The Image of God

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Genesis 1:26-27

 

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

 

So God created man in his own image,

    in the image of God he created him;

    male and female he created them.

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Genesis 9:6

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Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.

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1 Corinthians 11:7

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For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God...

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Life before Birth

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Psalm 139:13-16

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For you formed my inward parts;

   you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works;

   my soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret,

   intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance;

in your book were written, every one of them,

   the days that were formed for me,

   when as yet there was none of them.

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Isaiah 46:3-4

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Listen to me, O house of Jacob,

   all the remnant of the house of Israel,

who have been borne by me from before your birth,

   carried from the womb;

even to your old age I am he,

   and to gray hairs I will carry you.

I have made, and I will bear;

   I will carry and will save.

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Isaiah 49:15

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Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.

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Jeremiah 1:5

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Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

and before you were born I consecrated you;

I appointed you a prophet to the nations.

 

 

Luke 1:30-31

 

And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.”

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Luke 1:41-42

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And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!”

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Galatians 1:15-16a

But when he who had set me apart before I was born, and who called me by his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, in order that I might preach him among the Gentiles.

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Child Sacrifice​

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Psalm 106:37-42

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They sacrificed their sons

   and their daughters to the demons;

they poured out innocent blood,

   the blood of their sons and daughters,

whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan.

   and the land was polluted with blood.

Thus they become unclean by their acts,

   and played the whore in their deeds.

Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against his people,

   and he abhorred his heritage;

he gave them into the hand of the nations,

   so that those who hated them ruled over them.

Their enemies oppressed them,

   and they were brought into subjection under their power.

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Jeremiah 7:24-26, 30-31

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But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward. From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day. Yet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers.

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For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, declares the Lord. They have set their detestable things in the house that is called by my name, to defile it. And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind.

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Ezekiel 16:20-21 (see also 35-36)

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And you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your whorings so small a matter that you slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them? 

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Our Duty to Act

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Exodus 22:22-24

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You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall not mistreat any widow or fatherless child. If you do mistreat them, and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry, and my wrath will burn, and I will kill you with the sword, and your wives shall become widows and your children fatherless.

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Deuteronomy 24:17-19

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You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless, or take a widow's garment in pledge, but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this. When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.

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Deuteronomy 26:12-13

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When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year, which is the year of tithing, giving it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your towns and be filled, then you shall say before the Lord your God, ‘I have removed the sacred portion out of my house, and moreover, I have given it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all your commandment that you have commanded me. I have not transgressed any of your commandments, nor have I forgotten them.

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Deuteronomy 27:19

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“Cursed be anyone who perverts the justice due to the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.” And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

 

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Psalm 10:14-18

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But you do see, for you note mischief and vexation,

   that you may take it into your hands;

to you the helpless commits himself;

   you have been the helper of the fatherless.

Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer;

   call his wickedness to account till you find none.

The Lord is king forever and ever;

   the nations perish from his land.

O Lord, you hear the desire of the afflicted;

   you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear

to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed,

   so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more.

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Psalm 41:1

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Blessed is the one who considers the poor!

   In the day of trouble the Lord delivers him.

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Psalm 82:3-4

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Give justice to the weak and the fatherless;

   maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute.

Rescue the weak and the needy;

   deliver them from the hand of the wicked.

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Psalms 94:1-2, 6-7, 16, 20-23

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O Lord, God of vengeance,

   O God of vengeance, shine forth!

O Lord, how long shall the wicked,

   how long shall the wicked exult?

They kill the widow and the sojourner,

   and murder the fatherless;

and they say, “The Lord does not see;

   the God of Jacob does not perceive.”

Who rises up for me against the wicked?

   Who stands up for me against evildoers?

Can wicked rulers be allied with,

   those who frame injustice by statue?

They band together against the life of the righteous

   and condemn the innocent to death.

But the Lord has become my stronghold,

   and my God the rock of my refuge.

He will bring back on them their iniquity

   and wipe them out for their wickedness;

   the Lord our God will wipe them out.

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Proverbs 24:11-12

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Rescue those who are being taken away to death;

   hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter.

If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,”

   does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?

Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it.

   and will he not repay man according to his work?

 

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Proverbs 31:8-9

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Open your mouth for the mute,

   for the rights of all who are destitute.

Open your mouth, judge righteously,

   defend the rights of the poor and needy.

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Isaiah 1, esp. v. 15-17, 23

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When you spread out your hands,

   I will hide my eyes from you;

even though you make many prayers,

   I will not listen;

   your hands are full of blood.

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;

   remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;

cease to do evil,

   learn to do good;

seek justice,

   correct oppression;

bring justice to the fatherless,

   plead the widow’s cause. 

Your princes are rebels

   and companions of thieves.

Everyone loves a bribe

   and runs after gifts.

They do not bring justice to the fatherless,

   and the widow’s cause does not come to them.

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Isaiah 10:1-2

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Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrease,

   and the writers who keep writing oppression,

to turn aside the needy from justice

   and to rob the poor of my people of their right,

that widows may be their spoil,

   and that they may make the fatherless their prey!

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Isaiah 58:6-7

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Is not this the fast that I choose:

   to loose the bonds of wickedness,

   to undo the straps of the yoke,

to let the oppressed go free,

   and to break every yoke?

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry

   and to bring the homeless poor into your house;

when you see the naked, to cover him,

   and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

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Isaiah 59:15-16

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Truth is lacking,

   and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.

The Lord saw it, and it displeased him

   that there was no justice.

He saw that there was no man,

   and wondered that there was no one to intercede;

then his own arm brought him salvation,

   and his righteousness upheld him.

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Jeremiah 5:28

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They have grown fat and sleek.

They know no bounds in deeds of evil;

   they judge not with justice

the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper,

   and they do not defend the rights of the needy.

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Jeremiah 7:6-7

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If you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.

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Jeremiah 22:3

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Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.

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Ezekiel 22:7-6

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Father and mother are treated with contempt in you; the sojourner suffers extortion in your midst; the fatherless and the widow are wronged in you. You have despised my holy things and profaned my Sabbaths. There are men in you who slander to shed blood, and people in you who eat on the mountains; they commit lewdness in your midst.

 

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Amos 5:15

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Hate evil, and love good,

   and establish justice in the gate.

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Amos 5:24

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But let justice roll down like waters,

   and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

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Micah 6:6-8

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With what shall I come before the Lord,
and bow myself before God on high?
Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,
with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

 

He has told you, O man, what is good;
and what does the Lord require of you
but to do justice, and to love kindness,
and to walk humbly with your God?

 

 

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Zechariah 7:8-10

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And the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.”

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Malachi 3:5

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Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.​​​​

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Matthew 23:23

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Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.

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Matthew 25:45

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Then he will answer them, saying, “Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.”

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Luke 10:25-37 (greatest commandment & parable of the Good Samaritan)

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"...Love your neighbor as yourself."

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Luke 12:48

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But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.

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James 1:27

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Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

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James 2:14-17

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What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.