The rule
In short: Love God with everything. You are not the owner. Every human bears God’s image. Never use a person as a thing.
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them” (Genesis 1:27).
The rule underneath: Law 1 · God first
Love God with everything. You are not the owner.
Keep it: Your life has one center, and everything else finds its place.
Break it: Money, power, or people become your god, and they let you down.
Shows up in: Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Psalms, Mark, James
Other rules in this book: Image, not tool, Love the actual person, Protect the weakest
The rule underneath: Law 3 · Image, not tool
Every human bears God’s image. Never use a person as a thing.
Keep it: People are treated with dignity.
Break it: People get used, bought, and thrown away.
Shows up in: Genesis, Psalms, Proverbs, Luke, James
Other rules in this book: God first, Love the actual person, Protect the weakest
30And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. 31And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.Mark 12:30-31 · KJV
Why it matters
Every other playbook rests on this one. If God is first, then nothing else gets to be god: not money, not success, not your side, not you. And if every person bears God’s image, then no one is expendable, not the poor, the sick, the old, the stranger, or your enemy.
The two go together. When something other than God takes first place, people start to become tools for it. The prophets say you become like what you worship: “They that make them are like unto them” (Psalm 115:8).
The steps
1 · Put God first on purpose. “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). Start each day by naming who you answer to. A short prayer or a verse is enough. The point is to settle who is in charge before the day decides for you.
2 · Find your rival gods. Ask: what would I sacrifice people for? Comfort, success, being right, my group winning? Whatever that is has become a god. An idol is anything you trust or serve in God’s place.
3 · Treat everyone as someone who can’t be replaced. The test is how you treat people who can’t pay you back. Jesus says to invite “the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind… for they cannot recompense thee” (Luke 14:13–14). Recompense means repay.
4 · Refuse words that make people less than human. Harm to groups often starts with words like vermin, animals, or parasites. James says the same mouth should not bless God and curse people “made after the similitude of God” (James 3:9). Similitude means likeness. Don’t repeat those words, even about enemies.
5 · Honor the old and the weak by default. “Rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of the old man” (Leviticus 19:32). Hoary means gray. People with the least power get respect written into the law.
6 · Guard life and bodies. Murder is banned because of the image (Genesis 9:6). Jesus traces it back to anger and contempt (Matthew 5:21–22). Using someone’s body for pleasure or profit without care for them breaks the same law.
7 · Receive your own worth as a gift. The image applies to you. Failing, sick, or old, you still bear it. “I am fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14).
Where it goes wrong
- Ranking people by race or tribe. God “hath made of one blood all nations of men” (Acts 17:26).
- Contempt for the poor. “Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker” (Proverbs 17:5).
- Treating people as numbers. Harm done by process, where no one decides and everyone goes along.
- Putting some people on a pedestal. Treating a leader or celebrity as more than human always costs someone else.
- Self-contempt. Treating yourself as worthless usually spills over into how you treat others.
One practice
This week
See the person
- Name one. Learn the name of someone you pass every week and treat as background: a cashier, custodian, or driver. Use it.
- Cut one word. Pick one word you or your circle use to put down a group. Stop using it.
- First thing. For five mornings, before your phone, say who you answer to.
Write in your journal: what would I sacrifice people for?
Go deeper
- The pattern across the Bible. Creation: humans made in God’s image, male and female (Genesis 1:26–27); life protected because of the image (Genesis 9:6). Law of Moses: no other gods, no carved images (Exodus 20:3–4); love God with all your heart (Deuteronomy 6:5); build a railing on your roof so no one falls (Deuteronomy 22:8). Prophets: Isaiah mocks the man who burns half a log for heat and bows to the other half: “Deliver me; for thou art my god” (Isaiah 44:17). Wisdom: “What is man, that thou art mindful of him?… thou… hast crowned him with glory and honour” (Psalm 8:4–5); “the LORD is the maker of them all” (Proverbs 22:2). Gospels: the two great commandments (Mark 12:30–31); Jesus welcomes children the disciples tried to send away (Mark 10:14). Letters: Christ is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15); don’t curse people made in God’s likeness (James 3:9–10).
- Original words. Tselem, “image,” was the word for a statue that stood for a king in his lands. Demut, “likeness,” means resemblance. Many scholars think the point is that humans are God’s living statues, set in the world to show what he is like. Elohim acherim, “other gods,” is literally “gods besides” — anything added alongside God.
- How the laws interlock. Law 1 and Law 3 are the root of the rest. Love for the actual person (Law 2) follows from the image. Protecting the weakest (Law 4) is the image applied to those with the least power. Greed (Law 8) is Law 1 broken: money made into a god.
- Worked example. A manager has to cut 15% of a team. The decision may still be necessary. Law 3 changes how: tell the truth early, give real notice, don’t let people learn from a system email, and look after those with the least cushion. Law 1 asks a harder question: is this cut to keep the company alive, or only to hit a bonus number?
Hard passages
What exactly is the image?
What it says Genesis says humans are made “in the image of God” (1:27), but never defines it.
The rule underneath Image, not tool. Whatever it is, every human has it.
What people added Readers have proposed reason and moral sense; the ability to love and relate (male and female together); or the job of ruling the world on God’s behalf, like a king’s statue. debated None of these makes the image depend on ability.
Dignity and the violent texts
What it says The same Bible that gives every human the image also records commands to “utterly destroy” whole cities, “both man and woman, young and old” (Joshua 6:21; see 1 Samuel 15:3).
The rule underneath Image, not tool; protect the weakest.
What people added Readers handle this in different ways: as ancient war language that overstates, as a one-time judgment, as God meeting people where they were, or as texts to be read through Jesus. Churches have split; this page does not settle it. See Joshua.
Noah’s curse (Genesis 9:25)
What it says After Ham sees his father drunk and naked, Noah curses Ham’s son Canaan: “a servant of servants shall he be” (Genesis 9:25). The text says nothing about skin color or Africa.
The rule underneath Image, not tool. Genesis 9:6, two verses earlier, grounds every life in God’s image.
What people added How it has been used: Defenders of slavery in the American South in the 1800s cited Noah’s curse to justify enslaving Africans. In 1995 the Southern Baptist Convention formally apologized for its past defense of slavery.
Books that feed it
Genesis · Exodus · Deuteronomy · Psalms · Proverbs · Isaiah · Mark · Luke · Colossians · James