Going deeper
Image of God
In plain words
Every person is made to reflect God, which gives every human life worth and dignity.
The Bible's first chapter says God made people in His image (Genesis 1:26-27). That means you were made to reflect what God is like, a bit like a mirror or a son who resembles his father. It also means every single person has worth, whatever their age, looks, ability, past or usefulness. Nobody is worthless, including you.
Go further Growing
After the flood God says taking a human life is serious because people are made in His image (Genesis 9:6). James warns that we bless God and then curse people made in His likeness (James 3:9). Sin damaged the image but did not erase it. In Christ it is being renewed (Colossians 3:10).
This changes how you treat people. The colleague who annoys you, the stranger on the street and the person you find hard to love all carry God's image. It also changes how you see yourself. Your value does not come from performance or approval. It was given to you by God, and He does not take it back.
Go deeper Going deeper
The Hebrew words are tselem, image, and demut, likeness. In the ancient world kings set up images to show where they ruled, so humans are God's living signs in the world, called to care for it under Him. The New Testament calls Christ the true image of God, and believers are being changed into His likeness (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Christians have explained the image in different ways: as our reason and moral sense, as our relationships with God and others, or as our calling to rule creation for God. Many see truth in all three. All agree the image belongs to every human being from the start of life and grounds the dignity and equal worth of every person.
My verses
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness, to rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, and over all the earth itself and every creature that crawls upon it.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood will be shed; for in His own image God has made mankind.
With the tongue we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness.
And have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.
And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into His image with intensifying glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.