2 Corinthians 5:14-19 NIV
.....because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. 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. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who *reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of *reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
*To reconcile is to bring enemies together as friends.
*Reconciliation brings God and humanity together in friendship and peace.
Notes about the above passage:
Paul gets right to the point about difficult issues that all Christians face; how much can we live in the world, and how much should we live in the Spirit? Paul urges us to go "all the way", as it were. He says that "everything" has become new.
We can no longer regard other people like we once did. We do not dislike them, no matter what their acts of wrong are; for we are taught to love other people as God loves us. We are also told to forgive those who hurt us, just like Christ forgives us*. When we get angry at someone, or find our self judging someone or starting to dislike them, we should tell our self that they are made in God's image, so then when we dislike or judge people it is like judging or disliking God Himself.
So let us take this passage to heart and put it into practice in our lives this week.
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