What Could Be

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. —2 Corinthians 5:16

People are fallen; they do sinful things. But the apostle Paul says we don’t know any man according to what he is in the flesh. Why? The very next verse gives the answer: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17).

Paul is saying that he’s not going to look at someone as what he is apart from Christ. Instead, he’s going to look at that person— that spouse, that child, that former friend, that person who wounded him so deeply—as what they could be in Christ. There’s such a power when you communicate that kind of love and hope.

I’m so thankful for a dad in particular who had such a belief in the power of God in his children’s lives. I grew up living in that atmosphere of hope. I still had to make choices; my dad couldn’t do it for me. But how I thank the Lord for the love of parents who hope