Paul begins here with the Greek ei, normally translated as “if” (as in NIV), but the Greek syntax here communicates a more definite idea. He begins here with what is known as a first class conditional statement here, or what is also known as a condition of fact. Paul here is making a factual statement, a reality which is true for all who have been raised with Christ and may be more precisely rendered in English as “since”. Since Paul informs us in Colossians 2:12 that all believers have been raised with Christ, this statement applies to all believers, and so also does the command which follows. The verb translated as “raised up” is the aorist passive indicative of sunegeiro, to raise up with”, telling us something which is a factual statement about something which happened in the past. All believers, as a matter of fact, have been raised up with Christ and are the subjects of the command which follows. The command which Paul gives begins with the present active imperative of zeteo, the root of which refers to seeking after something, so the question arises as to why the NIV would translate this one word with the phrase “set your hearts”? The word zeteo contains within it the connotation of something much more intense than mere “seeking”. We seek after what we find to be of the highest value to us, what we “seek” is that which reflects our deepest, innermost desires, what is our driving force, what we value above all else. This seeking is a heart level choice, what we prioritize in our lives. This is why Paul uses it here as a command (an imperative), it is something we must choose to do, and place above all other choices in our lives. So we can see now why the NIV chooses to translate this as “set your hearts”, for Paul here is referring to a heart (innermost or most “central”) level choice we must continually make, and that choice is that what will be most precious to us, what we will seek after above all else, is “things above”. These things above are the Greek ta ano, literally that which is above or upwards. This obviously is a reference to heaven, to the place where God dwells, and is used here as a metaphor for the things of God and the will of God. Therefore, we can conclude here that Paul is commanding all believers to make the seeking after the will of God the number one priority in their lives, that their highest value and deepest desire would be the knowing and doing of God’s will in their lives. A fact of human existence is that we pursue what we regard as most precious to us, and we are commanded by Paul here to make the will of God the thing which we decide is most precious to us, as well as what we seek after above all else.