That of God in Everyone

“Be patterns, be examples in all countries, places, islands, nations wherever you come; that your carriage and life may preach among all sorts of people, and to them; then you will come to walk cheerfully over the world, answering that of God in everyone; whereby in them you may be a blessing, and make the witness of God in them to bless you.”

“‘That of God in every man’ is not a human means of knowing like reason, intelligence, feeling, intuition, natural conscience or moral law within. It is a means of knowing that can be described as seeking counsel of the Creator. The Creator imparts his wisdom to man. This is not human wisdom, but the voice and wisdom of the Creator. We cannot produce the equivalent of this voice and this wisdom from our human resources. It must be heard and received.”

“That which is known about God is evident to them and made plain in their inner consciousness, because God has shown it to them.”

“We think seeing that of God in everyone is the core of Quakerism, but really it’s the core of the whole Christian message and task, to learn to love as God loves. Seeing or answering that of God in others isn’t a mindset. I can’t just decide that’s what I’m going to do, and by sheer force of willpower begin to love as God loves. Only with God’s help, grace, and guidance can I truly recognize that of God in another, to love not as a simple intellectual exercise, but with my very heart and soul.”

“Our human nature is unmistakably double. There is something in us that the Divine Spirit can make its appeal to, something that draws us upward and onward, something that makes our moral and spiritual life possible. I think that this divine spark in us…is the most significant thing about us.”

“As a nontheist Quaker, I’ve taken to phrasing this as “that of the light in everyone” for my own spiritual comfort. For me, this speaks to our interconnectedness and responsibility to steward our actions toward true equality and dignity for all [….] This also speaks to potential.”

“Jesus is recorded four times in the gospels as saying, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ […] To read the Bible with Jesus then is to ask of every passage, ‘How does this show love of neighbour?’ If any passage seems to point to anything else, we can hold it in the Light until an interpretation emerges which points towards the rule of love.”