But One Way...

"Yet the great part of people are most unworthy to be helped if they be judged by their own merit. But here Scripture helps in the best way when it teaches that we are not to consider that men merit of themselves but to look upon the image of God in all men, to which we owe all honor and love…there is but one way in which to achieve what is not merely difficult but utterly against human nature, to love those who hate us, to repay their evil deeds with benefits, to return blessings for reproaches. It is that we remember not to consider men’s evil intention but to look upon the image of God in them, which cancels and effaces their transgressions, and with its beauty and dignity allures us to love and embrace them.”John Calvin, The Institutes of Christian Religion (Philadelphia, Pa.: The Westminster Press, 1960), 1:696.