Old Testament
Genesis 1:26-27
26 God said, “Let’s make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
27 God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.
New Testament
James 2:1-9
1 My brothers, don’t hold the faith of our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with partiality.
2 For if a man with a gold ring, in fine clothing, comes into your synagogue, and a poor man in filthy clothing also comes in,
3 and you pay special attention to him who wears the fine clothing and say, “Sit here in a good place;” and you tell the poor man, “Stand there,” or “Sit by my footstool”
4 haven’t you shown partiality amongst yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?
5 Listen, my beloved brothers. Didn’t God choose those who are poor in this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which he promised to those who love him?
6 But you have dishonoured the poor man. Don’t the rich oppress you and personally drag you before the courts?
7 Don’t they blaspheme the honourable name by which you are called?
8 However, if you fulfil the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbour as yourself,” you do well.
9 But if you show partiality, you commit sin, being convicted by the law as transgressors.
Genesis gives us a sentence sturdy enough to hold a whole society: human beings are made in the image of God. Not the quick, the competent, the impressive, the uninterrupted. Humanity as humanity. The image is not earned by usefulness, nor diminished by dependence. It is bestowed.
Lord Jesus, heal the partialities in us. Teach us to look steadily, to listen patiently, and to treat every person as one you have made and one you may be drawing home.
James brings that doctrine down to the floorboards of ordinary life. He warns the church against what he calls prosōpolēpsia (προσωποληψία): receiving the face, weighing people by what can be seen and what can be gained. A ring, fine clothes, a confident voice. And then the quiet harm: a poorer person made to stand, someone overlooked because their body is slow, their speech is difficult, their needs are inconvenient.
If we carry the Lord of glory in our mouths, we must learn to see with his eyes. In public life this is not sentiment, but seriousness: the way we design services, set thresholds, queue people, speak to them, or doubt them becomes a kind of moral liturgy. The Christian begins with reverence. This neighbour is not a problem to be managed but a person to be honoured.