People are more than animals.

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

Then God said,
“Let us make humans in our image, in our likeness.
Let them rule the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky,
the domestic animals all over the earth,
and all the animals that crawl on the earth.”
Genesis 1:26 God’s Word to the Nations

Our cat, Cali, is aging, but you wouldn’t know it by her actions and attitude. When I climb into bed, she comes next to my face purring, expecting me to pet her, then she wanders to some point on the bed and falls asleep. She still lets me know when I haven’t pet her enough.

Cali is an indoor/outdoor cat and quite the mouser when she wants to be. One night she brought a live mouse into the house, plopped it on the floor and went up to the bedroom leaving me to chase the mouse with a broom (thankfully, no one captured that scene with their phone). I’ve watched her make friends with one mouse then toy with another until it died of exhaustion. She can be kind and she can be cruel. She’s an animal, that’s how animals act.

But are we animals?

The answer is yes if we’re talking biologically, but if we’re speaking biblically, then the answer is no. We are more than animals if we believe that we are made in the image of God. And as such, we live by a different ethic than animals. We are held accountable for our actions.

However, one of the consequences of the prevailing acceptance of macroevolution and the rejection of God as the Creator is the ethic that we’re only animals, a highest developed species of animals, but animals nonetheless. Therefore, we are encouraged to act like animals.

In the Christian community we cannot embrace an ethic that states that we’re merely animals. It not only denigrates God as the Creator, it also makes a mockery of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. Our ethic is based on our God who created us and on Jesus who has redeemed us.  We are slaves to Christ but not enslaved to animal instincts.

Human life, marriage, and creation are sacred because they have their source of being in God and God alone. Jesus has redeemed human life, marriage and creation through his sacrifice. Therefore, we don’t act like animals, but like the created and redeemed children of God that we are.

What a powerful witness we portray to the world when we live to a higher standard than living like animals.

Copyright Douglas P Brauner