THE IMPORTANCE OF IMAGE
By W. G. Guy
What is your image? It is how you project yourself to others; how you want to be seen or recognized. Most people consider their image to be their physical appearance: their face, hair and their clothing. Some people spend a great deal of money and time working on their appearance.
This is especially true for many women on fixing their hair, face, skin, make-up, their nails and clothing. Some even go to the expense of paying for plastic surgery to reconstruct facial or physical features. It’s all about their image, and what they see in the mirror; glamourizing their self-image.
1 Peter 3:3-4 – Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
How you appear to others is far more than your physical appearance or image. The real image that you should be concerned about is not physical, but spiritual. God created man in His own image and likeness. This image was lost due to sin. However, God’s love and concern for mankind goes to the extent of restoring what was lost; redeeming His image back to the way it originally was when God first made man.
Genesis 1:27 – So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Jesus came to redeem mankind, to restore what was lost – God’s image.
Luke 19:10 – For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
What was lost due to sin was the image and likeness of God that He placed in man. That image is also the likeness of Jesus Christ, the second man that came directly from God. Accepting who Jesus is and what He did for us brings His image, His Spirit, back into us. God put of Himself into the man that He first made. God breathed His Spirit into Adam and he became a living soul.
Genesis 2:7 – And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
So Jesus did the same for His disciples when meeting them after His resurrection. He breathed His Spirit, His image and likeness into them; this is when they were born-again by His Spirit.
John 20:21-22 – Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:
And Jesus continues to do this same restoration today for everyone who accepts Him: this restores His image as we conform to Him and His Word, through His Spirit.
Romans 8:29 – For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Galatians 4:19 – My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,
Colossians 1:27 – to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
What image do you project to others? Is it Christ, or is it your SELF; your fleshly appearance? Jesus said to be His disciple we need to deny the SELF of its fleshly lusts. This needs to be a daily effort because the selfish flesh seems to resurrect itself on a daily basis.
Luke 9:23 – And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
We all are born with a corrupt worldy image after the manner of Satan who brought sin into this world with his temptations appealing to the carnal lusts of the flesh.
1 John 2:15-16 – Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
Which do you spend your time and money on, your fleshly image, after the pattern of this world, or your spiritual image after the pattern of Christ? Consider which image is eternal: because this physical fleshly image will grow old, deteriorate and die; but your spiritual image will go on into eternity. So which do you consider to be worthwhile to develop?
Unfortunately there is also another image: one that you do not want to identify with. This is a corrupt evil image: it is the image of the beast, or the beast system of this corrupt world, governed by the god of this world – the devil. This beast and its image is of the devil! We are ttold of this character and image by the apostle Paul.
2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 – Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
This image is referred to as Antichrist, the man of sin, the devil in human form. He is the opposite or counterfeit of the Messiah. You don’t want to conform to or adopt his image; because those who do will suffer the eternal consequences.
Revelation 13:13-15 – And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
So how important is your image to you, and which image do you portray to others and the world. How about what image you portray to God and Christ? Think about it!
THE IMPORTANCE OF IMAGE
By W. G. Guy
What is your image? It is how you project yourself to others; how you want to be seen or recognized. Most people consider their image to be their physical appearance: their face, hair and their clothing. Some people spend a great deal of money and time working on their appearance.
This is especially true for many women on fixing their hair, face, skin, make-up, their nails and clothing. Some even go to the expense of paying for plastic surgery to reconstruct facial or physical features. It’s all about their image, and what they see in the mirror; glamourizing their self-image.
1 Peter 3:3-4 – Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
How you appear to others is far more than your physical appearance or image. The real image that you should be concerned about is not physical, but spiritual. God created man in His own image and likeness. This image was lost due to sin. However, God’s love and concern for mankind goes to the extent of restoring what was lost; redeeming His image back to the way it originally was when God first made man.
Genesis 1:27 – So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
Jesus came to redeem mankind, to restore what was lost – God’s image.
Luke 19:10 – For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
What was lost due to sin was the image and likeness of God that He placed in man. That image is also the likeness of Jesus Christ, the second man that came directly from God. Accepting who Jesus is and what He did for us brings His image, His Spirit, back into us. God put of Himself into the man that He first made. God breathed His Spirit into Adam and he became a living soul.
Genesis 2:7 – And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
So Jesus did the same for His disciples when meeting them after His resurrection. He breathed His Spirit, His image and likeness into them; this is when they were born-again by His Spirit.
John 20:21-22 – Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:
And Jesus continues to do this same restoration today for everyone who accepts Him: this restores His image as we conform to Him and His Word, through His Spirit.
Romans 8:29 – For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Galatians 4:19 – My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,
Colossians 1:27 – to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
What image do you project to others? Is it Christ, or is it your SELF; your fleshly appearance? Jesus said to be His disciple we need to deny the SELF of its fleshly lusts. This needs to be a daily effort because the selfish flesh seems to resurrect itself on a daily basis.
Luke 9:23 – And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
We all are born with a corrupt worldy image after the manner of Satan who brought sin into this world with his temptations appealing to the carnal lusts of the flesh.
1 John 2:15-16 – Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
Which do you spend your time and money on, your fleshly image, after the pattern of this world, or your spiritual image after the pattern of Christ? Consider which image is eternal: because this physical fleshly image will grow old, deteriorate and die; but your spiritual image will go on into eternity. So which do you consider to be worthwhile to develop?
Unfortunately there is also another image: one that you do not want to identify with. This is a corrupt evil image: it is the image of the beast, or the beast system of this corrupt world, governed by the god of this world – the devil. This beast and its image is of the devil! We are ttold of this character and image by the apostle Paul.
2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 – Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
This image is referred to as Antichrist, the man of sin, the devil in human form. He is the opposite or counterfeit of the Messiah. You don’t want to conform to or adopt his image; because those who do will suffer the eternal consequences.
Revelation 13:13-15 – And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
So how important is your image to you, and which image do you portray to others and the world. How about what image you portray to God and Christ? Think about it!
