Welcome to this week’s episode, a special rerun from our Speaking of Life archive. We hope you find its timeless message as meaningful today as it was when it was first shared.
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Program Transcript
Speaking Of Life 4018 | Labels
Jeff Broadnax
Have you ever gone into a pantry and found a can of food without a label on it? The only way for you to figure out what’s inside is by opening the can. After opening the unlabeled item, what is the likelihood that the reality would actually meet your expectations? Probably, pretty slim.
This is why labels are so important at a grocery store. They can give us a glimpse of what to expect on the inside. Oftentimes, the label will even include a picture of the product inside to add that extra level of confidence that what you are getting is what was being advertised.
Labels are vital to a grocery store’s business, but when it comes to human beings, labels can be incorrect and downright damaging. Have you ever heard someone remark, “He’s the forgetful one,” “She’s the slow learner,” or “He’s the problem child.”?
Sometimes we can be quick to label someone without having much knowledge of who they really are. Maybe we just saw the color of their skin, or their political bumper sticker, or something else that triggered a judgmental reaction.
Several years ago, I remember reading how our brains are wired to make those kinds of snap judgments as a means of self-protection and decision-making. I don’t remember the source, but I found it fascinating. It may be true, but what I do know is those snap judgments raise a huge red flag for interpersonal relationships – especially if we don’t monitor our biases.
In the Apostle Paul’s second letter to the Corinthian church, he addressed a similar situation that was taking place among them and gave us a different perspective.
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!
2 Corinthians 5: 16-17
The church in Corinth may have been a diverse congregation but accepting and receiving one another as equals were in short supply. They were still employing a worldly point of view by placing discriminatory labels on each other. And because of this, you had people that were separating themselves into their own groups according to their own biases, be it their race, wealth, statuses, or culture. Their judgmentalism was not only disrupting their fellowship, but it was also a bad witness to those outside the church.
What the church in Corinth failed to recognize is that through Christ we receive our true identity, and all other labels, whether to race, social status, or political ideology, pale in comparison. We haven’t had something merely added to us or even just an upgrade to a 2.0 version of ourselves. Our true identity, in Christ, brings us into wholeness and is the fullness of who we are. It is not merely a picture but the substance of who we are. We are the blessed, free, and highly favored children of God. It is the truth of who we are, something we never have to question. And that is how we are to see each other.
What label will you choose to wear? Will you consign yourself to what the world has to say about you, or will you agree with the only assessment about you that reveals the whole truth about who you are? The label of being a new creation in Christ Jesus and accepted by The Father. That’s a label that cannot fall off.
I’m Jeff Broadnax, Speaking of Life.
Program Transcript
Speaking Of Life 4018 | Labels
Jeff Broadnax
Have you ever gone into a pantry and found a can of food without a label on it? The only way for you to figure out what’s inside is by opening the can. After opening the unlabeled item, what is the likelihood that the reality would actually meet your expectations? Probably, pretty slim.
This is why labels are so important at a grocery store. They can give us a glimpse of what to expect on the inside. Oftentimes, the label will even include a picture of the product inside to add that extra level of confidence that what you are getting is what was being advertised.
Labels are vital to a grocery store’s business, but when it comes to human beings, labels can be incorrect and downright damaging. Have you ever heard someone remark, “He’s the forgetful one,” “She’s the slow learner,” or “He’s the problem child.”?
Sometimes we can be quick to label someone without having much knowledge of who they really are. Maybe we just saw the color of their skin, or their political bumper sticker, or something else that triggered a judgmental reaction.
Several years ago, I remember reading how our brains are wired to make those kinds of snap judgments as a means of self-protection and decision-making. I don’t remember the source, but I found it fascinating. It may be true, but what I do know is those snap judgments raise a huge red flag for interpersonal relationships – especially if we don’t monitor our biases.
In the Apostle Paul’s second letter to the Corinthian church, he addressed a similar situation that was taking place among them and gave us a different perspective.
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!
