Since You Judge People Frequently Use This Standard

2 Corinthians 5:16
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.

Good News Translation
No longer, then, do we judge anyone by human standards. Even if at one time we judged Christ according to human standards, we no longer do so.

Contemporary English Version
We are careful not to judge people by what they seem to be, though we once judged Christ in this way.

New Living Translation
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!

To judge a person is to evaluate a person and draw what may seem to be a final conclusion about them. Judging a person as street parlance may suggest, is to draw a harsh conclusion about a person. Many times people would protest that we should not judge them. They actually are pleading that we are merciful when evaluating them and drawing conclusions.

What we call judging a person has also been translated in the Bible as regarding a person. It has also been translated as evaluating a person. It is also presented as a specific point of view. Judging someone is based on a standard.

The Bible says that there is a worldly standard of evaluating people, judging people, or regarding people. There is also the opposite of a worldly standard. That means we have only two points of view that we use to assess others.

Apostle Paul tells the Corinthians church, that we no longer judge people based on the worldly point of view. That was our past hopeless view. That was our ruthless view. It is from that view that we crucified Christ. But now we have a new point of view and we have abandoned the previous worldview.

Apostle Paul tells us that since we were created to evaluate things and people, we will need to use a divine point of view to evaluate them. We cannot avoid evaluating people. We must evaluate business partners. We must evaluate potential life partners. We must evaluate strangers we meet and their potential to cause us harm. We will always evaluate people. To avoid error, we must use the standard which is God’s word.

We no longer view short-tempered people as Manics but as slaves of the evil one and they need deliverance and sympathy. We no longer view people who hate us as our enemies but as enemies of the cross of Christ who God will work on to save them. We no longer view our haters with an eye to revenge, but we pity them because when God visits them with punishment, it may be forever too late to change their ways. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view.

We no longer see our loved ones as our possession but as gifts from God that we should show gratefulness for and relate well with. We no longer see children as ours, but as assignments from God that we should bring out the best in them. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view.

Luke 13:16
Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”

There was a woman who was crippled and bent over for eighteen years. Many who saw her, saw a person living with a disability. Others saw a bigger. Others saw an eye sore. Others saw a burden to the family. Many others saw a person under the punishment of God for what she had done. Yet Jesus saw what others didn’t see. Jesus saw her as a daughter of Abraham who Satan bound for eighteen years. Others could scientifically explain why her bones curved to bend her over. Jesus gave us an explanation that she was in that state because of satan. She needed freedom from satan.

How others saw her is not how Christ saw her. How people see us is not how Christ sees us. How we see people should be how Christ sees them. See people differently with their posts on social media. Don’t rush to condemn them and hide behind invisibility on social media. See that person as God would see the person.

If we see people from the divine point of view, we would be very kind to them and bear with them and let God work on them and save them. May this be our view of everyone, in Jesus’ name, Amen!

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