Christ came primarily to reconcile man to God, but he also looks to see people reconciled to their neighbours.
We begin with the Bible statement of our common humanity. It was to this that Paul appealed when addressing the Athenians on Mars Hill; a people who considered themselves to be superior in every way to all other peoples. The apostle said in Acts 17.26-28: 'From one man he made every nation of men that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him; though he is not far from each one of us.
We have a common origin from one man and we are all God's offspring; in him we live and move and have our being.' Psalm 8 teaches what a human person is. God has crammed us all with glory and honour because we are made in his likeness. It is precisely because of this God-given status that James forbids us ever to curse or dishonour another person. Everyone we shall ever encounter is made in the image and likeness of God. To demean or deny any human's full dignity and glory is to demean and deny the glory of God himself. In Acts 14, Paul addresses the people of Lystra who in their debased religion attempted to offer sacrifices to him and Barnabas as gods. As with the Athenians, Paul emphasised to the Lystrians their common humanity and their shared experience of the common grace of God.