2 Corinthians 5: 16-17
The church in Corinth may have been a diverse congregation but accepting and receiving one another as equals were in short supply. They were still employing a worldly point of view by placing discriminatory labels on each other. And because of this, you had people that were separating themselves into their own groups according to their own biases, be it their race, wealth, statuses, or culture. Their judgmentalism was not only disrupting their fellowship, but it was also a bad witness to those outside the church.
What the church in Corinth failed to recognize is that through Christ we receive our true identity, and all other labels, whether to race, social status, or political ideology, pale in comparison. We haven’t had something merely added to us or even just an upgrade to a 2.0 version of ourselves. Our true identity, in Christ, brings us into wholeness and is the fullness of who we are. It is not merely a picture but the substance of who we are. We are the blessed, free, and highly favored children of God. It is the truth of who we are, something we never have to question. And that is how we are to see each other.
What label will you choose to wear? Will you consign yourself to what the world has to say about you, or will you agree with the only assessment about you that reveals the whole truth about who you are? The label of being a new creation in Christ Jesus and accepted by The Father. That’s a label that cannot fall off.
I’m Jeff Broadnax, Speaking of Life.
Psalm 32:1–11 · Joshua 5:9–12 · 2 Corinthians 5:16–21 · Luke 15:1–3,11b–32
The theme for the Fourth Sunday in Easter Preparation is reconciliation, and our readings have a lot to say about what we consume, what consumes us, and how we see the world. Psalm 32 tells us what the fruits of a relationship with the Lord look like. You’ll notice that it’s not about prosperity but about receiving grace and mercy without denying the sin that dwells within us, knowing deep down we’re forgiven and never abandoned. Joshua 5 talks about the Israelites crossing the Jordan River into Canaan, a shift in worldview from wandering in the wilderness to settling into God’s promised land, eating of the grain of the land rather than the manna of the wilderness. God tells Joshua, “Today I have rolled away from you the disgrace of Egypt” (v. 9). Similarly, God is in the business of “rolling away” that which has shamed and diminished us or kept us from what would give us life. Luke 15 features a favorite parable, sometimes called the Prodigal Son or maybe the Forgiving and Generous Father. It features a magnificent feast, reconciliation, and a father who lavishes forgiveness on his child. Our sermon text in 2 Corinthians 5 is about point of view: how we see ourselves and others in Christ. It’s also about how this point of view changes relationships when we understand our ministry of reconciliation.
The Reconciling Gift of Sight
2 Corinthians 5:16–21 NRSVUE
Many of us here experience the world through the miracle of corrective lenses or glasses. If you’ve ever gone without your glasses for a period of time, you know that not seeing the world in all its detail limits your experience. For you to engage, you have to view something a foot or two from your face, and your world of perception becomes very small. Here’s a meme that illustrates what can happen when we try to see things far away without our glasses:
There’s also a story about a woman who lost her glasses in her home. As she searched for them, she asked her husband, who was reading the newspaper, if he had seen them. “No,” he said, “but it seems like my eyesight is getting worse. The print in this newspaper is very fuzzy.” As she looked more closely at his face, the wife realized that the husband was wearing her glasses.
Even if we are wearing our own glasses, we know that our ability to understand the world and what we perceive is influenced by factors beyond what our physical eyes tell us. We can compare glasses to our point of view, understanding that every individual’s perspective is unique, much the same way an optical prescription is unique. Our sermon text for today is about the way we see the world and each other through the new vision afforded to us by our reconciliation in Christ. Let’s read 2 Corinthians 5:16–21.
The context of 2 Corinthians 5:16–21
Scholars tell us that 2 Corinthians is made up of several letters that are not arranged chronologically. Chapters 10–13 of 2 Corinthians express Paul’s displeasure with other self-appointed “apostles” who were trying to persuade the church not to follow Paul and were written first while chapters 1–9 were written later once a number of the problems were ironed out.
Chapters 10–11 discuss the Corinthians’ dissatisfaction with Paul’s demeanor and speaking style. They were expecting a powerful orator, and Paul didn’t deliver. Paul yearns for the church to be restored to a right relationship with him and with God, and he develops a persuasive argument that God has made both of them new creations in Christ.
