Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day. (Genesis 1:26-31New International Version NIV)
Every story has a beginning. So it is with the account of God’s creation. But this is not simply a story for story’s sake. This is reality. There is so much packed into the first three chapters of Genesis that it is impossible to do it justice in a brief writing such as this. Genesis 1-3 is like a diamond. It is so multi-faceted that every time you look at it you see new and different perspectives that make it even more beautiful. Not different in the sense that it changes, but your perception and perspective changes.
There is so much crucial information packed into these first three chapters that is necessary for us to understand God and ourselves. We must dig into this with intensity of purpose. I hope that in my comments and observations I can spark an interest and a love for Genesis in you that will cause you to want to come back to it again and again.
There are a few basic things that I want to touch on in this study of what I refer to as “The image of God in man.” The fact that the Scripture says repeatedly, that God saw what He had made, and “it was very good,” is a safeguard against the false teaching that the material universe is inherently bad and evil. This teaching has manifested itself in various forms throughout the history of world religion. The gist of the idea goes something like this: “Spirit is good, and matter (the material world and universe) is bad. In order to become holy, or to remain holy, a person has to live in such a manner as to abhor the material world and divorce himself from it as much as is humanly possible while he is still alive in this physical body.” This belief is what is referred to as Gnosticism: “a group of ancient heresies, stressing escape from the material world through the acquisition of esoteric knowledge.”
This is the heresy Paul is addressing in Colossians 2:16-23:
“Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. He has lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows, as God causes it to grow. Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belong to it, do you submit to its rules: ‘Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!’ These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings. Such regulations indeed have an appearance of wisdom, with their self-imposed worship, their false humility and their harsh treatment of the body, but they lack any value in restraining sensual indulgence.”
The understanding that God made everything in the material universe good, and pronounced it good, is a safeguard against Asceticism, (the dedication of a person’s life to the pursuit of extreme self-denial, or self-mortification) and Gnosticism. It also serves as a correction to the evolutionist’s perception of the world as being a harsh, evolving ecosystem that has to be tamed and controlled. This ideology has caused harm to millions of people and the earth itself over the course of time. Darwin’s theories on human evolution sowed the seeds for racism, Marxism, and Nazi-ism, all of which destroyed the lives of millions. The creation of man is the climax of God’s creation of the heavens and the earth. That is why God waited and created man last.
There are two basic approaches to life that confront everyone at some point. The first approach to life is the approach that controls the world’s system of things as we currently know it. When I refer to the world’s system of things, I am not referring to the order of nature, I am referring to man’s approach to life without a faith in and obedience to God. This is man’s Godless system. It is referred to in Scripture as Babylon. This is the power that controls the world at this present time. This is what the apostle John is referring to in this passage of Scripture:
“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world – the cravings of sinful man, the lust of the eyes and the boasting of what he has and does – comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. (1 John 2:15-17 NIV)
Much commentary has been written on the book of Revelation. Many different Bible scholars and theologians have attempted to explain the imagery and symbolism in the book, and explain how all this relates to the end times. This is what is referred to as eschatology (the study of end time events.) I am not discrediting any specific interpretation of Revelations, or advocating an adherence to and particular form of eschatology, but I do think that often in these interpretations that attempt to explain the exact order of end time events, that the main point of the book is overlooked. The main point of the book, as I see it, is the same point that I just quoted from 1 John. The world’s system, (mankind’s attempt throughout world history to build his own world without God) will always fail. All human empires and societies will fail at some point, and that the whole world system itself will ultimately fail as the Kingdom of God is being ushered in, culminating in the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to destroy forever the godless world system and establish God’s Kingdom over all, forever.
