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. ESVUK

When we are converted we see everything with new eyes. A hymn puts it like this:

‘Heaven above is softer blue,
Earth around is sweeter green;
Something lives in every hue
Christless eyes have never seen:
Birds with gladder songs o’erflow,
Flow’rs with deeper beauties shine,
Since I know, as now I know,
I am His, and He is mine.’ George Wade Robinson.

But, in particular, we get a whole new perspective on people, and especially with regard to Jesus. We may have admired Him as a very good man (indeed – the best), or thought of Him as a great moral teacher, and a fine example. We may indeed have viewed Him as a martyr in a noble cause. Or perhaps we gave Him little, or no, thought at all. But then one day, by the Holy Spirit, we see Him as He really is, and life makes sense. All the pieces fall into place. Now we wonder how we could not see Him this way before, and why the people we try to share our convictions with can’t see either!

At one time Paul had regarded others, including Christ ”according to the flesh”: in other words, judging by appearances and trite considerations. Tasker argues that the right interpretation of this verse seems to be that ‘…Paul admits that in his pre-conversion days he had judged Jesus by external considerations in the light of the prejudices of his upbringing, and had considered that it was impossible that one born in such obscurity, living in such restricted circumstances and dying such a humiliating death, could be the Christ that the Jews were expecting. Consequently he had dismissed Him and persecuted His followers. But…from the moment of his conversion, he knew Jesus so no longer.’