Theologian and author N.T. Wright also suggests that 2 Corinthians 5 was probably written not long after the letter to Philemon in which Paul was working to reconcile the runaway slave Onesimus and his Christian master Philemon. Wright says this in his book Paul and the Faithfulness of God:
Philemon himself is part of that new creation, and so is Onesimus, so the question of their social status is radically outflanked. How has this happened? Through the Messiah’s cross (20).
Thus, reconciliation becomes a major theme: reconciliation between Paul and the church, the believers with each other, and the church with God.
Key elements in 2 Corinthians 5:16–21 include our point of view, new creation, and reconciliation.
Our point of view
2 Corinthians 5:16 translates the Greek phrase kata sarka as “according to the flesh” or “from a human point of view.” However, these translations don’t convey Paul’s use of “flesh” in other letters, such as Romans 8:1–17, as “a power diametrically opposed to God’s Holy Spirit … [including] a mind that is hostile to God and a life that displeases God,” according to New Testament Professor Carla Works. So, when Paul says in verse 16 that he doesn’t see anyone from the perspective of the flesh, he is indicating that he is operating from a new point of view, one that is founded in Christ and immersed in the Holy Spirit.
Paul contrasts life in the Spirit versus life in the flesh, and in 2 Corinthians 5:5, he attributes the victory to the Holy Spirit at work:
The one who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a down payment. 2 Corinthians 5:5 NRSVUE
Professor Carla Works notes that in Galatians 5–6 that “the fruit of the spirit is the very sign of God’s act of new creating — God’s act of transforming and redeeming and calling all people into newness of life.” Through the presence of the Holy Spirit in us and with Jesus’ life as an example, our point of view begins to shift away from self-centeredness to a balanced concern for others.
New creation
2 Corinthians 5:17 says,
So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being! 2 Corinthians 5:17 NRSVUE
Professor Holly Hearon argues that we could leave out “a” and simply say “new creation” because the verb tense Paul used conveys a sense of ongoing creation or “a constant state of renewal.” This is possible through Christ who restores us and all creation to right relationship with God.
As new creations, divisions and petty disagreements are put to rest. According to Professor Lucy Lind Hogan, “We are not to focus on those things that separate us from one another; those elements of ‘the flesh’ bring about conflicts and disputes. When we are new creations, we become one with each other. Just as nothing will separate us from the love of God, so too should nothing separate us from each other. Paul draws attention to those things that were differences for him and for the new Christians in Corinth. Today’s reading challenges us to ask an important question. What are those things that separate us today?”
Part of being new creations is following Christ and offering a nonviolent response to those who disagree or do not wish to extend love and care to those who are marginalized and suffering. [Examples may be helpful.] For Paul, this nonviolent response meant enduring prison, flogging, and beatings. A nonviolent response might appear as failure or weakness in terms of our cultural narrative that often prides itself on winning even by force. But nonviolent resistance is our appropriate response to cultural systems that are not treating people with the same dignity and kindness as Jesus. It’s one way we participate as “new things come into being” in Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:17 NRSVUE
Reconciliation
Reconciliation (katallasso) is mentioned five times in three verses. For Paul, reconciliation means restoring balance and reuniting that which has been separated. The problems with the Corinthian church show that reconciliation was needed within its membership but also between the members and Paul as its leader. Most likely, Paul sees the bickering and immorality in the church as connected to the unrest provoked by those seeking to upend his leadership. Professor Hearon writes, “It is not just about us; nor is it just about God. It is about how we understand ourselves to be in relationship with God and with one another, all in the same moment. The two are inextricably linked.”
