Take a New Look, Make a New Evaluation

January 11, 2023

We have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. 2 Corinthians 5:16 NLT

The coming of Jesus changed everything. Everything. Sinful people are prone to see people through our own filters, and Christians sometimes justify themselves through old covenant eyes. The Old Testament was not about us. It was about the way God was making Himself known as ONE God, the ONLY God, to all the people of the world, and establishing a people through whom the Savior would come. But the Jews were (and remain so) a type of exclusive or elitist culture. That is not to condemn or criticize. That’s just the way it is. You are a Jew by birth. No where in the Old Testament will you find Jews attempting to share their God with the world. THEY were the Jews, God’s people, and they didn’t dream of or try to bring anyone into their circle. They saw Him as THEIR God, and felt no desire or obligation to let others in.

However, Jesus came declaring that He was the embodiment of the new covenant. The original covenant was with Abraham, then with the Jews, but when Jesus came, it was a new covenant for the whole world, for every single person. The sacrificial death was for all, the resurrection of Jesus in power was for every single person, and the “life that is truly life” (John 10:10) He provides is for everyone. He told us that His Father and our Father calls us to change the way we look at people. All the labels have to go. We are not to label and corral them into groups. We are not to see them as Gentiles or Jews, insiders or outsiders, liberals or conservatives, deserving or undeserving. Hard truth and a big curve for everyone, but no one needed to get that message any more than Saul who became Paul after he met Jesus.

Paul self-described himself as a “Jew among the Jews,” a “Pharisee of the Pharisees.” He wasn’t bragging, but he let us know that in this group who saw themselves as the chosen ones, God’s favorites, he was at the top of the heap. He said that he was “blameless” in keeping the law (Philippians 3:6). He persecuted people who did not agree with him. But his letters to the churches and people who came to follow through his influence sound this note over and over again. God wants everyone to have all that Jesus came to provide for them. NO ONE is excluded, and no true follower of Jesus sees anyone as outside of God’s love or outside of his/her responsibility to help bring this new Kingdom life to them.

Jesus followers, the ones who “get it,” quit dividing people into groups. If they have unconsciously done that, they repent and actively go about showing love and concern, even if their feelings aren’t entirely bought in yet. All around us people are shut out, feeling unloved by the church—discarded, undervalued, unsought. You and I get to choose daily—will I label or love? Will I neglect or rescue? Paul was motivated because he remembered Jesus’ rescue of him. What did He do for you? How can you do it for others?

• Jesus, my Rescuer, help me focus deeply on loving and lifting EVERYONE. No labels.