This Week's Topic: Homosexuality and Gay Marriage

The Image of God

“The basic reality about God is plain enough"  Romans 1:19 (Msg)   

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.” Genesis 1:26-27 (NIV)      

What does this teach us about the Image of God and human beings?  

1. Human Beings are part of the animal kingdom but differentiated from it by having the image of God conferred on them. Our DNA may be 98% the same as an ape, but that 2% difference is vast and unbridgeable.
2. “us” and “our” tell us that God is plural, yet one.
3. One aspect of God’s image is to take benevolent responsibility for the rest of creation.
4. The image of God is not male alone, nor female alone, but male and female together. As we shall see, this “image of God together” is consummated in Genesis chapter two in the comprehensive oneness (1+1=1) of marriage.

What are some of the implications of today’s passage for your thinking about your life and life in society at large?

Prayer

“Lord, please help me and all believers to be guided by your Word. Although the reality of biblical moral guidance requires making judgments about right and wrong, help each of us never, never, never to allow our emotions to fuel judgmentalism against those who disagree with us. Amen."