.jpg)
We are all made in the image of God — imago Dei Pastoral Points
In our youth group this year, we are talking about human beings and the imago Dei, or the image of God. Scripture tells us that all humanity is created in the image of God: “So God created humankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27).
When we can grasp this truth, it has profound and wide-reaching implications for our understanding of ourselves and our relations with other people. We cannot devalue ourselves, for example, knowing that we bear the image of God. Nor can we devalue others in any way, since they are fellow bearers of God’s image. Clearly, we cannot lust after fellow image-bearers, or oppress them, or visit violence upon them.
The problem is that we so often forget about this idea of the imago Dei. It’s so easy to forget that every human being in existence (plus all those who ever have or ever will exist) is created in the image of God.
It’s easy to distance ourselves from other people in myriad ways — perhaps because we see them as objects to use and consume, or because we disagree with them in significant ways, or because they seem so far away (geographically, culturally, or digitally) and unlike us that we can’t really grasp how much we have in common.
When that distance progresses far enough, it becomes dehumanization. We begin to think of “them” (whoever that may be) as enemies or objects, rather than just people with whom we have some difference.
Dehumanizing others is dangerous business — for them and for us. It means we’ve lost sight of the imago Dei in our fellow human beings, and maybe also in ourselves. This is when oppression and violence start to look like a viable option. Only when we no longer recognize the humanity of our perceived enemies can we dream of treating them as expendable or exploitable. This chips away at our own humanity as well.
Christians dare not remain silent in the face of evil. We also cannot resort to fighting evil with our own evil, not least because it never works anyway. Nor do we dare presume that evil is always “out there” and never in our own hearts and minds. The way of the cross calls us to search out our own sin, live in continual repentance, offer forgiveness to our fellow image-bearers, and cling to the goodness of Christ to redeem us all.