In the letter to the church at Ephesus, Paul describes the unification of Israel and Gentiles:
For he [Christ] is our peace; in his flesh he has made both into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. Ephesians 2:14 NRSVUE
Paul also writes in Romans 5 that the world has been reconciled and is no longer under the power of sin because of Christ:
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. Romans 5:10 NRSVUE
In 2 Corinthians 5:20, Paul shows that the outcome of our reconciliation is to become ministers of this reconciliation to others. The Corinthian church was in a state of unrest due to their preoccupation with social status within the Roman class system (1 Corinthians 11), the struggles with patrimony (1 Corinthians 5:1–11), and leaders attempting to discredit Paul (2 Corinthians 12:11–19). Paul uses the metaphor of “ambassador” in 2 Corinthians 5:20 as a familiar concept to convey his position to the church. N.T. Wright indicates that
the whole point of the ambassadorial system, in the ancient as in the modern world, is that the sovereign himself (or herself) speaks through the agent. Paul stresses this: ‘God is making his appeal through us.’ It should therefore be no surprise that in his summing-up he should refer to himself as ‘becoming’ the ‘righteousness,’ that is, ‘the covenant faithfulness,’ of God (Pauline Perspectives, 74).
Wright says that Paul establishes his leadership with the Corinthians by saying that if he has any inadequacies, they are fully compensated for by Christ.
Professor Works writes:
Being reconciled to God indicates that God’s Holy Spirit is at work to sanctify the reconciled into vessels of God’s righteousness. It is amazing that Paul can say to this church in Corinth, a church that has bickered with him and challenged him, that God is powerful enough not only to reconcile them to Godself, but also to transform them into ‘the righteousness of God.’ God’s righteousness is on the loose. God’s kingdom has dawned. There are glimpses of God’s new creation even in the struggling church at Corinth. God’s power to rectify simply cannot be contained.
As we conclude the season of Easter Preparation, we need a change in our point of view and perception of reality. Once we know Jesus, the way we view ourselves and the world should be different, like putting on the glasses with the correct prescription for our eyesight and not mistaking a Burger King sign for the moon. Before, our way of looking at ourselves and others was blurry, and we couldn’t see the way that God sees. We couldn’t see the preciousness and infinite worth of others; now we see our own vulnerabilities and shortcomings as well as those of others with new tenderness and forgiveness. We used to see our separateness and differences; now we see our interconnectedness. [Examples may be helpful.] We used to keep track of sins (our own and others’); now we affirm our forgiveness, worthiness, and restoration in Christ. The reconciling gift of sight is the new perspective we’re given as we participate in a relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Call to Action: As the Easter Preparation season concludes, reflect on the ways your worldview has been changed as a new creation in Christ, reconciled and restored. Consider how your interactions with others are different when you are aware of being a new creation, and when in disagreement with someone, think of what a nonviolent, loving response might look like.
For Reference:
Crossan, John Dominic, and Jonathan L. Reed. In Search of Paul: How Jesus’ Apostle Opposed Rome’s Empire with God’s Kingdom. HarperSanFrancisco, 2004.
Wright, N.T. Paul and the Faithfulness of God. Fortress Press, 2013.
Wright, N.T. Pauline Perspectives: Essays on Paul, 1978–2013. Fortress Press, 2013.
Cathy Deddo—Year C Easter Preparation 4
Listen to audio: https://cloud.gci.org/dl/GReverb/GR059-Deddo-YearC-EasterPrep4.mp3
March 30, 2025 — Fourth Sunday in Easter Preparation
2 Corinthians 5:16-21
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Program Transcript
Transcript Coming Soon! Check back February 15.
Program Transcript
Transcript Coming Soon! Check back February 15.
Small Group Discussion Questions
- Our perspective or worldview was compared to wearing eyeglasses in the sermon. What is influencing the way you see the world? How does looking at the world through the lens of Christ change us and our interactions with others?
- What does having a Christlike point of view look like to you? How would you nourish this Christlike perspective?
- The sermon asks an important question: “What are those things that separate us today?” As new creations with a Christlike perspective, what can we do to encourage respect and dignity for all within a diverse culture and world?
- Reconciliation is an important theme in the sermon text, and Paul writes that the natural outcome of being reconciled is then offering reconciliation to others. How do we minister reconciliation to others in a practical way in our homes, churches, workplaces, and public sphere?