Not only is world history, for the most part, the story of how one society after another has attempted to build a kingdom or empire for itself that is destined to be destroyed, our individual lives are like that also. We all want to build our own little private kingdoms. The “American Dream” that those of us in this society are so familiar with, is just that, a dream. A fantasy. The dream goes something like this: If you can get a good education, then you can get a good high paying job, or start your own business, doing something that you love to do. You can marry the perfect mate that will satisfy you totally. (Soulmate is the terminology that is currently used to describe this fantasy relationship.) This perfect mate will give you beautiful, healthy children. You need to follow all the right formulas to succeed in your career, your marriage, and in your family to make the dream come true. If you are not exactly how all those formulas are supposed to work, a quick trip to the local bookstore will provide you with more information on these success formulas than you will ever be able to assimilate in one lifetime.
If that is not enough information, tune into the experts on the talk shows, and internet blogs. Soak in the success advice. Subscribe to some magazines that tell you the perfect investments to make to secure your financial future and control your life. Look for the perfect diet and fitness plan to ensure you are healthy and fit until you are 100 years old, with lots of sexual stamina. Your perfect mate and your perfect children will live with you in the perfect house with the perfectly manicured lawn. The people at Lowes or Home Depot will help you out here. It is all so easy. You will have all the comforts you can imagine needing. You will also need several new or newer vehicles that you keep the maintenance done on at all the right times. You will belong to the gym, or have a room in your house with your own gym. You will take all the right vitamins and supplements, protein drinks, and energy enhancing products. If you are a man, naturally you will have a “man-cave” to retire to when your perfect family gets on your nerves.
At the core of the world’s system approach to life is the need for control. You will have to balance lots of plates to live the American Dream. It is a life based on the idea that we have to take care of ourselves and our own interests, and protect ourselves in order to survive. Lookout for numero uno. This is really the basis for all humanistic systems of thought. This is the force that drives the misguided efforts of the humanistic philanthropist. This approach to life says, “There is no God. There is no heaven or hell. We are all we have, so we better learn to take care of ourselves and make the most out of what we have in the here and now, because this is all we get.” This is the mentality of the “Save the Earth” cult. Don’t misunderstand me. I do think we should, as good stewards, strive to take care of the Earth that God created and put us in charge of. We should not abuse His creation. But to think that we, as human beings, can save this vast world, with its complex ecosystems is really the height of arrogance and self-importance. We are going to be held accountable to God for its use and abuse, so we had better improve in our stewardship of this planet!
This “need for control” mentality is the driving force behind much of our economy. We are taught by the advertisers that if we have all the right stuff and all the right plans we can control the outcome of our lives. We are so fear driven we put insurance on everything from our toothbrushes, to our automobiles, to our lives. We buy security systems for our homes to protect us from thieves. We spend money on extended warranties to protect our overpriced appliances and gadgets. Now, we have to have “Life Lock” to protect ourselves from identity thieves. There are a lot of companies making tons of money on our fears.
I am not denying that having the right information can be beneficial in the short term aspect of life. However, what this need for control mentality ultimately does is cast us deeper into the spell of deception. When we feel like things are okay, we don’t see a need for God, our Creator, or we incorporate some system of belief about Him that we have tailor-made to suit our need for consolation over the fear of death. We make our god in our own image and call on Him to assist us in our self-made lifestyle. We sink deeper into the abyss of self-indulgence and pride.
“Babe” is a popular children’s movie about a pig that wants to be a sheep dog. One of the characters in the movie is a duck who is worried that one day the farmer is going to kill him and eat him. At one point in the movie, the duck says to the pig, “I know that in the scheme of things one anorexic duck doesn’t mean much, but pig, I’m all I’ve got!” That statement is an adequate reflection of the mentality of much of the world. “I am all I’ve got, and I have to look out for myself! Who else will?”
The second approach to life is the approach that God designed for us to take. It is the approach of trust, faith, and dependence on God. I suspect that if God had made man first, and allowed him to witness the rest of His creation unfold, man would have wanted to get involved and give God advice! By creating everything else first, then creating man at the conclusion of the creation activity, God is showing man that he is totally dependent on God, his creator, for everything he needs in life to survive and flourish. Understanding this truth is the basis for being blessed beyond measure in this life, and in the life to come.
