Quotes about Identity

Christ had died for this man too: how could he pretend with his pride and lust and cowardice to be any more worthy of that death than the half-caste

If I eliminate everything, how will I exist?

To be in love is to see yourself as someone else sees you, it is to be in love with the falsified and exalted image of yourself. In love we are incapable of honour—the courageous act is no more than playing a part to an audience of two.

Hatred is in my brain, not in my stomach or my skin. It can't be removed like a rash or an ache. Didn't I hate you as well as love you? And don't I hate myself?

Jesus asked, "But what about you? … Who do you say I am?" (Matt. 16:15 NIV).

Far too often, unbelievers know Christians only for what we stand against, not what we stand for.

Jesus never allowed himself to be defined by the political conflicts of his day, and neither should we.

We tend to become the decisions we make. The more we choose something, the more we become that something. We are all in the process of solidifying our identities by the decisions we make. With each decision we make, we pick up momentum in the direction of that decision.

At that moment they ceased being human beings and began to be human doings.

We miss the full force of the imago Dei concept if we simply identify it with various ways humans are distinct from animals (e.g., reason, morality, love). The biblical concept instructs us as to how we are like God, not just how we are different from animals. To discover the meaning of the imago Dei, we must pay close attention to the way Scripture speaks about it.

This understanding of God provides the key to understanding what the Bible means when it declares that humans are made "in the image of God." The imago Dei means that humans, like God, are essentially beings who exist in relationship. We are created to exist in relationship with God and with each other. To the extent that we live in isolation from God and from each other, we are not fully human.

These observations strongly support the understanding that "us" refers to God in his Triune nature, and therefore, that the imago Dei refers to our relationality. Like God, we are created to live life as an "us," not just as an "I."