“Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all…From now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view.” (2 Corinthians 5:14, 16)

It’s natural, normal even, for us to be drawn toward those we see as similar to us, people we suspect share similar experiences and values to our own. But as Paul often emphasized, the gospel is a challenge to any barriers between human beings that we see as “normal”. Through the lens of the gospel, we see a bigger picture than our differences, a shared brokenness and a shared longing and need to experience heating in God’s love.

If we believe that “one died for all,” then we can also no longer be content with surface level assumptions about others. Instead, “Christ’s love compels us” to share His love and mission with those God loves more we can imagine, all of us.

Daily Questions

1. When do you find yourself most prone to forget the “bigger picture” of your shared humanity with others?
2. What helps remind you of our equal brokenness and need for Jesus’ loves?

Daily Thoughts

In hard times, Jesus, thank You for those moments when we see a glimmer of breathtaking beauty through the love and joy of others. Help us to live each day this way, regarding “no one from a worldly point of view.”

2 Corinthians 5: 14-20

For Christ’s love compels us, 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, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All of 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 people’s sins against them. And therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.

Bonus Information

In 2 Corinthians 5: 14-20, Paul writes to the believers in Corinth about the newness of life they’ve received from the life and death of Christ. This newness of life, being a new creation and living “for him who died…and was raised again”, is the result of the reconciliation Jesus accomplished through His death on the cross. In verses 18-20, Paul uses a form of the word reconcile five times. He clearly wants readers to know that we’ve been reconciled to Christ and are called to bring reconciliation to others. What’s not explicitly mentioned in this passage is our broken relationship with God. Paul discusses our separation from Him because of our sinfulness and the necessity of reconciliation elsewhere.