“A man can receive only what is given him from heaven.” (John 3:27)
“Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” (James 1:16-17)
In the book of Joshua, when Joshua comes to realize that his time on this earth is growing short, he assembles the people of Israel together to review with them how God has rescued them from slavery, and set them apart to be a people He has chosen. God speaks these words, through Joshua, to the people of Israel:
“So I gave you a land on which you did not toil, and cities you did not build; you live in them and eat from their vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.” (Joshua 24:13)
Have you ever stopped to think about the millions of ways in which you are blessed by the work of others that you have no control over? When you were born you grew up in a house that your parents had bought, or were buying, or an apartment that they paid for. You had nothing to do with paying for the dwelling you lived in. Your body was nourished by food that you did not buy. When you got your driver’s license, you learned to drive in a car that you did not invent or build. When you sit down to read a book, you turn on a lamp for light. You are not the one who spent half a lifetime figuring out how electricity works. You did not invent the light bulb. When you turn on your computer to email your friends, realize that you are not the one who invented the personal computer, or the technologies that drive the internet. The list goes on and on. The point is, because of God’s sovereign rule over creation, we are all totally dependent on things over which we have no control. All of this is ultimately under the control of God. This is a humbling thought that should make us have gratitude towards our maker.
After learning about the internet and all of its complexities, and working in technical support at IBM during the big “Y2K” scare of 2000, I am convinced that the internet is not something that man, of his own choosing and intellect, designed and built. Of course it was built by man, but the inspiration came from God, because it was time. God planned it and put the ideas into the minds of men. This is where all great ideas come from, whether men realize it and acknowledge it or not. God has a purpose for the internet in these end times.
What does it mean that we are “Made in the image of God”? There are many aspects to the answer to this question. It is complicated, and it is simple. I am sure that entire libraries of books could not exhaust the answer. As stated in the Gospel of John, in regards to the deeds of Jesus, and the events of His life, we read:
“Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” (John 21:25)
In the same way much could be, (and has been) written in the exploration of the answer to the question of how man is made in the image of God. John Piper, in his book Desiring God (chapter 2), puts it this way:
“He created us ‘in His image’ so that we could image His glory is a great mystery. Call it grace, or mercy, or love – It is an unspeakable wonder. Once we were not. Then we existed – for the glory of God!”
Some of the ways in which man is made in the image of God are as follows:
Man is made with the ability to distinguish the inherent rightness or wrongness of moral choices. Animals do not debate or contemplate moral choices. They act on instinct and learned behavior. Human beings, no matter what society they live in, have some kind of value system. Human beings are not value neutral. Granted, some societies have better value systems than others, and some may be very far from God’s standard. One society’s value system may seem bizarre to another, but the value system, or the system or morals and taboos exist none the less. Even atheists have a moral value system. They will agree that some things are just morally wrong, while maintaining that other things are morally right. If there is no ultimate judge or final day of reckoning, then it should not matter whether a person lives up to some system of values that is imposed on him by society. In this, the atheist is self-contradictory. He professes to not believe in God, but will at the same time, emphasis that it is important for everyone to adhere to some system of morals or values. Even though the image of God in man has been distorted through the fall, skewing man’s perception of what is right and wrong, the fact that there is some sense of right and wrong shows that some degree of God’s image remains, even in those who are lost.
The image of God in man is seen in the fact that man is very creative and exercises ingenuity. We do not witness animals inventing and creating things. Granted, some animals do build things. Birds build nests, and beavers build dams, but these are not things an animal invents. These activities are the result of instincts that God has programmed into them. Instincts are just things programmed into the animal’s DNA. Birds do not contemplate various options for nest design and construction. Birds do not form nest construction planning committees. They simply go gather the necessary material and put the nest together. Contemplative thought and the ability to create and invent is part of what it means to be made in the image of God, because God is Creator.
