Seeing the image of God in unbelievers

From Gospel Driven Life blog:

At the risk of "ranting" -- few things are more disturbing than the way Christians stereotype and treat lost people with nothing short of prejudice. I know of times where I have heard Christians even laugh at the "foolish ideas" of unbelievers. This is more like the scribes and Pharisees than it is like Jesus. They are lost -- yes, and the wounds of lostness are upon them. They are also bearers of the image of God and the marks of that IMAGO are all over them. ONLY in seeing the image of God in them do I have a basis for relationship and evangelism. Indeed, as Francis Schaeffer noted, the one thing about God they cannot escape is the image of God, and they meet it every day in themselves. Secular they may be, and a-theistic in practice -- but they know that they cannot explain their loves and hates and sorrows and worries as mere chemical reactions. And when they are treated as image bearers, they sense it and appreciate it.

You see, the reason I can relate to the unbelieving with loving discernment is this: I know something about them that they do not believe -- I know they are image bearers. I know that image is corrupted and the effects are often tragic. I can explain their lives from Scripture in more than moralistic terms. I can, by grace, touch something deep in their souls. And that is what relevance is all about.