I decided to stop – for now – at seven reasons why Christians should care about the environment, and why they cannot adopt an attitude of “It’s Not Our Problem.” As I wrote those posts many, many more reasons came into my mind. Each reason pointed to new ones, and details of each could be expounded upon seemingly indefinitely.
To recap, why should Christians care about the environment?
1. Man was created by God to exist in three relationships: man to God, man to man, and man to creation. All three will exist eternally in the new creation. We are responsible for our behavior toward each of these three relationships.
2. Man is God’s appointed steward over the earth. If we are to be good and faithful servants, we cannot shirk our responsibility and pretend the state of God’s creation is not our problem. The purpose and goal of our relationship to creation is the glory of God.
3. We are created in the image of God. In our dominion over the earth we reflect God’s supreme dominion. As Christians we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to rule as God rules: with true knowledge, righteousness, and holiness.
4. God’s glory is manifest in creation. Therefore the health of creation is of great concern to the Christian. The creation is not God himself (Christians are not pantheist, or panenthesit), but a magnificent, intricate work of art crafted by the Spirit of God.
5. We will be held accountable to God for all our actions. We should be motivated by a desire to be called God’s good and faithful servants.
6. The creation is intrinsically linked to the Trinity. The Father, Son, and Spirit each have a role in the creation, sustenance, and redemption of the created world.
7. The environment was created by Christ and for Christ, is the inheritance of Christ, is held together by Christ, and is being reconciled to God through Christ.
I left out one terribly important (though not always obvious) reason because it will dominate the next series of posts at The Christian and Creation blog.
Environmental degradation affects first and most harshly the poor and marginalized, those will no voice and no power – exactly those whom Christians are called to defend and love.
This is the truth that motivates much of the work of Restoring Eden , and is part of the reason why I respect them deeply.
Our great commandment is to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves.
I’ve heard it asked far too many times, “Why care for the environment when the the poor need our resources and attention?” or “Why don’t you care about people?”
The question itself is wrong. It supposes that there is an unbridgeable disconnect between the environment and the people who depend upon it. The truth is the opposite. No matter what we do, we will never form a disconnect between people and their environment! Try as we have to distance ourselves from natural processes in wealthy, suburban, computerized America, we still breath air. How much more important is that connection in rural Kazakhstan where people rely on well water, or in slums of Mexico City, or in Haiti where deforestation has killed the agricultural industry, or in the farms-turned-illegal-landfills that skirt Beijing?
Protecting the environment can be one of the greatest ways we protect those who are in need, in this generation and on until Christ returns.
The question that begins our next series is, not, as some might assume “How can we love the creation?”, but rather “How can we love our neighbors?“
~Lauren Merritt, The Christian and Creation