The evolutionists will argue that this aspect of man’s nature is just the result of the superior evolutionary development of man’s brain. However, two problems arise from this interpretation: First, why aren’t the brains of animals developing in such a way as to make them more capable of creative activity over the course of time? Second, if you compare the brain of a human being with that of primates, man’s brain is not significantly different in its physical make-up. So we see that there is something inherently different in the very core of man’s essence. That something is the image of God, the invisible, spiritual side of man that cannot be contained in a test tube, or examined under a microscope. The Scripture nowhere states that God breathed into an animal to bring it to life, but His breath is what brought man to life. We are connected to Him in a way that is totally different from animals. I love animals, but I am not an animal.
Another aspect of the image of God that is seen in man is our yearning for eternity. We are created to be eternal beings. As Solomon wrote in the book of Ecclesiastes:
“I have seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot phantom what God has done from beginning to end.” (Ecclesiastes 3:10-11 NIV)
The thought of “life after death” has always played a part in every society’s paradigm of reality, whether they choose to call it that or not. This theme even shows up regularly in non-religious literature, movies, games, etc. The immortality of the vampire is a gross perversion of this theme, but the theme is there non the less. The theme of immortal life also shows up in Science Fiction. The thought of death simply being the end of life makes life to be a cruel irony. No one, not even an atheist, wants to believe that all there is to life is the pleasures (or counterfeit pleasures) and hardships that this life has to offer. It makes life meaningless. Why work for anything for your brief time on this earth if death will simply end it all?
In his book, Memories and Visions of Paradise, (Jeremy P. Tarcher, INC., 1989), Richard Heinberg does an excellent job of exploring the universal theme of a lost golden age in all of the world’s religions and mythologies. While an in-depth analysis of Heinberg’s material and conclusions would be too lengthy and time consuming to suit my current purpose, I do recommend a thorough study of this book to anyone wanting to explore this matter in a richer way. As Heinberg proves in his book, two basic themes exist throughout world religions and ancient mythology. The first theme is the idea that in mankind’s beginning there was a golden age, an age of paradise, and something happened to bring that golden age (paradise) to an end. This corresponds to the Biblical account of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Although the specific details may be different, the theme is the same.
“In every mythology, Creation is the first act in a grand cosmic drama. That drama unfolds by stages through a Golden Age of peace and plenty, a Fall or a period of degeneration, and a catastrophe that brings the sacred age of the gods to an end and initiates the present, profane age of the world…The spiritual life of all ancient and tribal peoples revolved around the maintenance of sacred rhythms and balances through rituals designed to recapitulate the Creation. Creation was the ultimate and sacred act, to be commemorated and symbolically repeated on significant occasions in the life of the individual and in the collective life of the tribe. The creation process was at once a cosmic, historical phenomenon and a pattern of design and control in everyday life, the practical means of harmonizing Heaven and Nature. The Creation story was therefore of both universal and immediate significance; it described the nature of absolute reality in a way that was both transcendent (true for all times and places) and immanent (true for here and now).” (Memories and Visions of Paradise, page 21)
The second theme is that we are made to live forever, and that death is an unwelcome intrusion into “real life”. Death is not the natural end to life. It is an interruption of life that comes about as a result of man turning away from his Creator in the effort to control his own destiny. This comes from non-biblical mythology, but lines up with the whole Genesis account of the Creation and Fall of man. It is easy to see how all these myths came about if we remember that before mankind began to write and preserve writings, stories were passed down from generation to generation via narrative. Naturally, somewhere along these lines, the original stories got perverted and altered. My contention is that the Biblical stories are the accurate versions, and the alternate myths are the result of the perversions of inaccurate narrative transmissions. But, the point is that the themes are the same, and they come from all over the world, not just in isolated geographic locations. Heinberg gives the details of this in his book.
