This week’s post is written by John Bivona, an elder at the Dyer location of Faith Church. I’m thankful for John’s partnership in ministry and his passion to think through how the Bible relates to our world and life today. I’ve benefited from our conversations and his thoughts and think you will as well – Pastor Brian
Before the Church was split by denomination, before nations drew borders, before racial division and partisan politics, there was this: Humanity. Made in the Image of God. Every man, every woman, every child, stamped with royal worth. This idea is made clear in the words describing the creation of humanity: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26).
The key word is Image, defined as: image, statue, representation, or shadow. It means humanity is God’s representative presence on earth, His reflection in physical form.
The Image of God in the Ancient World
In the ancient world, “the image of the god” was not poetry, it was power. The phrase was royal language. Kings and rulers were called “the image” of their gods, believed to represent divine authority and rule on earth.
In ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt, the title “image of a god” was reserved for kings. They represented divine authority on earth and were treated with the highest honor. People bowed in their presence; their needs came first. The people served them, protected them, even risked their lives to uphold the image. Every decision revolved around preserving their dignity. The image was treated with reverence, kindness, service, and respect.
Ordinary people? They weren’t image-bearers. They were tools, laborers, slaves, servants, concubines, “a means to an end.” The message was clear: the divine favored the few, and everyone else existed to support them. Ordinary people had no image, no value, no divine likeness, no status, just hands and bodies to advance the king’s rule.
Then came Genesis 1!
The Image of God in Genesis 1
Genesis 1 set the world on notice with a declaration: Every human carries the Image of God!
Not one man, not a King, a royal dynasty, not some privileged race or family member benefiting from ancient nepotism. Everyone.
It was more than revolutionary, more than provocative thinking, it was a declaration that dismantled the thrones of power and crowned humanity, all of humanity, as bearers of God’s image.
Every human being is a living image of the Creator, a walking reminder of His rule, His creativity, and His worth. In one statement, God shattered the spiritual caste system of the ancient world. Every human being, born or unborn, rich or poor, disabled or abled, citizen or immigrant, conservative or progressive, black, brown and white, saint or sinner, friend or enemy, is royalty in God’s eye.
Jesus as the Image of God
Colossians 1:15 tells us that Christ Himself is “the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation,” and 2 Corinthians 4:4 reminds us that the gospel unveils Jesus Christ as “the image of God.” Jesus is the perfect reflection of God’s character. His love, justice, and mercy, reveal who God is. In Jesus, the invisible God becomes visible, and He is the ultimate model for what it means to bear God’s image.
The truth that Christ is the ultimate Image of God helped shape how believers throughout history – from the Apostles and early church fathers to the Reformers and modern theologians – have recognized the value and royalty of every human being.
John Calvin on the Meaning of the Image of God
Recently I was in Geneva, Switzerland, and visited the Reformation Wall. Faith Church’s foundations come out of the Reformation that was shaped in that very city, and one of its leading voices, John Calvin (second from the left), wrote powerfully about the value and dignity of every person.
Calvin taught that the whole human race was created “noble and excellent, He said God bestowed on humanity “a kind of royal state”, and finally in his commentary on the Book of James, he called the poor “royal images of God”. Calvin made it clear that God’s image was not reserved for the elite, the wealthy, or the powerful, it belongs to every human being.
Before democracy, before laws or any man-made movements, before the modern pro-life movement, women’s rights, civil rights, abolition, social justice disability laws, Genesis 1 is where it began – there it was, written in the opening page of the Bible. It’s not a metaphor, a slogan on a t-shirt, or even a philosophy. It’s a divine declaration from the God and Creator of the Universe!
But somewhere along the way, the Church forgot…
What Happens When We Forgot All Are Made In the Image of God
We’ve turned that image into a battlefield. We divide over race, flags, theology, disability, culture, politics, we live like Genesis 1 only applies to people who look, vote, speak, think, or worship like us. We treat one group as more enlightened, more chosen, more “biblical,” while sneering at others as if Christ died for half of humanity.
When we ignore that truth, we don’t just mistreat people, we dishonor the very King whose image they bear. In this context, we’ve used Scripture as a weapon to separate instead of unifying.
When we forget the image and who bears it, value becomes negotiable, kindness becomes conditional, social media becomes a weapon of warfare and suddenly, the Church starts to look like the Battle of Gettysburg.
The gospel does not need more clever marketing, bigger budgets, or better branding. At its core, the church needs to see God’s image in every person, the church is impotent without it.
