Bearing the Image of God
Today’s devotional
The image of God names both a gift and a calling. Genesis gives humanity a place within God's good creation and a responsibility for its care. We receive our dignity from God, and our lives are called to express something of his goodness.
Abilities influence how we live this calling. They do not determine whether we bear God's image. A person who cannot explain a belief or act independently still belongs within our shared humanity. The care we offer should begin with that person's given worth.
The calling reaches through the whole of life. We live before God, learning trust and worship. We attend to our inner life, seeking honesty about our thoughts and desires. We live with neighbors, practicing love and justice. We inhabit creation, caring for what has been entrusted to us. These relationships meet in the same person and the same ordinary day.
Colossians brings this calling into clearer focus through Jesus Christ, the image of the invisible God. All things are created through him and for him. The eternal Son entered our human life without ceasing to be divine. Through his cross, he acts to reconcile what sin has estranged. Paul calls his readers to continue in the faith and hope of this gospel.
Jesus therefore gives us more than an example of admirable behavior. His life reveals what humanity is for, and his saving work makes restoration possible. By grace, we learn to live our calling in relationship with him.
Consider one encounter ahead of you today. You may need to listen, tell the truth, share a responsibility, or tend something placed in your care. Bring that moment before Christ. Ask how you can honor the person involved and respond faithfully to what God has entrusted to you.
Adapted from chapter 3, “Created in the Image,” in Becoming Fully Human by Dr. R. C. Titus.
Read the Scripture
Open each passage and read slowly. Notice a word, question, or invitation that asks for your attention.
Genesis 1:26-28 · WEBU
26God said, “Let’s make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.
28God blessed them. God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
Colossians 1:15-23 · WEBU
15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
16For by him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, visible things and invisible things, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things have been created through him and for him.
17He is before all things, and in him all things are held together.
18He is the head of the body, the assembly, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence.
19For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in him,
20and through him to reconcile all things to himself by him, whether things on the earth or things in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of his cross.
21You, being in past times alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil deeds,
22yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without defect and blameless before him,
23if it is so that you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Good News which you heard, which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven, of which I, Paul, was made a servant.
Pause and respond
For reflection
Which relationship needs my faithful attention today: life with God, my inner life, a neighbor, or the creation I share?
A practice for today
Choose one relationship that needs care. Offer a truthful word, a patient response, or a practical act that honors the person God has placed before you.
A prayer
Lord Jesus, reveal your goodness in the way I live. Restore what is disordered in me, and teach me to honor your image in others through truthful, patient love. Amen.
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