We no longer see anyone according to the flesh

You have probably had the experience of doing ten things right, and one thing wrong. And what do people remember? The one thing wrong of course! When they and we do such things, we are seeing people according to the flesh.

So then if we don’t see people according to the flesh how are we supposed to see them? The answer is that we need to see them as God sees them. In fact we also need to see ourselves as God sees us. In other words the “anyone”, includes ourselves. If you are in Christ, then according to the Scriptures you are a saint! In other words if you are in Christ, God see you as a saint. Now you and I may not be saintly, our lives may not match what God calls us. But what He does is to call us to be what he says we are. In other words he calls us to be saintly.

The verse following the one quoted above is verse 17 of 1st Corinthians 5. It says “therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.”

This verse has been misapplied in many christian circles, it has been understood to be saying, that I don’t need to deal with the past, because all things are become new. But what the verse is saying when we take it in context, is rather than not needing to deal with the past, we need to deal with it in such a way that our future does not become our past. In other words he calls us into our new destiny as new creations in Christ.

So the admonition at the title of this post has to do with seeing others and ourselves as God sees them, us. And so we need to be looking for the treasure in others, and indeed in ourselves, rather than looking for the trash. It is not hard to find the trash, especially in others, but God calls us to see the treasure. The intent of course, is to call us into the high calling that each one of us has in Christ Jesus.

And we cannot do this without dealing with the past. In particular we cannot put off the old man, we cannot crucify the flesh, without dealing with it. He has given as many tools to do this in his Word. In particular, it cannot be done in isolation, it has to be done in community. For example we cannot confess our faults one to another in isolation. Most of our difficulties are relational, and it is His intention that we work through things in the furnace of our interactions. This is exactly what it means when he talks about iron sharpening iron. And and in the midst of this often difficult interaction, we are to continue to see the treasure in ourselves, (i.e. no beating ourselves up), and in others, (i.e. not putting them down). In other words bearing with each other and love one another, just as Christ has done for us.