Seeing people as we ought to in Christ

Text 2 Corinthians 5:16 Date 27/05/15 Place Childs Baptist Church

It's half term this week so I thought we'd take a break from Philippians and look at a verse that has been on my mind, recently. I'm not quite sure why. The verse is in 2 Corinthians, in 2 Corinthians 5:16. Paul says 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.

The verse is found in the first part of 2 Corinthians where Paul talks about his God given ministry of reconciliation. He talks first about the glory of this ministry (3:9 If the ministry that brought condemnation was glorious, how much more glorious is the ministry that brings righteousness!) but then also of the frailty of those who minister it (4:7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.)

From 5:10 he begins to talk about the ministry itself and its message of reconciliation.

We must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, he reminds us so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. Knowing this, Paul seeks to persuade others of the truth in a very plain and straightforward way. Christ's love compels us, he says because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.

This Christ perspective means that his whole outlook on life has been transformed. As he says in verse 17 if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

Paul goes on to speak of how reconciliation to God is through Christ and what he has done on the cross and how We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.

There are lots of interesting things here then but I want to just focus on this one verse, 5:16, 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.

There are two things we can say from this verse

1. There are two ways of regarding Christ – no longer take a worldly point of view

In the second half of the verse, which is where we want to begin, Paul explains the first half. He says that we once regarded Christ in this way, from a worldly point of view but, he says, we do so no longer. A change came about in Paul's life it appears. There was BC (before Christ) and there was AD – after Jesus became his Lord. His experience on the road to Damascus was amazing and life changing in a unique way, of course, but every true Christian undergoes a similar sort of change. Let's talk about these two ways of regarding Christ then.

1. Consider regarding Christ according to the worldly point of view

We once regarded Christ in this way says Paul, from this worldly point of view – literally “after the flesh”. Whether Paul ever laid eyes on Jesus while he was on earth we do not know and we cannot know. The most we can say is that it was possible and that it is likely that Paul saw him in the distance or heard about him but never had a personal encounter before the Road to Damascus. Paul's point is more likely to be that when he thought of the Messiah in the past (he uses the word Christ not Jesus) he thought of him as a Jewish temporal Messiah, one who would overthrow the Romans and give Israel political supremacy. This was an entirely wrong way to think of Messiah. That is not what Jesus was like or what he came to do.

Today you have people, I suppose, who have pictures of what they think Jesus looked like. Some of them carry crucifixes and so on. We could describe it as knowing Christ from a worldly point of view. Similarly there are all these ideas of Jesus – Jesus the teacher of morals, Jesus the healer, Jesus the miracle worker, Jesus the best friend, Jesus the freedom fighter, Jesus the Socialist, Jesus the wise man, gentle Jesus meek and mild and so on and so on. What all these different ideas have in common is that, like the idea of Jesus as a political King of the Jews, these are all worldly points of view and they are wrong ways to think of Jesus.

2. Consider regarding Christ according to the spiritual point of view

No, we must come, as Paul had come, to see Christ as the Lord Jesus Christ the Messiah who is Lord and God and who is man and who died to save sinners from their sins and from everything else that stood against him. Verse 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. That is the way to understand Christ. He had no sin. He was perfect in every way. Yet God made him to be sin or to be a sin offering. He was put to death on the cross. He did that, says Paul to the Corinthians, for us. He died instead of us so that in him by trusting in him we might become the righteousness of God.

Is that how you think of Christ? That is how we ought to think of him – as our Saviour, as the one who sacrificed himself that all our sins may be forgiven. Once we accept that then it will affect the way we think of everything else. We will never think in the same way again, as is clear from this verse.

2. There are two ways of regarding other people – no longer take a worldly point of view

So that's the first thing – how we regard Christ. Now it is on the basis of this realisation that Paul says So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Just as there are two ways of regarding Christ so there are two ways of regarding everyone else; everyone we meet, everyone who exists. We either regard them from a worldly point of view or a spiritual one.

1. Consider regarding people according to the worldly point of view

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view says Paul. What does it mean to regard someone from a worldly point of view?

Many examples come to mind. When you see a person or meet them, it is very easy to fall into thinking of them in a worldly way.

Perhaps the first thing you notice is their colour, whether their skin is darker than yours or lighter. May be it is their accent. Are they British or from overseas? Are they from London or elsewhere? We can think of them on racial or provincial lines.

You notice if it is a man or a woman, an adult or a child, an old person or a young person. Do you make certain assumptions at that point?

Do you take in whether this is a beautiful person, a handsome person? Perhaps you can't avoid seeing certain blemishes. Again, it is easy to make judgements.

Perhaps this person is in a wheelchair or has some other disability. Again, it is easy to make assumptions.

Do you notice what sort of hat is worn? A turban showing he is is a Sikh, a yarmulke or kippah that shows he is Jewish. Perhaps it is brimless and you wonder if this man is a Muslim. Perhaps the red in his beard gives it away. Or is there a red spot on the forehead suggesting Hinduism? We can think of people on religious lines.

May be you notice the cut of their clothes, their shoes. Is this a rich person or a poor person? Does their jewellery tell you how rich they are and does that influence your attitude?

I am not suggesting that it is possible always to ignore these things. Sometimes they just jump out at you. It is important, however, that when we find ourselves noticing such things that we do not fall into worldly ways of thinking. I'd like to get to know her, she looks nice. He's from my home town so I'll be nice to him. He's Muslim so I won't talk to him. She's a poor person, I'm not interested in her.

Every now and again a survey comes out telling us that people get ignored because they are overweight or elderly or unattractive. Such things no doubt do happen.

I am not suggesting that we try to ignore such factors but that we stop thinking in such simply worldly ways. Remember what James says in 2:1-4

My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favouritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, "Here's a good seat for you," but say to the poor man, "You stand there" or "Sit on the floor by my feet," have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?

2. Consider regarding people according to the spiritual point of view

So what should we think of people we encounter if we are not going to think of them from a worldly point of view? Clearly what Paul expects is that we see them as made in the image of God and more than that, being convinced that one died for all we therefore believe that all died all are sinners who by nature deserve God's wrath but who may be saved if they trust in Jesus Christ. That is the way to see people – as sinners but as potential recipients of the grace of God. What a transformation it would involve if we could always see everyone we meet and have that sort of attitude. When Jesus himself saw the crowds he saw them as sheep without a shepherd and he had compassion on them. We ought to be filled with compassion too.

Dale Ralph Davis has a nice story about how he and his wife and his children went over to a football field one evening and practised field goal kicks. He reckons that his wife, Barbara, to the amazement of his boys, proved to be very adept at field goal kicking. This was an aspect of their mother that they had never really contemplated before. According to Davis they never thought of her in quite the same way again.

Once we know Christ we should really never look at any human being in quite the same way again. We should see each one as a sinner and as perhaps one for whom Christ died that they might be forgiven. It doesn't come easily, at least not with everyone, but we can work at it. We must.