Day to day, we need to dwell with people and deal with relationships.

The word of God in 2 Cor 5 :16 reminds us to regard no one according to the Flesh.

It's so easy for us to judge and be critical with one another. Yet we fail to see that we too are imperfect but by the grace of God that He has forgiven us and made us to be in right standing with Him through Christ.

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away and all things have become new (2 Cor 5:17).

What does this verse mean to us?

We don't literally get transformed overnight in our physical condition and situation.

But it signifies the beginning of a brand new life created by God in the spirit that starts from within, from inside out. God has begun that amazing and powerful work of transformation in the spirit, first putting away for us the curse of sin (which is death) and bringing us into the blessing of eternal life.

And He Reconciled us to Himself, and putting away our unrighteousness and made us to become righteous in Him. He has put away the bondage to our old way of living according to the flesh and given us the power to live according to the spirit.

When we embrace that and live life according to His word, our perspective about everything changes and all things become new as we renew our mind in Him. For we act according to our thinking.

Our life change when our thinking change. 

Our marriage change when the way we think about our spouse change.

Our career change when the way we think about our work, our boss and our colleagues change.

Our financial situation change when the way we think about finances change.

And God is in the business of restoration, redemption and reconciliation. He wants to restore, redeem and reconcile all things in our life and make them new in Him.

God is also expecting us to be in the business of  bringing people to reconcile with Him and to also reconcile in our relationship with one another.

Let's put aside our old lens of how we regard people and judging them according to the flesh.

But let's put on our new lens in the spirit to love people, to forgive them just as how God forgave us and to be reconciled with them so that we can bring them to be reconciled back with God!

II Corinthians 5:16‭-‬21 NKJV

16 Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him  thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he  is  a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. 21 For He made Him who knew no sin to  be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

2 Corinthians 5:16‭-‬21 MSG

16-20 Because of this decision we don’t evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don’t look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you. 21 How? you ask. In Christ. God put the wrong on him who never did anything wrong, so we could be put right with God.

Prayer:
Dear Lord, thank You for redeeming me back to Yourself and giving me a new life in Christ Jesus. I am a new creation in Christ. I declare that I will live according to Your word and adopt a new perspective in all things. Help me to redeem, restore and reconcile my relationship with You and with others, regarding no one according to the flesh. I shall forgive and love others just as You have forgiven and loved me.

In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

God bless,
Hazel Ashley