To Encourage You

2 Corinthians 5:15-16 “He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him who for their sake died and was raised.  From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard Him thus no longer.”

How do you see the people in your life?  What’s the first thing you think about when you think about them? Perhaps it’s a relative, maybe an aunt or uncle, brother or sister.  Do you think of that blood relationship as their primary identity?  How about your children or your spouse? Here the relationship is even closer, the bond that much deeper.  What about your friends?  Is your first thought when you think about them some of the good experiences you’ve had with them, or perhaps how they’ve been there for you in one situation or another? 

It is these types of things that Paul was likely referring to when he talked about regarding people “according to the flesh” in the verses above.  It’s a reference to human relationships on the basis of our common human experience.  We see people for who they are according to common experiences or various characteristics that factor into our human identity; things like sex, race, social status, family relationship, business associations, things like that.  That’s how Paul says he used to view others in his life, even the person of Christ, before he believed.  But then Paul met Christ on the road to Damascus. It was there in that life-changing event that Jesus asked him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”  Then, when Saul (later to be renamed Paul by Christ) asked this glorious being Who He was, he received this answer: “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting” (Acts 9:4-5).  What a shock this was!  Until that moment he had seen Christians as nothing more than vermin that needed to be eliminated. They weren’t good Jews like he was, and their continued existence in Israel wasn’t to be tolerated.  But then, when Christ opened his eyes, he saw Jesus in all His glory and Christians as those who were so closely identified with Jesus that as Paul acted toward them, he was acting toward Christ.  Now his eyes were opened so that he could see the followers of Christ and Christ Himself in a new way.  Jesus was the One Who had died for him despite his sin, and people around him were those who were loved by Christ with a love so deep that it cost Him everything. 

And so, we who know Christ should see those around us as well. My wife is not just my wife, but she is the very daughter of Christ.  Others in the church that I mingle with week in and week out are so much more than friends to me, for they are the very body of Christ, people for whom Jesus died and whom He wants me to love in the same way I love the Lord. In fact, it is as I love them that I love the Lord, for His identity is that closely tied up in theirs. 

And for those in my life who don’t know Jesus, they are nevertheless people for whom Christ died. They are people who are no different than I was before my eyes were opened by the grace of God.  And they are people for whom the God Who has reconciled me to Himself has entrusted me with the message of reconciliation as an ambassador of the King of kings (2 Corinthians 5:18-21). 

May God open our eyes so that our view of those around us is not just “according to the flesh,” but may we see them as those for whom Christ died.  And may that view influence everything about our relationships with them, either as our spiritual brothers and sisters, or as those who may believe someday, perhaps as God uses us in some small way to show them His love in our actions and words.