2 Corinthians 5:16-20 ASV
Wherefore we henceforth know no man after the flesh: even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know him so no more.
[17] Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new.
[18] But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and gave unto us the ministry of reconciliation;
[19] to wit, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not reckoning unto them their trespasses, and having committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
[20] We are ambassadors therefore on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating by us: we beseech you on behalf of Christ, be ye reconciled to God.
The renewed man acts upon new principles, by new rules, with new ends, and in a new company. The believer is created anew when he comes to Christ; his heart is not merely set right, but a new heart is given to him. He is the workmanship of God, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Though the same as a man, he is changed in his character and conduct. These words must mean more than an outward reformation.
Your old life and name of sinner no longer define you.
Even after receiving his sight, Bartimaeus is still called Blind Bartimaeus in Mark 10: 46–52.
There are people who probably still see you and describe you by your old self, the old you they used to know before you met Christ. This may be mostly because there’s a lot of pretence in man according to Jeremiah 17:9, which makes it difficult for genuine change to be largely acceptable.
God forgives and redeems us from our sin seeing that Christ died a vicious death for our sin to be forgiven, according to 1 Corinthians 15:3.
Therefore, in Christ, through Christ, and with Him we have been redeemed says 1 Peter 1:18-19. Based on Christ’s redemption, God no longer condemns us but justifies us as seen in Romans 3:24; we should therefore not allow anyone to keep seeing, treating, and calling us by our old man that was done away at the cross.
Everyone knew Saul went about terrorizing the people of God but when Christ visited and caught him, turning him from Saul to Paul, he was still feared, treated, and referred to as the man he was as Saul in Acts 9:1-19, 22.
We should no longer know any man after the flesh—that is, according to his mere worldly and external relations, nor should any boast in who they were according to 2 Corinthians 11:18.
Paul could boast confidently in the flesh according to Philippians 3:4 but still distinguished from what he used to be to who he became according to the Spirit, as a “new creature” in 2 Corinthians 5:17. For instance, the outward distinctions of Jew or Gentile, rich or poor, slave or free, learned or unlearned, are lost in the sight of the higher life of those who are dead in Christ’s death, and alive with Him in the new life of His resurrection according to Galatians 2:6, and Galatians 3:28.
We must not know Christ anymore after the flesh like a lot still does—Paul when speaking about the Lord Jesus, said “Christ,” not Jesus: for he had not known Jesus personally in the days of His flesh, but he met Christ in the Messiah.
So, “to know someone according to the flesh,” really means to know them from the perspective of our natural thinking – which would be to view them from the perspective of a human. It would also mean that we know them based on their natural traits, personality, and fleshly characteristics. In other words, Paul is talking about relationships that exist fully in the natural realm, rather than ones that are based on the new creation in Christ.
Therefore know no one anymore after the flesh.
Shalom