One of the cornerstones of Christian theism is the idea that humankind was created to be a reflection of God himself. The Genesis account claims “God created man in his own image” (Gen. 1:27). Paul claimed human beings are to be “imitators of God” (Eph. 5:1).

Once God spoke to Moses, “See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh…” (Ex. 7:1). What if God wants that for each one of us? What if he wants us to be “like God” to others in our walk-about world? That would mean the way God makes himself known to others in the world would be primarily through the actions and attitudes of everyday people: us.

I’m not saying God doesn’t reveal himself directly to people through creation or miracles; he does. But what if his preferred plan is to make himself known through our humanness—where our hands become his hands; our words become his words; our care for a child is an extension of his care for that child; our kindness to an injured soul is a reflection of his; and so on?

When Jesus came into the world, he said explicitly, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Then he says something strikingly similar about his followers: “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing” (John 14:12). And then again in prayer to the Father, “As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world” (John 17:18). The imagery is clear: when someone asks, ”Where is God?” we should be able to respond, “You’re looking at him.”

I’m not suggesting that we are God. I am simply pointing out that God wants us to be (as Jesus was) a reflection of God—his image bearers. Sadly, that is not the case. Mohandas Gandhi said, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” How many times have you heard comments like that from people outside of faith? Even those of us in the church are well aware of the hypocrisy and un-Christlike actions Christians are guilty of. That being said, God still believes in the Church and we must too. Instead of decrying her and abandoning her, we must pray for her renewal and for refocus. We find ourselves in the same tension as St. Augustine when he exclaimed, “The church is a whore, but she's my mother.” We cannot abandon Mother, but let’s be honest—she’s got big problems.

So where do we start? I think we need to get back to the heart of the matter. We need to stop trying to make faith about getting stuff or persuading people to think like we think, and we need to return to making faith about reflecting God to the world.

The trait that most defines who God is, is love. John wrote concerning God’s essence, “God is love” (1 John 4:8). We reflect God the most when we love. In his final hours with the twelve apostles, Jesus told them, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:34-35). The key-defining trait of a Christ-follower is love.

But what exactly do we mean when we say we “love” something or someone? Human love is a potpourri of loves: affectionate love, friendship love, erotic love, committed love, etc. Though each of the human loves rumor some aspect of divine love, the love that God loves with transcends all human loves—it is deeper and deathless.

Christian teaching holds that God’s love for us never changes. He loves us, period. He will never love us less or more than he does right now because his love is not based on what we do, but on his nature of love. Though our actions are important for the enrichment of our lives, they don’t earn God’s love.

This is good news because the truth is we are not all that good. In fact, what we seem to do best is botch things. God forgives us; we fall again. God gives us courage; we get discouraged. God gives us a dream; we make it a self-actualizing quest filled more with us than God. God gives us gifts; we go prodigal with them and use them for our own advantage. Let’s face it; if we were God, we would probably kill us.

God bases his decision to pursue us and work in our lives on his unconditional love. Unconditional love loves without conditions—it isn’t a response; it is a direct action. This kind of love simply sets value and preciousness on others irrespective of how they act. It isn’t an earned thing; it just is.

Remember, Jesus asks us to love the people in our lives the same way God loves us! We are to love others unconditionally. Unconditional loving is a completely different way to relate to people around you than most of us are accustomed to. We are so used to responding to people based on appearance, status, how they treat us first, et cetera. Paul acknowledged that we tend to “evaluate people by what they have or how they look” (2 Cor. 5:16). But then he cries, “We do so no longer!” That needs to become our cry.