Image & Ethics

GOD MADE THE WORLD AND CALLED IT VERY GOOD.

We live in a beautiful, colorful, diverse World. God made it so. It is a gift to live among and learn from different people, places, languages, and cultures. Yet the World is also tainted by the fall. One of the effects of the fall of man is not just man’s relationship with God, but also man’s relationship with man. Relationships on this side of heaven are filled with conflict and strife. (And those are the easy ones!) We are guilty of staying in our comfort zones, around like-minded people. We make choices of preference without always consciously knowing we do so. This grieves God’s heart. Jesus came to redeem us from our sin and brokenness and to show us God’s heart and kingdom lived out on earth. He offers us an example and gives us His Spirit to transform our brokenness and to use us to be a part of good works that display his love, justice, mercy, unity and diversity to one another and the world.

As committed believers and growing disciples of Jesus we want to explore what the scriptures teach about God’s heart for his diverse creation in relationship with himself and one another. We will not just examine our motivations and convictions but also our obedience and faithfulness. We will take action steps to reflect on our own unique culture and background and to learn about the culture of others.

IN ORDER TO DIVE INTO HOW WE AS CHRISTIANS ARE CALLED TO LIVE IN A CULTURALLY DIVERSE WORLD, WE NEED TO FRAME THIS JOURNEY IN A FEW WAYS.

A World View is: “The way you see the world and how you take the seemingly random and incongruent experiences and try to weave them together into a meaningful whole. A world view is usually about the ‘big questions’ of life: What is good, what is true, is there a God; how do we live a good life; and how do we know these things?” *

Ethics is: “Ethics is the social embodiment and outworking of a world view.” Additionally, Christian Ethics is defined as: “being faithful to the way of
Jesus and the truth of Jesus in our personal, ecclesial, and public decisions and practices.”

*Ron Sanders, World View & Tradition Class Notes, p. 1.

Personal: small and significant decisions we make as we live our lives.
Ecclesial: how the church lives out discipleship in mission and practice.
Public: our positions and actions concerning social issues in our community, country and international community.

Discuss:
What are some examples of personal, ecclesial, and public decisions and practices in your life? Examples in mine?

Now our challenge is to ask, what are the sources of moral authority in the Christian tradition?  
You probably listed the Bible first. What else might we consider as a source of authority?
Scholars also include: divine guidance, moral conscience, natural law, moral tradition & authorities. For the purposes of this study, we are going to take some time to look at the Bible and what God reveals about his purposes in the creation of the World and humans.

THE WORD

Open your Bible to John Chapter 1:1-17. List everything you learn about:
God:
The Word/Jesus: John:
Humans:

If this was the only word God gave us about himself and creation and our reality as humans, what would be good news for us?
What in this passage makes you want to worship and glorify God?

Read Genesis Chapter 1:26-31. List everything you learn about:
God:
Humans:

This is pretty amazing, right? The God of the Universe, the creator of all things, chose to make man in his own image and after his likeness. Humans are unique from all other created things as they reflect God in a special way. An image can be defined as a reflection and representation of something. All human beings have dignity and significance as image bearers of God.

There are a few different ways people understand the image of God:

Substantive: The unique characteristics of humans—the ability to rationalize, make decisions and have a conscience—that specifically reflect the image of God.

Relational: Just as God has relationships with himself, so also humans are created to enjoy community and relationships with one another and with God.

Functional: God gives two key commands to Adam & Eve in Genesis 1. The first is “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” The second is in Genesis 1:28 God says “have dominion...over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Therefore, humans represent God through their purposeful work on the earth.

Do you view your primary identity as being created in the image of God? Why or why not?

When we aren’t sure of ourselves, we tend to look to categories to help define us like age, gender, ethnicity, relationship status, level of education, economic status, where we are from and where we currently reside. These are NOT bad things. These things do make up our lives and our sense of self. Yet they are not the ultimate. There is a temptation to work on finding our identity in Christ, but still relating with others according to these categories—causing us to draw near or keep a distance from those not like us.

With these passages and thoughts in mind, what are some ethical implications we should consider as Christians?
Remember, Christian ethics includes “being faithful to the way of Jesus and the truth of Jesus in our personal, ecclesial, and public decisions and practices.”

How then shall we live as humans created in the image of God?
Relationship with God:
Relationship with Self:
Relationship with others:
Relationship with nature/created things:

Do you feel the tension? It’s not easy. Next time we will dig a little deeper into the fall and it’s effects in our Christian ethics. But for today, we will focus on two areas for personal application.

Pray

• Praise God for sending Jesus as the perfect image of God, who has made a way for us to know him intimately.

• Thank God for creating all people in his image, with dignity and significance.

• Pray that we can really see ourselves and others as created in the image of God.

• Ask God for wisdom for our personal, ecclesial and public ethical decisions.

For Personal Application

Consider what role has your family, friends, history and culture played in forming who you are today. Use this template to write a “Where I’m From” poem to share with the group next week. https://freeology.com/wp-content/files/iamfrompoem.pdf

Journal about these questions:
What about your culture/history reflects the kingdom of God?
What about your culture/history needs to be transformed?

By Courtney Reynolds
Cru Staff at Michigan State University