God’s Point Of View – EP77 (2 Cor 5:16)
2 Corinthians 5:16
So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now!
Hello and welcome back to the One Thing podcast. A good question for today is: How do we evaluate our own lives? How do we evaluate others? In what ways do we think, in what ways do we perceive or decide and discern what is good or bad? More importantly, how do we see God - through what eyes through what mindset? And I love in 2 Corinthians, chapter 5 verse 16 and we’ll be reading from the NLT today, how it gives a description of exactly that: How we should evaluate things in our lives, including ourselves, including others, and more importantly, the Lord.
"Do we look at things from a human point of view, or do we see and discover all things through God's point of view?"And so it says, “So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know Him now!” It's obvious that at some point, Paul is saying that he looked at everything from a human point of view. He probably looked at his own life others and especially the Lord, from his own mindset - from a fallen mindset prior to coming to know the Lord Jesus Christ. For we ourselves in our life, we ask ourselves: Do we look at things from a human point of view, or do we see and discover all things through God's point of view? And it's very important for us.
Now you may be thinking and asking, ‘Why is the human point of view so bad? What is so terrible about it?’ Well, initially, when God first made man, His intention was that our view would be His view, that we would be one with Him. That we would always perceive and share and do all things according to His Word and according to His truth. But we know that because of sin - because of what sin has done - it's darkened our environment it’s darkened our world it's darkened our mindset it's darkened everything so that we have learned to evaluate from a human point of view that is a fallen point of view. A point of view that's been corrupted by sin. And we can understand and think about the many issues that this causes. Because we're not aligned with God, we're not aligned with His truth. Everything we think and everything that we do is according to a fallen thought process and a fallen mindset. In other words, completely the opposite of how God would do something completely opposite of how God would go about.
The problem is that apart from the Lord and apart from thinking and going about His ways and evaluating according to His Word leads us to death, it leads us to perishing. The Bible says unless we believe in Him unless we follow Him - we perish we do not receive life and light which is really truth. But at the same time I love this - at one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. We evaluated from a human point of view but Paul says how differently now we know Him. Now we've come to know the Lord.
There is hope today, that we can come into Christ we can call upon His Name, and receive His truth, and walk in His truth - no longer thinking and perceiving things from our own human fallen point of view but now thinking and seeing as God would. Why is this incredible? Because even if we are in the worst of circumstances, even if this day - when we look at this world and we look at what's happening between viruses between the economy, between political uprise and violence and all sorts of terrible things in the world - those who are in Christ -
"Regardless of what the outside may look like, God is moving, and He will never cease for He is the King."See, on the outside we can see a lot of bad. But when we begin to evaluate, and we see it through God's point of view, we see that there is yet hope. That although the world is in turmoil, we who are in Christ are in victory. Why? Because there is something much bigger - there is Someone who is bigger than the virus, there is Someone who is bigger than the economy, there is One who holds His people in His hands. Regardless of what the outside may look like, God is moving, and He will never cease for He is the King.
And so today, there is hope. Today, there is hope that comes from being in Christ: It is that we no longer live from the old point of view. We no longer live from the human point of view but we now live from God's point of view. Even if it seems as though we have been defeated - even if it seems as though something is not going as we've planned, even if it seems like we're praying and nothing seems to be shifting, yet God today is the victor, and He is moving in our lives. And in the end He always comes out on top and we will reign also with Him.
Will we look to Christ today? Will we be as Paul - no longer looking to be in the old way or in the old human point of view but now coming to know the Lord, knowing how He thinks what He loves and what He prefers. This is the Christian life. It's a life of hope it's a life of joy, because we are one with God. We are brought back to where God had really intended from the beginning - we are brought back to walk with Him, and to walk in His truth, and to walk in his power.
"May we step in to this new year stepping into a newness with Christ - being renewed, and coming out of the old and coming into the new."I pray today that we would no longer evaluate each other, no longer evaluate ourselves, and especially look to God from our own stance and our own fallen mindset, but that today the Holy Spirit will bring us a new mind - the mind of Christ - the ways of God. That we would now know Him like never before. May we step in to this new year stepping into a newness with Christ - being renewed, and coming out of the old and coming into the new. Amen.