The Scripture says that, “the wages (what we have earned) of sin (turning away from God, to our own way) is death.” Because we are made in the image of an eternal God, our hearts yearn for eternity, and death is always an unwelcome intruder. Now that Christ has come, it does not have to be the end. Rather than being an end, it is a beginning, a doorway to eternity to those whom Christ has redeemed from the curse of sin and death.
One of the most profound ways in which man is made in the image of God is the fact that man is an aesthetic being. God is an aesthetic being. We see it in His creation. Throughout the course of human history, men from every society and ethnic group have spent countless hours creating works of art and music that serve no practical purpose from a purely logistical interpretation of reality. Think of this for a moment: If there is no Creator, why are flowers beautiful? There is no logical reason why they could not just be drab, ugly and gray, and serve the same purpose. There is no reason that we should gain pleasure from looking at them, and smelling them.
Why do we find the sight of the sun setting over a body of water, with the streams of clouds strung wistfully throughout the sky to be so enthralling? Why does the human ear love to hear music? Why do we find the chirping of crickets and katydids on warm fall evenings to be so soothing? If God had not purposefully built this into us as aesthetic beings made in His image, Then the sounds of horns, guitars, pianos, drums, and all the other musical instruments would just be irritating noise that served no purpose. The examples of things that give us pleasure could go on and on. If we explain life from a purely biological, evolutionary point of view, there is no reason for beauty and pleasure to exist in the world. It is not necessary for pure survival.
Beauty and pleasure exist because God is an aesthetic being, and as part of His image in us, we are created as aesthetic beings also. God takes pleasure in His creation. That is why, repeatedly in the Genesis account of Creation, it is stated that He saw what He had created, and “It was very good.” If we will just take the time to realize this and embrace it, our sensory interaction with God’s Creation will be pleasant and life giving. The simplest things can become an act of worship. The taste of a tart cherry on your tongue proves that God has designed and orchestrated both the cherry and the tongue to speak His glory to us in the harmony of His Creation. The feel of a warm breeze as it caresses the skin on a Spring evening shows that God has designed both to work together in a harmony of aesthetic pleasure.
When God said, “Let us make man in our image, and our likeness”, the meaning is that God planned to make a creature similar to Himself. Both the Hebrew word for image (tselem) and the Hebrew word for likeness ((demut) refer to something that is similar but not identical to the thing it represents. Just as the mirror is not you, it reflects your image so you can see what you look like. A photograph is a captured image of something. It is not the thing, but it shows you what the thing looks like.
Theologians have spent countless hours attempting to specify one characteristic of man, or a very few, in which the image of God is primarily seen. Some have stated that the image of God is seen in man’s intellectual ability., others in man’s ability to make moral decisions and willing choices. Others have stated that the image of God refers to man’s original moral purity, or his creation as male and female, or his dominion over the earth.
I would like to focus on the meaning of the words translated into our language as “image” and “likeness”. These words had clear meaning to the Hebrews. They simply mean that man is like God. Man is a representation of God. Much of the controversy over the meaning of “image of God” is too narrow and specific. When Scripture reports that God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”, it simply means man will be like God, and represent (reflect) Him. There is much that can be explored on this subject, but for the remainder of my writing, I want to focus on how our being made in the image of God affects our relationship to, and interaction with each other.
Since man is made in the image of God, contempt for our fellow man is contempt for God. Biblical jargon has been used wrongly throughout the ages to justify all variations of racism and hatred. This is a sad commentary on human behavior. Listen to these words from Jonathan Edwards in “The justice of God in the damnation of sinners”. (The Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 1, Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust 1974, p. 669:
“The crime of one being despising and casting contempt on another, is proportionally more or less heinous, as he was under greater or less obligation to obey him. And therefore if there be any being that we are under infinite obligation to love, honor, and obey, the contrary towards him must be infinitely faulty. Obligation to love, honor, and obey any being is in proportion to his loveliness, honorableness, and authority—But God is a being infinitely lovely, because He hath infinite excellency and beauty…sin against God, being a violation of infinite obligation, must be a crime infinitely heinous, and so deserving infinite punishment…The eternity of the punishment of ungodly men renders it infinite…and therefore renders no more than proportional to the heinousness of what they are guilty of.”
