By David ReayFriday 29 Oct 2021LifeWords DevotionalsDevotionsReading Time: 2 minutes
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! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! (NLT)
It was on a New York subway. The writer, Stephen Covey, noticed a man enter the carriage with two very noisy and undisciplined children. People stirred in their seats, wishing the father would keep them under control. Till one person did speak up and ask if the man could do something about his disruptive children.
The man quietly agreed, saying that it was so hard to do so given what had just happened. He had been with his children in the hospital where his wife and their mother had just died. He said it was so hard for him and for them, but he would try harder to keep them quiet.
Covey comments that all of a sudden his perspective changed. Instead of seeing an apathetic parent not disciplining their out of control children, he saw a family tragedy being enacted in that carriage. He could now see things differently.
In a much broader sense, this is what Paul was getting at in this text. Once we belong to Jesus we see life differently, see others and ourselves differently. It is not as if we suddenly become brand new identities, let alone become perfect. Rather, we have a new perspective, put on another set of glasses that reshape how we see reality. A perspective that enables us to see a greater reality beyond all immediate realities.
Blessings,
David