Imago Dei

Why do Christians believe that people being made in the Image of God requires us to treat them so carefully?

First, God made humans to be the unique carriers of the Divine creative stamp or identity. We must therefore handle them very carefully because they point to and reflect Him. They are His IMAGE.

Second, God has expressed His infinite love and care for these works of art He has made. We must therefore treat them lovingly as the prized possessions of Someone who has temporarily entrusted them to us. They are HIS image.

But both of these perspectives focus on the other person and thus overlook something vital. God has also created ME in His image, and He has cherished me enough to save me and conform me to the Image of His Son. In so doing, I acquire a special obligation to look like as much like Him as possible. And the way I look most like God is by treating well precisely those who don’t deserve to be treated well. Honoring this Image of God in me is at least as important as is honoring it in them.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Acccording to the scriptures every natural born person is not a child of God. See Jn.1:13 & Rom. 9:8. However there does exist a process a person can freely use to become born again of God, but very few people ever find out what it actually is