So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Gen. 1:27-28)
We have been created by God to love each other. We have been made to bond and form relationships with each other. We have been made to build families (Gen. 2:18 – not good for man to be alone).
But we have not been designed to just build families – we are not limited to that.
We have been made by God to build communities!
We find ourselves confronted with anger, hate, violence, and fear. This is not the way it is supposed to be.
We watch what is happening around our country right now – the fires, the violence, the deaths, etc. This is not the way it is supposed to be.
We were made to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. It is as if God said, “Go make families that turn into communities that turn into cities!”
So, when we act out of ignorance and hatred and hurt others, we are not living the way God intended – we are going against the very purpose for which we were created.
According to passages such as Genesis 9:6, it is an offense to God to injure another human – to take the life of another being who was made in His image.
It breaks my heart that sins like racism continue to be so prevalent.
We know that as long as there are humans on the earth there will be sin…but why does this particular sin continue to dominate so many?
It boggles the mind and tears at the soul.
Scripture is crystal clear – there really is no way to misunderstand it. Prejudice is sinful.
A scriptural sample: James 2:9; Acts 10:34; 1 Sam. 16:4; Prov. 10:12; Lev. 19:17-18; 1 John 2:9, 11; 3:15; 4:20
We have been created to love each other and to build relationships and communities. To refuse to do this not only makes us disobedient to God, our Creator, it makes us less than human.
God’s people are to be part of the solution to deep, ugly, sinful problems such as this.
May we all commit to living up to God’s design for us.
We were made to love (God and neighbor and self – Matt. 22:37-39).
Let us live out God’s plan.
