"WHEREFORE HENCEFORTH!"

2 Corinthians 5:16                        (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."




There are some verses in the BIBLE that mankind treats as though they don't exist, like maybe GOD didn't know how bad things were going to get and that HIS WORD would be obsolete when it comes to current day affairs?   GOD's WORD cannot be dissected to apply what we can currently SEE and simply leave the remainder for the more Spiritual folk to observe.   The verse above may be one those verses?

GOD inspired Apostle Paul to write these words (and others) to mold and make us into tools HE can use for HIS Glory!  Hebrews 4:12 states "For the WORD of GOD is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."  We need to digest what scripture states with the mindset that it WILL change OUR OWN lives, for all of us NEED to be changed and be made more like HIM, not with an intention to change others lives.  It is sometimes convenient to find fault with the actions of others, but GOD is wanting to change our hearts FOR HIS GLORY!

It took JESUS (fully GOD and fully MAN) coming in flesh to "reconcile" mankind to HIMSELF.  Man can attempt to even the score, to correct injustices, to do what is right, but we are basically fighting a losing battle.  When GOD scattered the people across the face of all the earth HE may have given more than just their different languages, HE may have caused a "need" that could only be fulfilled by DIVINITY?  The verse above makes tremendous sense when you observe it through a Spiritual viewpoint, for since we now know JESUS only through the Spirit, we should only know our brothers and sisters through that same Spirit?  Being hung up in the natural only causes strife and divisions.

Wherefore is defined as "the cause or reason".  Henceforth is defined as "from this point forward".  What point forward is it speaking of though?  The previous verse in 2 Corinthians 5:15 states "And that HE (JESUS) died for ALL, that they which live (we who have been Born Again) should NOT HENCEFORTH (from this point forward) live unto themselves, but unto HIM which died for them, and rose again"!  Now I'm no Bible Scholar, but I read this to say that we must live for CHRIST, since HE died for us?  And since HE looks only at the SPIRIT of a person, we too should look at the SPIRIT.  Most people want to proclaim 2 Corinthians 5:17, but it seems that 2 Corinthians 5:16 gets covered up, especially when it speaks of letting go of stereotypes and prejudices that the natural man desires to hang onto.  The way I read scripture, "WHEREFORE HENCEFORTH" requires us to let the "old ways" be crucified with CHRIST JESUS!