How do you explain this scripture?

messianist said:

I don't know if this is a direct answer but we are to worship him in spirit and in truth.

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HTacianas said:

The usage of "flesh" is the confusing part. It means according to the our nature before becoming "spiritual". We once "knew Christ" only according to our human will, but now we recognize him according to our spiritual will. 15:44 explains that we have both a fleshly body and a spirit.

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Oscarr said:

I read the whole chapter to get the sense of the verse. Paul talks about how things will be when we get to glory and are raised, not in the flesh, but in a glorified body. This is the way we view Christ now; not as He was in the flesh while He was on earth, but now as the glorified risen Christ seated at the right hand of God.

We know the reality of Jesus and fellowship with Him and the Father, not through the flesh, but through the agency of the Holy Spirit within us. It is the Holy Spirit who makes Christ known to us, and us known to Christ.

When we view our brothers and sisters in Christ, we are to love them, because they are new creatures in Christ. They have new hearts and spirits, having been regenerated and converted to Christ. Therefore, we no longer view them in the flesh, seeing their faults and failings, but we see them as recreated saints who are being transformed to the image of Christ. We love them because we see the grace of Christ in them. This is what it means to see our brothers and sisters in Christ, not in the flesh, but in the Spirit.

When we meet sinners, we are to love them as well, as people created in the image of God, and we reflect the love of Christ toward them, because even while we were yet sinners, Christ loved us and gave Himself for us; so, it is that love of Christ that we extend to them. They may not accept it, and may persecute us for it, but that will be their choice. It must not stop us loving them as Christ loved us.

That is what the verse says to me.

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SkyWriting said:

God is Spirit and would exist even without us, created beings.
When "born again" we come to know God as the Creator and not our mom & dad as our Creator.

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Loyce KG said:

Reading from the KJV; "Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more."
The passage is a conclusion of the former hence the use of the word "Wherefore or therefore". The word 'know' is eido whcich means to perceive, discern or have knowledge/understanding. Paul seeks to explain to the church that we don't discern or see men according to the flesh. The word flesh from a biblical point of view is the mere human nature opposed to God and prone to sin (sarx).

We don't see men as merely physical beings but spiritual beings. From the point of salvation. Paul didn't judge men by what he could see according to the flesh whether they were circumcised, Jewish, rich etc. Why is this? Because he (Paul) once perceived Christ according to the flesh and he called Him; a blasphemer, an enemy of judaism, a false savior etc. So Paul refutes his past perception of Christ according to the flesh.

I guess we can relate to this today as Christians not to judge men outwardly but inwardly, according to who the spiritual man is. Religious men adorned in the most decorated robes are as fallen as the murderer next door if they don't know Christ. We are righteous in Christ by grace through faith.

Shalom.

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gordonhooker said:

I think the NRSV or the RSV make it easier to understand the context was regarding the ministry of reconciliation

From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way.
(2 Cor. 5:16 NRSV)

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timewerx said:

It means we should not look into the life of Christ, nor His teachings from the perspective or context of the flesh.

Like for example, the false "prosperity Gospel" proponents of that movement make it so important to believe that Christ is a materially wealthy man.

They also make it quite important that a good Christian will also be successful or rich in this world. That is one sad example of looking at the Gospels from the persecpective / context of the flesh. They think that John 10:10 means being materially rich (the real context of that verse has nothing to do with worldly wealth but simply being abundant in the Truth and Spirit - the right context provided in John 6:63).

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Dave-W said:

Correct. Paul uses sarx [flesh] in 2 different ways in his writings. One is the physical body, and the other is the adamic unredeemed nature of mankind.

In this case it is the latter.

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bcbsr said:

I get the impression he's saying that spiritual matters outweigh material matters. That is a person's relationship with God outweighs material concerns or his circumstances in this life - the eternal outweighing the temporal. Thus when consider people out first priority is to consider whether they are in Christ, and in any case to help them in spiritual matters.

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eleos1954 said:

Here is a translation from the net bible I think maybe helps.

2 Corinthians 5:16

So then, from now on we do not think of anyone from a human point of view. Even if we did think of the Messiah from a human point of view, we don't think of him that way anymore.

spiritual (thinking) verses natural (thinking)

same with

1 Corinthians 15:44 - spiritual (body) verses natural (body)

spiritual verses the natural

God Bless.

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Maria Billingsley said:

Believers are now in the Body of Christ, which we recognize as the Spiritual formation of souls in Christ.

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icxn said:

Until we learn to pray without distractions and images, entering the closet and shutting the door as scripture has it (Matthew 6:6), we won't come to know Christ as He is, in His Divinity.

As for what it means to know Him in the flesh, St Maximus has a good explanation (imo):

The Logos of God is called flesh not only inasmuch as He became incarnate, but in another sense as well. When He is contemplated in His true simplicity, in His principial state with God the Father (cf. John 1:1-2), although He embraces the models of the truth of all things in a distinct and naked manner, He does not contain within Himself parables, symbols and stories needing allegorical interpretation. But when He draws near to men who cannot with the naked intellect come into contact with intelligible realities in their naked state, He selects things which are familiar to them, combining together various stories, symbols, parables and dark sayings; and in this way He becomes flesh. Thus at the first encounter our intellect comes into contact not with the naked Logos but with the incarnate Logos, that is, with various sayings and stories. The incarnate Logos, though Logos by nature, is flesh in appearance. Hence most people think they see flesh and not the Logos, although in fact He is the Logos. The intellect-that is, the inner meaning-of Scripture is other than what it seems to most people. For the Logos becomes flesh in each of the recorded sayings.

The initial stages of learning about religious devotion are naturally related to the flesh. For in our first encounter with religion we come into contact with the letter and not the spirit. But as we get nearer to the spirit and refine the materiality of words with the more subtle forms of contemplation, we come to dwell - so far as this is possible for man — purely in the pure Christ, so that we can say with St Paul, ‘Though we have known Christ according to the flesh, now we no longer know Him in this manner’ (2 Cor. 5:16). That is to say, we no longer know Him according to the flesh because, through the intellect’s naked encounter with the Logos stripped of the veils covering Him, we have advanced from knowing Him according to the flesh to knowing His ‘glory as of the only-begotten Son of the Father’ (John 1:14).​

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