While Edwards is excessively wordy, and a little hard to follow here, the gist of what he is saying is that since God is supreme and infinite in His love, holiness, and power, He deserves our highest worship, love, and obedience. Since this is so, the opposite— to not worship, love and obey God is infinitely hideous and despicable and worthy of the most severe punishment.
Following Edwards’ line of reasoning here, we have to conclude that since man is made in the image of God, contempt for our fellow man is tantamount to contempt for God, and is an offense deserving of damnation. Let that thought sink in. No action that is unloving and dishonoring of another human being is ever justifiable. That is hard medicine to swallow, because we are masters at justifying our disobedience.
There are many passages in Scripture that warn us against the evil of slander:
“Do not go about spreading slander among your people. Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor’s life. I am the Lord. (Leviticus 19:16)
“Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret, him I will put to silence: whoever has haughty eyes and a proud heart, him will I not endure.” (Psalm 101:5)
“Let slanderers not be established in the land; may disaster hunt down men of violence.” (Psalm 140:11)
“But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man unclean. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man unclean, but eating with unwashed hands does not make him unclean.” (Matthew 15:18-20)
“But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, and idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard, or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.” (1 Corinthians 5:11)
“Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. (Ephesians 4:31)
“Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks evil against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgement on it.” (James 4:11)
These are only a few of many Scriptures that warn against slander. The actual dictionary definition of the word slander reads as follows: “Oral communication of false statements injurious to a person’s reputation. A false and malicious statement or report about someone.”
The origin of the word “slander” is sclandere – “a snare, stumbling block, offense, the spring of a trap, to spring, leap.” This is also the root of the word we translate as “scandal”. So slander and scandal are derived from the same word.
When we slander someone, it is as if we are setting a trap for them. There is no such thing as harmless slander, even if it is done in jest. It is hurtful and damaging. An animal stuck in a trap will hurt itself as it struggles to get free. Some animals will even go so far as to eat their own leg off to free themselves from a trap. In the same way, a person who has had false and harmful statements made about him to others can be harmed in the struggle to get free from slanderous accusations.
The Greek work that is often translated as “slander” is the same word that is also translated as “blasphemy” (blasfhmida) in some contexts. Everyone knows what the word blasphemy means as we use it in the English language today. Even though the word was originally used in the wider context of speaking falsely about others, and God, we have come to use the word in a much narrower sense to specifically refer to speaking evil against God. I believe that there is something in the heart of even lost men that is revolted by evil speech against God. Even in a man’s lost state, there is some internal check that throws up a red flag when he finds himself engaging in blasphemy, or when he is in the presence of someone engaged in blasphemy. Granted, this is a general observation and does not apply to every man. Men’s hearts can become so hardened that they do not react at all to evil speech against God.
I think it would benefit us to give the word “blasphemy” back its original meaning. While it is imperative that we do NOT speak evil against God, it is just as important that we do not speak evil against our fellow man, who is made in the image of God. Even if we do not realize it, when we speak evil against our fellow man, we are, in fact, speaking evil against God, because God has made him, and he reflects in some measure, the image of his Creator. We cannot divorce these two things as we currently do with our use of the word blasphemy. This is what the Apostle John meant when he wrote:
“Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness.” (1 John, 2:9)
Also:
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed His love among us; He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love; not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and His love is made complete in us. We know that we live in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him, and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love, lives in God, and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgement, because in this world we are like Him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because He first loved us. If anyone says, ‘I love God’ yet hates his brothe ‘r, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And He has given us this command; whoever loves God must also love his brother.” (1 John, 4:7-21)
This is also the meaning behind Jesus’ words in Matthew 25:34-46:
“Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger, and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you? The king will reply; ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’ Then he will say to those on his left; ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you have me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’ They also will answer; ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
Also notice these words from Matthew 5:21-22:
“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago; ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgement.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgement. Again, anyone who says to his brother ‘Racca’ (empty headed, stupid) is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says ‘You fool!’ (moros – more than stupid, bringing into question a man’s heart and character, morally worthless) will be in danger of the fire of hell”
It is not our place to make judgements about another man’s moral worth or the intentions of another man’s heart. (Call someone a fool) This right is reserved for God, and God does in fact call men fools at times. In Luke 12:20 Jesus said that God called the rich man who did not value his relationship with God, a fool. If a man thinks that his wealth is his security, and yet he thinks that he has no need of God, God defines him as a fool. However, we do not really ever know what is truly in a man’s heart, only God knows that. So that is His call to make, not ours.
