Please pray: Dear God in heaven,
This is the day the Lord has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it. I love you, Jesus! I love you, Jesus! I love you, Jesus! Please help me to listen to you and to follow you, no matter where you lead me. I dedicate these next few minutes to the study and meditation of your Holy Word. Thank you for hearing me and speaking to me.
Amen!
2 Corinthians 5:14-19
14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 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.
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. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here!18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
Our message last Sunday was entitled "Family Matters…Honor!" There is so much that could be written about how what Paul is saying in 2 Corinthians supports this notion of Honor. My attention is focused on the sentence, "So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view." Paul could have gone on to say that, from this point forward, we will regard people from a heavenly point of view, from a perspective that looks at each person on earth as a child of the living God. After all, haven't we all been created in the image and likeness of God?
Looking at people in this way changes everything. We now have the opportunity to truly honor people because they are God's people. We get to pour value into them by the way we speak to them, the way we treat them, and by the way we speak about them "behind their backs". The phrase in the song "make my heart break for what breaks yours" comes to mind. Refusing to look at people from a worldly point of view means we get to look at them the way God looks at them. He loves them and therefore we get to love them, too!
As Delton has been known to say, you will not lock eyes on one person today whom God does not love. I encourage you to think about people in that way today. Regard no one you meet with or speak to today from a worldly point of view…they are God's children.
May God bless you and may YOU be a blessing today to the people around you!
Mark