Genesis 1:26-27 - Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. 27 So God created man in His own image; He created him in the image of God; He created them male and female.
2 Corinthians 3:17-18 - Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 We all, are looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into the same image.
2 Corinthians 4:4 - the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
Colossians 3:10 - You are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator.
WE WERE CREATED TO BEAR THE IMAGE OF OUR CREATOR, OUR DEVICES BEAR OUR IMAGE.
IF OUR DEVICES REFLECT US, WHAT IMAGE DO THEY REVEAL?
Exodus 20:3-5 - You shall have no other gods before me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself a graven image (pesel), or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them
פֶּסֶל (pesel) = “graven image” (or carved, sculpted, engraved image )
Any man-made physical representation of a divine being — an attempt to shape or define God through material form.
תְּרָפִים (teraphim) = “household gods,” “idols,” or “ancestral images.”
Personal and household idols — small, portable images used for domestic devotion, inheritance blessings, or superstition.
Zechariah 10:2 - “For the household gods (teraphim) utter nonsense, and the diviners see lies; they tell false dreams and give empty consolation.”
Judges 17:1–6 - “Now a man named Micah… had a shrine, and he made an ephod and household gods (teraphim), and ordained one of his sons as his priest.”
GOD'S PEOPLE (HAVE ALWAYS) STRUGGLED WITH WORSHIPING "IMAGES" OF CREATED THINGS OVER BECOMING THE IMAGE OF THE CREATOR.
Psalm 115:4–8 - 4 Their idols are silver and gold, made by human hands. 5 They have mouths but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see. 6 They have ears but cannot hear, noses, but cannot smell. 7 They have hands but cannot feel, feet, but cannot walk. They cannot make a sound with their throats. 8 Those who make them are just like them, as are all who trust in them.
OUR DEVICES CAUSE US TO CARRY AROUND GRAVEN IMAGES, MAN-MADE DIGITAL GODS, EVERYWHERE WE GO.
Matthew 23:25 -28 - 25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence! 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so the outside of it may also become clean. 27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every impurity. 28 In the same way, on the outside you seem righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
WE BEAR THE IMAGE OF WHAT WE ALLOW TO INFLUENCE US.
ONLY THE INFLUENCE OF THE SPIRIT CAN COUNTERACT THE INFLUENCE OF SIN.
Colossians 3:12-15 - Therefore, God’s chosen ones, holy and loved, put on heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, 13 accepting one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a complaint against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also forgive. 14 Above all, put on love—the perfect bond of unity. 15 And let the peace of the Messiah, to which you were also called in one body, control your hearts.