There is another interesting observation that can be made about the word “blasphemy”: The word we translate as “devil” is “diabolos”. This word comes from the prefix “dia” which means “through” or implying motion, and “ballo” which means “to cast, throw, or accuse”. (Accuse = Slander). This is also where we get the word “diabolic”. “Diabolos” is the word we use for “devil”, the Accuser, the Slanderer, the one who makes false statements about the character and intentions of God and of others. This is always the devil’s modus operandi. In the beginning, Satan lied to Eve about God, and brought into question God’s motives and intentions. In the book of Revelation, Satan is called “the accuser of the brothers”.
So, we must ask ourselves, when we tend to come to conclusions about another person’s actions or motives, when we tend to judge another person’s heart, are we not acting in the same “diabolic” spirit? Often, when we see a person act a certain way, we make judgements about them. We may be basing our assumptions on inadequate information and premature conclusions. We may know nothing about the circumstances in a person’s life that have caused them to behave in a certain way. We need to be very careful about the conclusions we come to about others, and find ourselves following the lead of the devil, the accuser, the slanderer!
So how does this play itself out in day to day life? Here is an example: The next time you are at a red light in town, or on the exit ramp coming off the interstate waiting for the light to change, and you see a person standing on the traffic island or the side of the road with a cardboard sign that says something like “Homeless and hungry. Please help. God bless”, check yourself to see what thoughts are going through your mind. Do your thoughts run something like this: “Well, he could get work if he wanted to! There is a homeless shelter on the other side of town he could go to. I am not giving him anything!”? To be honest, I have caught myself thinking exactly like that. But the Lord has made me come to realize that it is not my place to judge a street person’s actions or motives. I have no idea what circumstances have transpired to bring that person to that state. For me to slander him, (which is what I am doing in my thoughts, even if I don’t vocalize it,) I am committing blasphemy. Even if the person is leading a lifestyle that is causing him to remain in that condition, (an addiction, or some other problem,) it is not my place to make a judgement against that person, and for that reason, refuse to help him.
We are told in the Word of God to have the mind of Christ. Did Christ bring judgement on the people who were leading destructive lifestyles? No! He brought freedom and release to many of those He encountered who were in bondage to addictive habits. Let’s look at a few of those encounters. The Savior’s heart is that of compassion to those in bondage, not condemnation. One example of this is recorded in the Gospel of John:
“The Pharisees heard that Jesus was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John (the Baptist), although if fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but His disciples. When the Lord learned of this, He left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. Now He had to go through Samaria. So He came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as He was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, ‘Will you give me a drink?’ (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?’ (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.’ ‘Sir’, the woman said, ‘You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?’ Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this water so I that won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.’ He told her, ‘Go, call your husband and come back.’ ‘I have no husband’ she replied. Jesus said to her, ‘You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have said is quite true.’ ‘Sir’, the woman said, ‘I can see that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is Jerusalem. Jesus declared, ‘Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and is now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and His worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.’ The woman said, ‘I know that Messiah (called Christ) is coming. When He comes He will explain everything to us.’ Then Jesus declared; ‘I who speak to you am He.’ Just then His disciples returned and were surprised to find Him talking with a woman. But no one asked, ‘What do you want?’ or ‘Why are you talking with her?’ Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ‘Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?’ They came out of the town and made their way toward him.”
