Paul McKenzie

Memory Verse, Wednesday, December 31, 2 Corinthians 5 16

"From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer."

Many speculate that the apostle Paul was well aware of Jesus during His earthly ministry. After all, he was a Pharisee, so he probably got a lot of false propaganda about Jesus from his elders, and maybe even saw Him in the flesh. It will certainly be interesting to find that out when we can talk with him in heaven.

Seeing Jesus from the blinded eyes of a lost human soul is far different than seeing Him with eyes of one born into a new creation by the Holy Spirit. A person in the state of rebellion against God think Christians are crazy to "submit" to God in all things. They would not call "being servants to Christ" as freedom. They would think of it as losing their freedom.

But Paul explained in Romans 6-8 that if we are not servants of God, we are servants of sin. There are two types of people: servants of God and servants of the devil.

Maybe he heard it from Jesus, when He confronted the Pharisees in John 8. They were claiming that their father was Abraham. Jesus countered with this: "If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did." (v9)

Later in that conversation He said, "Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies." (43-44)

And in v47 He says: "Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God."

Instead, they accused Him of being a Samaritan (in their biased minds, the lowest of the low) and having a demon. Remember, these guys saw many of His mighty works, yet they accused Him of doing them by the power of the devil, which, at that time Jesus warned them that attributing His works through the Holy Spirit to the devil was unforgivable blasphemy.

Later in this conversation in John 8 He said "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day. He saw it and was glad."

Wow! That freaked them out: "You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?" (57)

And then came the clincher: "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am." (58)

Wait, what? Saying this was making Him God! And any good Jew did what they should do. They picked up stones to stone Him. That is, if He was not who He said He was. And if Paul was not there, he certainly heard about it, coupled with their slant of unbelief.

But, in His mercy, Jesus pulled the blinders off Paul's eyes. It is ironic that when Paul saw in the Spirit, he was blinded in the flesh (Acts 9). That reminds me of what Jesus said not long after this confrontation when He healed the man born blind, recorded in John 9:

"For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind." (38b)

Then Paul, like the blind man, was able to see. And, he said for the rest of his life, like the blind man: "One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see." (25b)

Do you see? You can! Fall before Him in repentance and seek His mercy and forgiveness. Then you will be reconciled to God, and become a new creation. And you will no longer see Jesus with the eyes of the flesh, but new, spiritual eyes. And all will become new.

Memory Helps:

"FROM, now ON there FORE we RE gard N-O one ac CORD, ing TO the FLESH.
E, ven THOUGH we ONCE re GARD ed CHRI-st a-c CORD ing TO the FLESH,
WE, re GARD him THUS no LONG er. (FA la la, LA la la, LA la LA)
WE, re GARD him THUS no LONG er. (FA la la, LA la la, LA la LA)

I'm sure you know which melody I used for this one if you look at the last line, which is repeated to finish the melody. Those repeats, by the way, help you memorize the last line twice as fast because each time it is sung twice.

Also, when I put these on my voice mail, I always repeat them at least twice because I always screw up the first time, and am ready the second time.

Another thing I do a lot is type the verse out. You will be surprised how well you know a verse when you type it out, because you have time to think.

Finally, because of all the "vowel-started" words in this verse, you can "initialize" this verse and see words within the initials which help you remember as well:

F not wr noatt F: the first line begins and ends with "F". we see "not" and "noatt" in it as well. So I may first say "F not w r Noatt F". Then I can fill in every word. If you are writing it out it makes remembering this very easy.

Line 2: "Et worcatt F". How's that for a nonsense phrase? I actually link the last "F" of line one to line two so again, the line can begin and end with "F". I say: "Fet worcatt F". Worked really well for me.

Finally "Wr htnl" is absolutely useless as far as words go, lol, so I'm on my own there.

Sometimes I will include some sort of vowel sound like "war hetnel", but that can be confusing. I find though, this gives me enough time to link the melody with the words so it will get out of the "portal" part of my brain and into the "little gray rooms" of my mind. I link the numbers on my website.

I use young "DaSH" from the "Incredibles" for my "memory character" in all verses 16. He is now "performing" between the 2 Corinthian pillars, and his 5-fingered hands are very prominent to remind me of 2 Corinthians 5:16, because D=1 and 6=the j, sh, ch phonetic sound. I have him playing this to the tune of "Deck the Halls" very quickly, because, of course, he does everything very quickly, and is using an "accordion" as an accompaniment. This helps me remember "according to the flesh", which, coupled with the song is enough for me. Also note that some form of "regard" is in all three lines. If you need more pictures to solidify the verse, use your imagination!