We look at people and see the color of their skin, their gender, the clothes they wear, how clean they are, and how they act. And it is easy to judge them based on these, and many other, factors. That is what is meant by looking at people from a worldly point of view.
But Paul had become convinced that Christ died for all. And that was transformative for his thinking. It caused him to begin to see people from God’s perspective. As objects of his love and mercy. Yes, some people will reject that and suffer the consequences of that rejection. But still, God loves the humanity that he created. So much so that Christ died for us. Not just for some of us. But for all of us. So how can I fail to love those that God loves? Do I know better than he? Am I a better judge of people’s worth? Hardly!
A New Creation
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
2 Corinthians 5:16-17 NIV
And even more significant is what has happened to those who are in Christ. Those who have believed in him and who are now a part of his body. Paul says that for them, for us who believe, a new creation has come. The old person that we were is gone, and we have been made new. We are not what we were, regardless of how we sometimes feel.
You cannot tell by looking at my outward appearance that I have been made new. But the person who occupies this clay jar that is my body is different. God has reconciled me to himself through Christ. I am his child. And everything that I am on the inside is being transformed into his likeness (2 Cor. 3:18). And that is also true of all who have believed in Jesus and are following him.
In Christ, we are all a new creation. Let’s put aside those things that divided us in the past. The old has gone. The new is here. So, let’s live our new life in Christ, united in one heart, mind, and spirit (Phil. 2:2).
