"So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view" (2 Corinthians 5:16).
There's a video of a man having a bad day. People around him just make life difficult for him, beginning with his own family during the morning routine, then the neighbor kid in his way as he's backing out of the driveway, then idiot drivers on the road, then inept coworkers, and the frustrations go on.
He mysteriously receives a pair of glasses and the next day he tries them on. The same difficult people do the same irritating things to him, but with these mysterious glasses on, he sees things differently.
He sees people differently.
His teenage daughter ignoring her chores while glued to her phone—she's being bullied online.
The man who pulled in front of him in traffic—he's on his way to the pharmacy for his wife, a bit distracted by the terminal cancer diagnosis she just received.
You have those glasses. They've been given to you as the revealed, miraculous truths about Jesus. The more you see Jesus by faith, the more you "put him on," then the more you see through him and notice things you didn't see before. Things about people. Difficult people.
Patrick later wrote in his Confession, "After I reached Ireland I used to pasture the flock each day and I used to pray many times a day. More and more did the love of God, and my fear of him and faith increase, and my spirit was moved so that in a day [I said] from one up to a hundred prayers, and in the night a like number; besides I used to stay out in the forests and on the mountain and I would wake up before daylight to pray in the snow, in icy coldness, in rain, and I used to feel neither ill nor any slothfulness, because, as I now see, the Spirit was burning in me at that time."
He was seeing Jesus, and then he started seeing through Jesus. He began to love his Irish captors, and identify them not as the barbarians most Romans considered them to be but as people who need Jesus. He learned their language and culture, understood their own view of the world and their religion.
Patrick dealt with difficult people by first dealing with himself. Turns out, the people weren't so difficult after all.
PRAYER: Dear Jesus, you love everybody. I am going to cross paths today with some difficult people. I need to wear my Jesus glasses to remember that you love them. And because you love them, I can love them, too. Thank you for loving me as I develop better eyes to see you and see through you. Thank you for the people in my life who give me grace and patiently put up with me because I, too, am a difficult person. Oh, how you love us all! Amen.
FURTHER MEDITATION: Read 2 Corinthians 5:14-21. With what words does v. 14 state the truth that Jesus loves everybody? How does v. 15 explain the phrase, "I live for an audience of One"? The gospel appears in vv. 16-21 as creation, reconciliation and substitution. Meditate on those truths as you consider this question: how does this change my opinion of myself?
Daron Lindemann
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