Day 47 - 2 Corinthians

How do you view people?  How do you treat people?  Are they simply a combination of the mistakes they made, the good deeds they've done, the words they've spoken and the money they've made?  Is it their skin color or their income or where they're from?  Do you treat people from different religious groups different?  Are you supposed to?  Are you judgmental or do you even care?  Does it bother you that people are marginalized?  Are you combative and argumentative?  Are you indifferent or annoyed?

How we treat people matters.  And how we treat them is born out of how we view people.  In 2 Corinthians 5:16, the Apostle Paul says that for those in Christ, there is a high calling when thinking about others:

"So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view."

That's from the NIV, which normally use.  The Common English Bible, which I often use for my personal devotions, says it this way:

"So then, from this point on we won't recognize people by human standards."

The people of God are called to a different way.  We see inside.  We see the heart, the soul.  We see people as children of the Most High God.  We see magnificent creations of the Chief Architect.  We don't see their mistakes, we see their potential.  We don't see them for all they've done wrong, we see them for all they could do right. 

It is so easy to get cynical about people.  It's so easy to assume the worst about them.  People disappoint you, stab you in the back, gossip about you.  People let you down and do you wrong.  People break your heart and hurt your feelings.  People are sometimes just mean.  People also get themselves into really bad situations.  They make mistakes that lead to terrible consequences and put them in circumstances in which they can't get out.  People sometimes even pay the price of the mistakes of others, namely, the generations that have gone before them.  People are sometimes easy targets for judgment.

That is not who we are, though.  Christians see the best in others.  And the reason is that we recognize Jesus saw us for all that we'd done wrong and still loved us.  He saw all our mistakes and saw our potential.  In fact, 'while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.'  So, we treat people the way Jesus treats us.  That's why we see people in their best light, because Jesus first loved us.