Set Your Affection on Things Above
Heaven Is Not Boring: A Vision of the Glory That Awaits
There is a lie that has quietly settled into the imagination of many people, believers and skeptics alike. It is the image of heaven as an endless church service where disembodied souls float on clouds, strumming harps, and singing the same hymns on repeat for eternity. If that is what heaven is, the thinking goes, then perhaps the devil really is having more fun.
But what if that picture is almost entirely wrong?
What if the glory that awaits those who are in Christ is so far beyond anything we have experienced, imagined, or even dared to hope for, that the most spectacular things this world has to offer are little more than a dim, corrupted shadow of the real thing?
The Apostle Paul opens Colossians 3 with a command that carries enormous weight: set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. That is not a passive suggestion. It is a deliberate redirecting of the human heart toward a destination that is real, physical, and breathtaking. And Paul does not stop there. He connects that heavenward focus to something intensely practical. Because immediately after calling believers to set their minds above, he says to mortify, to put to death, the sinful desires of the flesh. The implication is clear: thinking rightly about heaven has a direct effect on how we live on earth. It is not escapism. It is fuel.
But you cannot set your affection on something you cannot name. So what exactly is up there?
A Real Place With Real Dimensions
Heaven is not a state of mind. It is a location. Scripture tells us that after the resurrection, Jesus was physically received into a cloud. The angels standing by told the disciples that this same Jesus would return in the same manner. He went up in a body. He is seated at the right hand of the Father on a physical throne. And he said plainly, in John 14, that he was going to prepare a place, and that he would come back to bring his people there physically.
The heavenly Jerusalem described in Revelation has actual measurements. Roughly 1,500 miles in each direction, forming a cube of staggering volume. If that city descended to the level of the moon, it would appear in the night sky as two-thirds the size of the moon. Its walls are jasper, like crystal. Its streets are gold. Its gates are pearl. These are not metaphors designed to communicate vagueness. They are descriptions of a place so magnificent that human language strains to contain it.
A New Body Built for a New World
One of the most thrilling promises of Scripture is the resurrection body. Philippians 3 tells us that Christ will transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body. Romans 8 says the whole creation is groaning, waiting for the redemption that is coming. We groan too, worn down by pain, illness, and the slow deterioration that marks life in a fallen world.
But look at what the resurrected body of Jesus could do. He moved between locations at a speed beyond anything human technology can approach. He appeared in a different form to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. He passed through locked rooms. He ate with his disciples to demonstrate that his resurrection was physical, not merely spiritual. And since Scripture promises that believers will bear the image of the heavenly, the resurrection body of Christ is a preview of what is coming for every person who trusts in him.
Genesis tells us that God gave mankind dominion over the birds of the air, the fish of the sea, and every living creature. That dominion was not bureaucratic. It was intimate. How do you exercise real dominion over a falcon in flight or a blue whale in the deep ocean? Perhaps the original human design included capacities we have long since lost. Perhaps the new body restores them and more.
A Creation Finally Set Free
Romans 8 describes creation itself as waiting in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. The thorns, the thistles, the decay, the venom, the danger embedded in the natural world are not original features. They are the result of the curse. And the curse will be lifted.
Imagine forests where you can sleep without fear. Imagine oceans you can enter without equipment and explore without limit. Imagine animals restored to what they were always meant to be, not threats to manage but companions to enjoy. The most spectacular wildlife documentary you have ever watched is a faint echo of what creation looks like when it is fully redeemed and fully alive.
Isaiah 11 describes wolves lying down with lambs, children playing near the holes of serpents, and nothing that hurts or destroys anywhere on the holy mountain. That is not poetry designed to communicate a vague sense of peace. That is a description of a world finally running the way it was designed to run.
The Community That Never Grows Cold
Psalm 133 says it is good and pleasant for brothers to dwell together in unity. The heavenly Jerusalem is described as a city compacted together, a place of gathered community. There will be nations bringing their cultures, their songs, their foods, their colors. There will be fellowship that never curdles into conflict. There will be a table that never empties.
Every great story ends the same way. The enemies are defeated, the wandering is over, and everyone sits down together to eat. That instinct is not trivial. It is a signpost pointing toward something real that is coming.
The Way There
All of it, the city, the body, the creation, the community, is accessed through one door. Jesus said in John 14 that he is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through him. He was not speaking abstractly. He was answering a question about a place and how to get there.
He died for sin. He rose from the dead. He is preparing a place. And he is coming back.
Set your affection on things above. Not because this world does not matter, but because what is coming makes everything here look like the rough draft.
