For the opening weeks of our sermon series on Gen 1-11 we’ve been focussing on what it means to be made in the image of God. In week 1 we saw how it means to reflect something of God’s glory. In week 2 we saw that humans can shine with the glory of God in how we rule God’s world, in subduing the world (i.e. keeping it in order) and taking care of it (i.e. not exploiting it). In last week’s sermon we saw how Christians can shine with the glory of God through how we relate to those around us.
To begin with, we learnt that being made in the image of a Trinitarian God means being made in the image of an ‘us’, not a ‘me’. As such, like Adam being alone in the Garden of Eden, there will always be something wrong with us if we remain a ‘me’. We were designed for interpersonal relationships.
Second, we learnt was that God designed humans in a way that He could not satisfy our need for companionship. God was in the Garden when he commented that something was wrong. Rather, God made someone who was ‘like’ Adam (bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh), but also different to him. Men and women have different strengths to complement each other, and the different ways we see the world to help us challenge and stretch each other.
Thirdly, while our need for relationships don’t necessarily mean marriage, seeking out loving and trustworthy relationships is what will fulfil us in life.
Yet even better than all this we learnt that Christians can change the world through how we relate to those around us. The early Christians went from obscurity to taking over the known world in under 300 years, all because of how they treated (i) women, (ii) children, (iii) the poor and (iv) the sick. May the church arise again and change the world anew, through relating to people the way God does.