If we can’t see Christ in the immigrant, the neighbor of another race, the political opponent, or the person with a disability, then we have no right to claim we see the Kingdom of God.
More times than not, we don’t divide because of a broken world, we divide because we refuse to see the image of God in people we don’t like.
Throughout history, every culture and nation has fallen short of this divine calling to honor the image of God in all people. Even America, being built on Judeo-Christian principles, is not exempt from falling short. The acceptance of abortion reveals how easily a society can deny the image of God in the unborn, treating innocent human life as disposable when it becomes inconvenient. This same pattern is seen in America’s treatment of Black men and women through slavery, segregation, and injustice reveals how easily a society can forget the image of God in those it chooses to devalue. This is not unique to America; every culture has its own record of murder, prejudice, exploitation, and tribalism, whether against the unborn, minorities, the poor, the disabled, or outsiders. These failures remind us that the call of Genesis 1 has never been easy, yet it remains the standard by which God measures how we see, value, and treat every human being.
The first truth of Scripture is the most explosive: Every person is made in the Image of God! Both in the church and out!
So How Do We Live It Out?
If we agree that every person bears the image of God, then the way we speak to fellow Christians, must reflect that reality. James 3:9 reminds us that with the same tongue, “we bless our Lord and Father and curse people who are made in the image of God.” A few verses later, James says God’s Wisdom “is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere” (3:17). The phrase open to reason means teachable, humble, willingness to listen, in stark contrast to human wisdom described in verses 14-16, that is described as bitterly jealous, selfish, disorderly – akin to civil unrest – a motive to burn it all down.
This human wisdom can often be found on social media, where outrage is rewarded, bitterness is amplified, and arguments are crafted less to persuade the truth, rather to secure clicks, likes, and applause.
God’s wisdom requires discernment! Some truths, such as salvation in Christ alone, are core and non-negotiable, demanding clarity and conviction, even the firm strike of a hammer. But many disagreements among believers, (political alignments, cultural judgments, secondary theological questions) would best be handled with the careful precision of tweezers.
When we wield a hammer when tweezers and gentleness is required, we do not defend truth, we damage image bearers. To honor the image of God is to speak with God’s wisdom, which is pure, peaceable, gentle, and sincere, without compromising the truth
James 2:8 says, “If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing well.”
James calls it the royal law; it carries the weight and authority of God. This isn’t just about being polite; it’s echoing Genesis 1, where humanity is declared to be made in His image.
Loving and serving our fellow image-bearers doesn’t mean we agree with everything they believe or do. It’s not appeasement or affirming their choices. It’s not backing down from truth, it means speaking it with love. Healthy boundaries, honesty, and courage are not absent, the goal isn’t compromise, it’s reflecting the heart of God to everyone. Jesus loved people fiercely yet still spoke truth without flinching.
When we see others as image-bearers of God, it changes how we treat them. Jesus calls us to a love that goes beyond comfort, preference, or fairness. Scripture is filled with examples of instructions that show us what this looks like.
In Philippians 2:3, Paul urges us, “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.”
In Galatians 5:13, we’re reminded, “Do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”
Paul reminds us in Romans 2:4, that it is “the kindness of God that leads to repentance.”
Again, in Romans 15:1–2, Paul calls, “each of us to please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.”
John leaves no room for compromise, in 1 John 4:20: “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar.”
Jesus said in Matthew 5:44–45, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven” and in Mark 12:31: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Finally, Jesus takes it a step further in John 13:34, when he said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” This wasn’t Jesus being repetitive or redundant, it was redefinition. The old command was to love as you love yourself; the new command is to love as Jesus loves.
Don’t just know what you do, know Why you do it.
When you’re a new Christian, you believe what God says simply because He said it. I remember a refrigerator magnet that read, “God said it, I believe it, That settles it!”. That’s childlike faith, and it’s beautiful. But as you grow and mature, you start digging deeper, not to question God, but to understand His heart behind His commands. You begin to ask, “Why?”
Why does God call us to love, forgive, and serve — our neighbor and our enemies?
The answer is found in Genesis 1. The Why is that everyone is God’s Image! The Why is that everyone is Royalty!
We treat people with honor, kindness, and patience because they are image-bearers of the King.
Period.
Questions about the Bible or theology? Email them to Pastor Brian at Theology@WeAreFaith.org. You can also email to be added to the list that receives weekly emails with our blog posts.
