Grasping God’s Value for all Human Life
“There are no ordinary people.
You have never talked to a mere mortal…”
C. S. Lewis[ 1]
Thaddeus[2] is a sixty-some-year-old man who lives in our (MN) neighborhood. His facial shape is distinct, tied to a syndrome that limits Thaddeus’s cognitive abilities. Just about every day Thaddeus can be seen walking around the park and North Central University (NCU), looking for someone to talk to. Thaddeus’ ability to ‘produce’ in our world is limited, yet whenever he visits the campus of NCU he receives greeting after greeting. The students love Thaddeus. A few years ago, Thaddeus was hit by a car while walking around the neighborhood. He was rushed to the hospital, and a great outpouring of prayers and love ensued. NCU students even bought Thaddeus a new coat with reflective markers on it to make him more visible to motorists as he walks through our area. Why did the students react as they did? Because they understand that while Thaddeus is much older than any of them and much lower in his intellectual abilities, he is made in God’s image. Thaddeus’ life, like all human life, is sacred.
After our view of God, how we view people is one of the most critical parts of our worldview. Jesus intentionally places loving God first as the greatest commandment in part because of the motivation, strength, and guidance we need from God to obey the second greatest commandment, loving others as we love ourselves. To obey the second greatest commandment we need to see people through God’s perspective. We need God’s help!
Though we as humans innately understand that other humans are valuable, we are also naturally self-centered. Our heart also “knows” hurting others is wrong, but we do not always naturally love others as ourselves. As we surrender our lives to God, though, and ask Him to work in our life, God gives us the capacity and the desire to love our neighbor as ourselves (Matt 22:39).
Prioritizing God is essential to see well. We need His assistance to overcome stereotypes, prejudices, biases, and cultural differences as we view people. We need His strength to love even our enemies and to see the value God has placed in their lives.
A biblical worldview clearly sees the value of human life. From the beginning, God makes it clear in His Word that people have intrinsic value. In Genesis 1:26-27 God says,
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.
People were created differently than animals. People were made in God’s image, and thus they have great intrinsic value.
God has placed a moral sense of the value of other people in the hearts of all humans, but Christ-followers have the unique advantage of walking with God who can enable us to see the way He does. As we love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, He enables us to love our neighbors as ourselves. He gives us the capacity to love like He does. May we see people the way God does and love them the way God desires.
This blog is adapted from Nick Robertson’s soon to be released book, Seeing the Whole Elephant: An Essential Guide to Seeing Reality from God’s Perspective.
1. C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory (San Francisco: HarperOne, 2001), 45-46.
2. Name changed to protect Thaddeus’ human dignity.