’s chosen vessels are delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of His dear Son, may well be called a “high calling.” It calls them out of the low, earthly pursuits, the base and sensual lusts that lead men to both their ruin and their fleeting happiness, into the knowledge and enjoyment of the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.