Reading Chrysostom’s (c. 347–407) homily on Ephesians 6:1–3 today, I was struck by this simple yet profound picture of the Christian life as a statue or portrait honoring the King of kings:

For if men for making statues and painting portraits of kings enjoy so great honor, shall not we who adorn the image of the King of kings, (for man is the image of God,) receive ten thousand blessings, if we effect a true likeness? For the likeness is in this, in the virtue of the soul, when we train our children to be good, to be meek, to be forgiving, (because all these are attributes of God,) to be beneficent, to be humane; when we train them to regard the present world as nothing. Let this then be our task, to mold and to direct both ourselves and them according to what is right.

In other words for Chrysostom, to be made in the image of God — a property belonging to every son of Adam and daughter of Eve (Gen. 1:27) — is not only to reflect God’s image to the world, but also in some sense to reflect on God himself. Think about that for a second.

Herein lies the highest purpose of mankind and what it means to glorify God (WSC Q1). Our lives provide us with an opportunity to approximate God-ness, to attempt, in the words of Chrysostom, to “effect a true likeness.” Do you find that as exhilarating as I do? That we can, in some sense, create, by our very lives, living works of art far superior to the masters of old who painted and sculpted the likeness of great rulers, because our subject is far superior and worthy, and because our lives echo in eternity?

How is this possible? Through a life lived in devotion to God in Christ. After all, Christ is the very “image of the invisible God” (Col 1:15), and our faith unites us to him such that his life is ours, and ours his. Flowing out of this union, then, every act of our will that we make in Christ out of a love for God or neighbor is another brush stroke, another well-placed chisel on this divinely-commissioned work of art.

Through a life of lived-faith, we become more like Christ — the perfect image of God — and Christ is “formed in” us (Gal. 4:19). Effecting a “very true likeness” indeed. What greater purpose are you living for?

How beautiful then the words of Romans 12:1:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.