Genesis 1: Created in God's Image: Co-workers of God.

What is the purpose of your work? Do you realize you are actually co-workers and co-partners with God to bless the world?

In the Ancient Near Eastern culture, the people believed that only the kings had the image of God. They believed that because only the kings had an image of God, only they can be the kings and rule the world.

But, it says in Genesis 1:27:

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them (ESV).

Here, the word, "man" ["Adam": in Hebrew] is not being used to describe a gender of male, but it is being used in a "generic" way to refer the humankind. So, according to the Bible, it is not just the kings, or the high officials that possess God's image in them, but all of human beings do. What would it mean that we are created in God's image? What is the implication of it?

In the next verse, God says in Genesis 1:28 to Adam and Eve:

..."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 that moves on the earth."

Just as the kings rule, here God says to the human beings who are created in His image to do two things: (1) Fill the Earth, and (2) Rule over the creations. Would this mean that we can do whatever we want to do with God's world, because God calls us to fill and rule over the creations?

Well, no. That's why the book of Genesis talks first about our identity of being created in God's image, before talking about our mission in the world. In other words, as God's image bearers, we are called to rule the world in a way that will reflect God's image (His characters) to the world.

An ambassador in a foreign country will not engage in diplomacies that will go against his Prime Minister's directions from his home country. In the same way, as people created in God's image, God wants us to fill and rule the world in a way that will reveal God's characters to the world.

So, how does God rule the world? In the creation account, we see God exercising His will and ruling the universe by bringing forth light, order, and beauty to the world. God also designs and builds universal structures and systems that will sustain the lives of the animals and the lives of the humankind. In other words, God's rule in the creation account is one of kind that brings order, designs beauty, and builds universal systems that would benefit all of life in the earth. This reveals God's character of kindness, goodness, and love.

This is how God wants us to rule as created in God's image. Where we see darkness in the society, we are called to bring the light. Where we see ugliness of injustice, we are called to bring beauty of God's justice in the society. Where we see potential of earthly resources, we are called to cultivate it in a way that will benefit the humankind and the world.

God wants His creation to be filled with His character of kindness and goodness. So, God instilled His image in us, so that we may fill the earth with His glory. In this regard, our work is more than a work to be paid, but it is a continuation of God's work that began in the creation account that brings out God's character of kindness, goodness, and love.

So, when we go to the marketplace, we are actually continuing God's work of bringing order, beauty, and life to His creation. In fact, we are God's co-workers and co-partners through whom God desires to fill His world with His Glory. This is the real purpose of our work in God's world for God's Image Bearers.