love people as the very image of God and resist the temptation to improve them.
Just about everyone's in favor of love. We all ought to love one another, say a thousand Facebook memes. But, to make explicit what is implicit in all this, the fact is, we don't. And I think it won't be particularly controversial to say that we probably won't be doing so any time soon despite all the inspiring memes.
Failure to love one another is a sin, and we are all sinful in precisely this way. We don't love others as people made in the image of God. And on top of that, we often lie to ourselves about it. We claim we love everyone, but we don't. It's the basic human dilemma. We know we should, but we don't. What is to be done?
I think the answer is found somewhere in the words "image of God." The idea that people, all people, are made by God in His image, in His likeness, must come first. If you despise God, or if you believe He is a merely a psychological construct (or something), loving God is obviously not on your agenda, and your attitude toward others will have to be much more selective. Having discarded this unifying truth, all are made in God's image, you may still aspire to love others, but you have to answer the question, on what grounds? Who should I love and why?
The Judeo-Christian answer . . . because all are made in the image of God, and God is love, and we who love God are called by God to love one another . . . rests on certain notions about God and about his creatures (you and me).
In other words, if you don't love God, you won't love people, because they are made in His image. Likewise if you don't believe in God. You may try to love people for other reasons, but this reason, that they are made in the image of God, won't be your primary motivator.
I am not suggesting that Christians always love others better than non-Christians. Ofteh, very often, we don't. And neither am I suggesting that I myself, wise and good though I am (!), always see the image of God when I look at other people. As Lewis said, that image has been shattered in the Fall, and can be difficult to discern. We apparently need, for this kind of seeing, new eyes.
Anyway, here's an agenda to aspire to: First, love God. Love the creator of the universe and everything and everyone in it. If you don't love Him yet, seek Him while there is still time. Seek Him, and you will find Him. Second: keep loving God. Keep seeking Him even after you've found Him. Cultivate a mindset of love for God. Return to this as if to water after long thirsting. And third, once you have begun to love God or grown in your love for Him, cultivate the insight for seeing His image, His likeness, in others. To do this you will have to know Him, hence steps one and two. You will not achieve this knowing by concentration or meditation or even long walks in the woods, but by finding Him in His Word, the Book. And perhaps most clearly in the person, life, and teaching of Jesus. [I might suggest the Gospel of John] And through this means you will not only come to know about God, but to truly know Him.
Bottom line: we cannot love others as icons of God unless we first love God.
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