Colossians 3:1
Colossians 3:11Therefore, since you have been raised with Christ, strive for the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.
JWs generally apply "you were raised up with the Christ" to the 144,000 anointed class whose heavenly hope is separate from the earthly hope of the Great Crowd. The identification with Christ's resurrection is read as a future, narrow status rather than a present, shared reality.
Paul addresses "you" without qualification — the whole Colossian congregation. And the verb is past tense: "you were raised up with the Christ." Not "will be raised," not "might be raised," not "if you are among the 144,000, will be raised." Already accomplished. This is the resurrection-union pattern Paul uses throughout his letters: believers have been crucified with Christ (), buried with him (), raised with him (, ), and seated with him in the heavenly places (). The new creation identity is not deferred to the millennium; it is the present reality that calls for corresponding life — which is exactly what the rest of the chapter commands: "set your minds on the things above, not on the things on the earth." You aim upward because you have already been raised.