We Created God in Our Own Image

I was listening to Saturday’s with Mark and Tony and Tony Campolo mentioned the quote, which you’ve maybe heard before:

“God created us in his image, and we decided to return the favor.” -George Bernard Shaw

He was acknowledging that we tend to have churches divided by race, socio-economic status, political views, etc. because we each make God in our image. This made me think about another thing someone once said to me when we were talking about politics and I was saying that the best way to vote is to vote find out how the poor vote and he said:

“Well, the poor are selfish too.”

He was acknowledging that, just like everyone else, the poor wouldn’t do what was in the best interest of everybody, but rather what was in their own best interest. So, the poor have created a god who cares about the poor, the rich have a god who cares about the rich, the liberals have a god who cares about liberals, and so on. But this is what struck me, while God does care about all humankind, if you look at Scripture, God does seem to care about a certain group quite a bit. So, as flawed humans, that create god’s that selfishly serve our own interest, I think the god that most accurately (though still flawed) aligns with the God I encounter in Scripture is the god of the poor. God cares about the poor and oppressed. I think we usually give a knowing nod to the mention that there are literally thousands of verses in the Bible that talk about the poor, but then somehow we spend maybe a few hours a year actually reflecting on those verses or discussing their implications for our lives. This is a long way of saying that I think I’m going to focus (as I probably already have) my Sunday post to be devotional thoughts, specifically though, reflecting on the wealth of verses in the Bible that talk about the poor.

3 thoughts on “We Created God in Our Own Image”

  1. This is so needed. I look forward to your posts on this subject. …And what do you think it is in our culture that causes us to have such a great propensity to see God in our own image…more than most? Because we have abundance? believe we are blessed above others? just pride? But let us not forget that we also have members of our culture who have given in huge ways as well, we have some who have been amazingly benevolent. I believe that wealth is a test, not a sinful state.

  2. Pastor Andy,

    I’m looking forward to writing more too. I think our propensity is are selfish by nature and want affirmation in our ways. Same reason we surround ourselves with people who look like us.

    As for the few that have given in huge ways, I agree there are many out there. But I know so very few of their stories.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *