Theological Foundations:

Humanity and the Worth of All Persons

This series explores theological foundations based on Community of Christ vision, mission, Enduring Principles, and Basic Beliefs.
This article is an excerpt from the paper, Theological Foundations for Sexual Ethics. The First Presidency coordinated
development of the paper with input, review, and feedback from the World Church Leadership Council, Standing High Council,
Theology Formation Team, International Leaders Council, and individual theologians and ethicists.

The Community of Christ Statement of Sexual Ethics (www.CofChrist.org/ethics; June Herald) was built upon these foundations. In
addition to study and discussion, the First Presidency invites your feedback on the statement. Please send your responses
to ethics@CofChrist.org.
Scripture teaches that human beings are created in Gods image (Genesis 1:2627). Our Basic Beliefs stress
this fundamental truth: Every human being is created in the image of God (Sharing in Community of
Christ: Exploring Identity, Mission, Message, and Beliefs, 3rd Ed.).
What does the phrase created in Gods image mean? It means humans have qualities that reflect aspects
of Gods nature. These qualities include knowledge, creativity, self-awareness, freedom and capacity for
moral choice, and spiritual light or intelligence. Also, humans have the ability to love God, others,
themselves, and the whole creation. This reflects the relational (Triune) nature of God, who lives in perfect
love and community.
Unity of Body and Spirit
A long-standing precept of Restoration-movement theology is that the spirit and the body is the soul of
man (Doctrine and Covenants 85:4a). This concise theological statement emphasizes that the human spirit
and body are not opposites or natural enemies. They are interrelated aspects of created human life.
Margaret A. Farley writes in Just Love: A Framework for Christian Sexual Ethics:
Created by God, sustained in being by God, offered an unlimited future by the promises of God in Jesus
Christ, each human personembodied and inspiritedhas the possibility of and the call to a destiny of
relation and wholeness as embodied spirit, inspirited body. The inclusion of the body in this destiny is by no
means an afterthought on the part of a God who became embodied and whose own body now lives still in
this world and in the reign of God.
The phrases embodied spirit and inspirited body seem especially helpful to our understanding of human
nature and related topics. Instead of separating spiritual and physical aspects of human life, these phrases
promote a sense of desired integration, harmony, and unity of body and spirit.
The essential relationship between the physical and spiritual aspects of human nature is described in the
New Testament using the concept of temple:
Do you not know that you are Gods temple and that Gods Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys Gods
temple, God will destroy that person. For Gods temple is holy, and you are that temple.
1 Corinthians 3:1617
This concept of human nature as temple is further expanded in Ephesians 2 as a quality of relationships in
Jesus Christ characterized by love and peace that is Gods household. The community formed through the
sacrifice of Christ that spiritually lives in Christ becomes a holy temple in which God dwells.
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the
household of God, built upon the foundations of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the
cornerstone. In him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in
whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.
Ephesians 2:1922
Worth of All Persons
Human worth is a fundamental principle of Community of Christs theological understanding of humanity.
Our Basic Beliefs State:
Every human being is created in the image of God. In Jesus Christ, God took on the limits of human flesh
and culture, and is known through them. We therefore affirm without exception the worth of every human
being. We also affirm that God has blessed humankind with the gift of agency: the ability to choose whom or
what we will serve within the circumstances of our lives.
Sharing in Community of Christ: Exploring Identity,
Mission, Message, and Beliefs, 3rd Ed.

Human worth has been a feature of the churchs witness and ministry since its beginning.
Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God; for, behold, the Lord your Redeemer suffered
death in the flesh; wherefore he suffered the pain of all men (people), that all men (people) might repent
and come to him.
Doctrine and Covenants 16:3c
From the earliest days you have been given a sacred principle that declares the inestimable worth of
persons. Do not forget.
Doctrine and Covenants 162:6a
The Worth of All Persons is an Enduring Principle of the church. If we believe that humans are created in the
image of God and that the worth of souls is great in Gods sight, then we must affirm that all humans are
of equal worth.
The Enduring Principle, Worth of All Persons, stresses that God wants all people to experience wholeness of
body, mind, spirit, and relationships. In scripture, Jesus ministry often results in the blessing of wholeness
in response to physical, spiritual, mental, or relational difficulties. Referring to Temple ministries, the
desirability of wholeness in human life is lifted up in Doctrine and Covenants 156:5c:
By its [Temple] ministries an attitude of wholeness of body, mind, and spirit as a desirable end toward which
to strive will be fostered.
What is wholeness? Wholeness is balance, harmony, and well-being of body, mind, spirit, and relationships.
It affirms the interconnectedness of body, mind, and spirit in the created order. It does not mean a static
perfected state, but rather the blessing of true peace marked by realizing the divine purpose in ones life in
all aspects of living.