There is a lie that has quietly settled into the imagination of many people, believers and skeptics alike. It is the image of heaven as an endless church service where disembodied souls float on clouds, strumming harps, and singing the same hymns on repeat for eternity. If that is what heaven is, the thinking goes, then perhaps the devil really is having more fun.
But what if that picture is almost entirely wrong?
What if the glory that awaits those who are in Christ is so far beyond anything we have experienced, imagined, or even dared to hope for, that the most spectacular things this world has to offer are little more than a dim, corrupted shadow of the real thing?
The Apostle Paul opens Colossians 3 with a command that carries enormous weight: set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. That is not a passive suggestion. It is a deliberate redirecting of the human heart toward a destination that is real, physical, and breathtaking. And Paul does not stop there. He connects that heavenward focus to something intensely practical. Because immediately after calling believers to set their minds above, he says to mortify, to put to death, the sinful desires of the flesh. The implication is clear: thinking rightly about heaven has a direct effect on how we live on earth. It is not escapism. It is fuel.
But you cannot set your affection on something you cannot name. So what exactly is up there?
A Real Place With Real Dimensions
Heaven is not a state of mind. It is a location. Scripture tells us that after the resurrection, Jesus was physically received into a cloud. The angels standing by told the disciples that this same Jesus would return in the same manner. He went up in a body. He is seated at the right hand of the Father on a physical throne. And he said plainly, in John 14, that he was going to prepare a place, and that he would come back to bring his people there physically.
The heavenly Jerusalem described in Revelation has actual measurements. Roughly 1,500 miles in each direction, forming a cube of staggering volume. If that city descended to the level of the moon, it would appear in the night sky as two-thirds the size of the moon. Its walls are jasper, like crystal. Its streets are gold. Its gates are pearl. These are not metaphors designed to communicate vagueness. They are descriptions of a place so magnificent that human language strains to contain it.
A New Body Built for a New World
One of the most thrilling promises of Scripture is the resurrection body. Philippians 3 tells us that Christ will transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body. Romans 8 says the whole creation is groaning, waiting for the redemption that is coming. We groan too, worn down by pain, illness, and the slow deterioration that marks life in a fallen world.
But look at what the resurrected body of Jesus could do. He moved between locations at a speed beyond anything human technology can approach. He appeared in a different form to the disciples on the road to Emmaus. He passed through locked rooms. He ate with his disciples to demonstrate that his resurrection was physical, not merely spiritual. And since Scripture promises that believers will bear the image of the heavenly, the resurrection body of Christ is a preview of what is coming for every person who trusts in him.
Genesis tells us that God gave mankind dominion over the birds of the air, the fish of the sea, and every living creature. That dominion was not bureaucratic. It was intimate. How do you exercise real dominion over a falcon in flight or a blue whale in the deep ocean? Perhaps the original human design included capacities we have long since lost. Perhaps the new body restores them and more.
A Creation Finally Set Free
Romans 8 describes creation itself as waiting in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. The thorns, the thistles, the decay, the venom, the danger embedded in the natural world are not original features. They are the result of the curse. And the curse will be lifted.
Imagine forests where you can sleep without fear. Imagine oceans you can enter without equipment and explore without limit. Imagine animals restored to what they were always meant to be, not threats to manage but companions to enjoy. The most spectacular wildlife documentary you have ever watched is a faint echo of what creation looks like when it is fully redeemed and fully alive.
Isaiah 11 describes wolves lying down with lambs, children playing near the holes of serpents, and nothing that hurts or destroys anywhere on the holy mountain. That is not poetry designed to communicate a vague sense of peace. That is a description of a world finally running the way it was designed to run.
The Community That Never Grows Cold
Psalm 133 says it is good and pleasant for brothers to dwell together in unity. The heavenly Jerusalem is described as a city compacted together, a place of gathered community. There will be nations bringing their cultures, their songs, their foods, their colors. There will be fellowship that never curdles into conflict. There will be a table that never empties.
Every great story ends the same way. The enemies are defeated, the wandering is over, and everyone sits down together to eat. That instinct is not trivial. It is a signpost pointing toward something real that is coming.
The Way There
All of it, the city, the body, the creation, the community, is accessed through one door. Jesus said in John 14 that he is the way, the truth, and the life, and that no one comes to the Father except through him. He was not speaking abstractly. He was answering a question about a place and how to get there.
He died for sin. He rose from the dead. He is preparing a place. And he is coming back.
Set your affection on things above. Not because this world does not matter, but because what is coming makes everything here look like the rough draft.
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