God being the maker of the heavens and the earth, the stars and the moon, and everything in the universe. The Creator of Adam and of Eve; both being in the image of God. And all of us, being descendants of Adam and Eve, also made in the image of God. We are but a reflection of God's character, but a reflection of God's grace, but a reflection of God's glory. What does that mean though? Organ after organ He has created, face after face, nerve after nerve, psychology after psychology, personality after personality. And each one of these personalities and known and gripped tightly in the hands and the mind of God; this omniscient mind. This holy, sympathetic, loving mind knows us all by far more intimately than anyone in the universe may ever know us; I mean, who can know us better than our creator anyways?
But, how does that tie in our being made in his image? Does he call us to know each mind as he does? Surely not, because the power of our sin limits us in every way; from the way we think to the potential ways that we can act according to our obedience to God. A man feeding a homeless beggar on the street is an image of compassion, but is not the only image. As an image of God, we show a glimpse of his character and are to live to show a glimpse of his glory. That is also why we are in pursuit of his holiness because we will never cease to be amazed by his perfection in every way, and in his omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience. We are pursuing constantly, in his image to understand personalities at every level. God calls us all to sympathize/empathize with all personality in a constant pursuit to understand him more. Is it necessary? Speaking in terms of our free will, what is ever necessary to us? But, speaking in terms of God's grace and the reflection of our love according to our reverent fear of God, it is definitely necessary to honor him. This is the same as asking the question, is glorifying God, whether in this way or that, necessary? As Paul has exhorted the Corinthian church, in personal testimony - "To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I may win those under the law. To those outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people that by all means I might save some. I do this all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings." (1 Corinthians 9:20-23) - he shows us that whoever he is among (and even those he might not be among) he was willing to sympathize with these people for the glory of God because he was made as an ambassador of Christ and in the image of God. And even before this, he says that he does this to become a servant to all.
Afterall, how are we to edify the body if we do not understand our body of believers individual by individual. In this, Paul encourages to unite us as a body of believers in order to edify each other in our ways of thinking, our perspectives of our faith. So in this way, we become qualified to spur in other and push each other toward loving Christ in the image of God in order to become a servant to all in unity with all servants under God and under his children(only being a mental standpoint and not the truth) so that we might give God all the glory for the grace and peace he's poured on our lives that we are now sinking in.
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