Care for the Earth
A friend spontaneously asked if I wanted to go out camping a couple weeks ago, as there was a meteor shower that was going to happen that night. I agreed to, realizing I hadn’t even looked up at the stars without meteors for quite some time. That night, I lay on a picnic table gazing up into the expanse of space. Meteors flew across the sky every ten minutes or so. Watching them, I was struck by a thought that I hadn’t considered for some time. If God has given us the Earth as a gift, which is so far from any other habitable planet, why aren’t Christians more widely known for honoring it?
In my experience, I have never attended a church that has done a great job of encouraging Christians to care about the Earth. In fact, the only times I have ever heard a Christian leader speaking on this topic have been at conferences or on Twitter. Excluding those times, the two general attitudes I’ve encountered in churches can be summarized as follows:
- Climate change does not exist. God is in control, so it doesn’t really matter what we do to the Earth, because He’ll just fix it all.
- We are “not of this world.” (John 17:16) Since Earth is not our home, we really shouldn’t worry about what is happening to it.
Neither of these attitudes is a fitting answer to the reality of climate change or God’s heart for our planet. Furthermore, neither of these attitudes is theologically sound, and both reflect a fundamental misunderstanding of Scripture.
Let me explain, starting with the first attitude. For starters, climate change is real. If you are a climate change denier, I’m not going to try to prove this to you, because there are literally thousands of scientists who have already proved it. Secondly, it is true that God is ultimately sovereign over the Earth, but we must remember the responsibility God has given us as humans. The Creation narrative presented in the Bible states “The LORD God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it.” (Genesis 2:15 NLT)
However, we can gain an even deeper understanding of our role as protectors of the Earth by looking at the original Hebrew. The word for “tend” is “shamar”, which in Hebrew means to keep, guard, and preserve. In addition, the phrase “watch over it” is taken from the original word “`abad”, which means to serve. Whether you are someone who takes the Creation account literally or someone who believes it to be more allegorical, the meaning here is clear: we have a God-given mandate to take care of the Earth.
You may be thinking, “But that’s the Old Testament, Austin. Where does Jesus tell me to recycle?” If you’re thinking that, you should probably do a quick reality check, as there were definitely not enough people on the Earth during Jesus’s time to constitute a need for recycling. But I get it. The New Testament is certainly the more definitive and authoritative part of the Bible for Christian faith, and Jesus did say we are “not of this world.” In the case of the second attitude I described, though, this phrase is taken entirely out of its original context. Let’s take another look at it, this time with the two verses that precede it and the two follow it:
“14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 15 I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.” (John 17:14–18 ESV)
First, we see from the larger context that Jesus is not referring to just the planet when he says “the world,” as he says “the world has hated them.” Planets don’t hate; people do. In fact, the original Greek word used, κόσμου, not only means the world, but also universe; worldly affairs; the inhabitants of the world. So we must then conclude that Jesus is talking about the planet and its inhabitants, meaning we can’t say use the “not of this world” phrase as an excuse to not care about the Earth. To do so would be to say that we don’t care about people either, which directly contradicts all of Jesus’s other teachings!
Just as it would be unfair to limit the meaning of “the world” to just the planet, it is also unfair to limit it to just people. Notice that Jesus says in verse 15 that he does not want us to be taken out of the world, and then says in verse 18 that has actually sent us into the world. This means that Jesus actually put us on Earth to be a restorative and redemptive force for people and the planet! And when the planet flourishes, people flourish and grow closer to God.
So why then do many Christians settle for an easily digestible mantra that does not include care for the Earth? Well, it is natural to want to feel secure in one’s life, and divesting oneself of concern for the planet is another way to reduce one’s worries. It is also natural to want to pass ownership of such a large issue to God, who we think is more qualified to handle it, despite God clearly giving it to us as a responsibility.
In closing, I think this settling for far less than God’s calling for each of us as his image-bearers (Genesis 1:27). Listen to how Jesus describes his, and by extension God’s, love for the Earth:
“Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And [yet] not one of them is forgotten or uncared for in the presence of God.” (Luke 12:6 AMP)
As many have said before, part of being a Christian is becoming more Christ-like through the Spirit of God, which is an ongoing process in each of us who have accepted Jesus’s love. This section of scripture is meant to illustrate the worth of people to God, but also to show that every created thing is valuable to God. Therefore, if all of Creation is valuable to God, it should be just as valuable to us as Christians.
Care for the Earth.