Here, Jesus encounters a woman who is of a people group that His people, the Jews, did not associate with. Jesus had no racial prejudice against this woman. Jesus shows her respect in His conversation with her. He is also not concerned that she is a woman. Often, in that culture, as with many cultures that still exist today, women are treated as socially interior to men. Jesus has no gender prejudice towards her. The third remarkable thing about Jesus’ interaction with her is that she is probably also a social outcast because of the fact that she had been married five times, and was currently living with a man out of wedlock. None of this mattered to Jesus. What mattered to Him was the fact that she was a person whose heart was receptive to the truth. That is what should matter to us as well.
As soon as the woman realized that Jesus had supernatural knowledge about her, she believed in Him. She then ran to tell everyone who would listen. There is no record of this woman ever witnessing Jesus perform a miracle to prove His deity. Many others in that day had witnessed miracles, and still refused to believe. This is stunning to me. If you ever do get the opportunity to witness a real miracle, you had better pay attention to what God is saying to you!
Here is another example from John 8:1-11:
“But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn He appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around Him, and He sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the law, Moses commands us to stone such women. Now what do you say?’ They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing Him. (Here is the spirit of slander, accusation or blasphemy at work.) But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with His finger. When they kept on questioning Him, He straightened up and said to them, ‘If any of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.’ Again, He stooped down and wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ ‘No one, sir,’ she said. ‘Then neither do I condemn you,’ Jesus declared. ‘Go now, and leave your life of sin.’
Adultery is a horrid sin. This passage must not be interpreted to mean that Jesus makes light of it. But He does not classify it as a worse sin than other sins. Sin is sin, period. There are no degrees. Sin is rebellion against God, no matter whether it takes the form of sexual immorality or racial prejudice. Jesus knew that those who brought the woman to Him were just as guilty of the sin of pride and hardness of heart as she was of the sin of adultery. Jesus had compassion on her, not because He condoned her sin, but because God had a better way for her to live.
Many Bible scholars believe that the woman mentioned here is Mary Magdalene, who became one of Jesus’ most beloved and devoted disciples. She loved much because she was forgiven much. That should be the attitude of our hearts. This attitude of heart does not come naturally to us. By default, we are basically selfish and self-centered, until God changes our hearts. Even then, after the new birth, we can tend to slip back into selfish behavior if we are not on guard. The best method I have found to keep my own heart pure is to continually ask God to make me see others the way He sees them. I must see His image in everyone. God is looking back at me through every person I encounter. If we could have the mindset that God has disguised Himself and is looking at us through every person we encounter, this will change our behavior drastically! And, in fact, He is. That is the whole point of Matthew 25:34-46.
Another interesting discovery I made as I was doing some word study is the Greek word for “accusing”, (kategoreo) as in John 8:6. This is from “kata”, which means “against”, and “agoreuo”, which means “to speak”. So, the meaning is “to speak against” or condemn. This is the origin of our words “category” and “categorize”. When we categorize (the word we use is “stereotype”) people, we are making false assumptions about them. (see John 8:15) We should stop stereotyping, categorizing people. When we do this, we are judging people, and leaving no room for God to work and change people. When we categorize people, our thinking goes something like this: “Well, he has always been that way. His family is that way. Those people always act like that. All ___________ (fill in the blank with any ethnic, denominational, socio-economic, generational, or political epithet of your choosing) are like that.” All such thinking is evil, and does not glorify God.
In summary, there are many ways in which the image of God is reflected in man. When we speak or act against our fellow man, we are speaking and acting against God. In the same way, when we show kindness and respect toward our fellow man, it is as if we are doing it to God Himself.
How have you been treating God lately? To answer that question, simply answer this one: How have you been treating those around you? Are you speaking blasphemy, or blessing?
Danny's Stump 