Imago Dei Latin “Image of God” refers directly to how God chooses us to be recipients of His Image.
So God created mankind in his own image,
Genesis 1:27
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
If we read from verse 26, we can see an indentation in verse 27; it shows that the author wanted to make a special notation, called parallelism poetry; this part was a common way jews writing style. We can see that the author wanted to put a particular emphasis on it.
Another reference in Exodus 20:3-6 about image is not a positive one:
3 You Shall have no other gods before me. 4 You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven or in the waters below
Exodus 20: 3-6
This dichotomy is worth looking into, when God chooses us to create us as His image is something we can’t argue or have our say, it was his decision, we might think we are not worthy of such a privilege, but it will be like saying that God’s decision was in the wrong. On the other hand, you can see that God forbid us to create an image of him; and not only that, but the Bible teaches us that idolatry goes beyond the carved images, from idols of the heart (Ezequiel 14:1-16) and cultural idols (Galatians 5:19-21). It is God’s choice how his image is used.
Who’s, What’s image are we reflecting?
Nowadays, it seems like our interest in taking care of our image has increased; we live in a driven-image society. Even if we don’t fall into the social media experiment, we all seem to care too much about how everyone sees us. Some want to appear more intelligent, more prosperous, cleaver, outgoing, shy, etc. Remember Adam and Eve? the first thing they saw was that their image wasn’t the same after the fall, as they recognized that they were naked, and like Adam and Eve, we use leaves to cover our identity. Our image is rooted in lies or destructive actions, and more likely, our image points to other things rather than the Imago Dei.
God created us to reflect an image.
If, for some reason, we can pull a “magical mirror” and this mirror can show us our actual image, are you pleased to see God’s image forming in you day by day or heartbroken to see that it shows who we genuinely are?. God’s image in our lives is very powerful, especially in the context of leadership; whether we like it or not, others see God’s image in us. We are a royal representation of God here on earth.
When we are singing or playing our instruments, serving the congregation, teaching them how to express worship and adoration, our image goes hand in hand. Are we reflecting God’s image? For sure, this is challenging to answer; I invite you to pray that His Image continues to grow in you, day by day and that we all fulfill God’s purpose, for his image forming in us, and this image points back to him.
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