Earth Day has been celebrated since 1970. Some Christians I’ve heard scoff at this day as “pagan worship” of Mother Earth or whatever. That’s too bad. I think this day is an opportunity for Christians to model the second commandment: “love your neighbor as yourself.” How can Earth Day model this second commandment, you ask? By caring for Creation we indirectly love our neighbor.
Notice, however, that the commandment to love our neighbor is rooted in loving ourselves. The best way a Christian can love themselves is by cultivating a relationship with Jesus Christ – love God – the first commandment. We need to be spiritually healthy. We also need to be physically healthy. Without good health, it’s hard to function in others areas of our lives. So, spiritual health and physical health contribute to how we love.
Our surroundings matter, too. Consider your living circumstances. You want to live in a healthy environment, right? Imagine living in a house full of air that you could barely breathe, trash lying all over the floor, bathrooms growing living bacterial fungi that is frankly frightening to even look at…. that’s not loving yourself. And it’s certainly nothing you’d wish on a neighbor.
Now imagine this kind of living situation outside of your home… consider the cities of our planet. The world’s most polluted cities are based in China. Overpopulation and mismanagement of resources have contributed to the environmental crisis. This affects people’s health. Chinese people began wearing masks long before the Covid-19 pandemic hit. They wore masks because of air pollution and widespread germs.
China is a communist country. Under this worldview, the command to be good stewards of the Earth, found in the opening chapters of Genesis, is obviously not followed. Stewarding the planet’s resources well trickles down to the wellbeing of its inhabitants.
One of the most loving things we can do for humanity is to be good stewards of Earth’s resources — to be good caretakers of God’s creation. Yet we often build in areas that habitually flood, resulting in mudslides; we strip the land of natural resources that could prevent disaster. Mangrove trees, for example, were cut down in certain coastal areas of Haiti resulting in little natural protection from devastating hurricanes. Our mismanagement of natural resources often becomes so bad that the landscape cannot bounce back; things begin to collapse. We over-build and over populate certain areas, depleting natural resources to our own demise. It’s bad management of what God gave us – all the resources we need.
Sadly, I’ve heard some Christians say, “It’s all gonna burn anyway.” That’s a selfish thing to claim. True, God has plans that include a new heaven and a new Earth; in the meantime, the Earth, and all that is in it, is God’s (Ps. 24:1). For that reason alone, we should steward it well.
Now I realize that some people go too far and make caring for the Earth some weird-worship thing. That’s not what I am talking about here. I am simply stating that because of our inherent sinfulness, we’ve often exploited natural resources. We need to be better stewards.
There is hope! Efforts are being made by Christians to fulfill the mandate that God gave us in Genesis 1:28: “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion… (over living things).” Dominion doesn’t mean “exploitation.” It means to care for the Earth well, using the resources in a manner worthy of the One who entrusted us with it.
Not only are we to care for the land and resources well, but in Proverbs 12:10, God also encourages us to treat animals and other creatures compassionately. We have not done this. Today, there is a mass extinction rate of all kinds of species happening globally.
In Revelation 11:18, God’s wrath comes down hard on “the destroyers of the Earth.” This is a warning – will we heed it?
In Revelation 11:18, God’s wrath comes down hard on “the destroyers of the Earth.” This is a warning - will we heed it? Share on XOn Earth Day, as Christians, let’s join with others who see the need to care for our planet. We can find common ground and perhaps use this opportunity to share our faith with non-believers.
If you want to get involved in caring for Creation, to love your neighbor well, here are a few organizations that are involved in caring for creation:
Evangelical Environmental Network is such an organization. They promote stewardship over the Earth and advocate for environmental policies that honor God’s dictate that we “tend the garden.”
Plant with a Purpose is helping the poor learn how to create sustainable agriculture.
National Religious Partnership for the Environment is not strictly a Christian organization, but seeks to bring together an alliance of faiths to work towards the goal of stewarding God’s earth.
Taking good care of the natural resources is a commandment from God, and is another way of loving your neighbor as yourself. Christians should be leading the environmental movement.
Psalm 24:1 – A Psalm of David
“The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains,
The world, and those who dwell in it.”
Great points about being a good steward. One distinction to make is “who” should do the caretaking. We should all do our own part individually and make sure we vote for those that are truly going to help our wellbeing. I am first in line to protect the environment because I like clean air and water, but oppose those who would put environmentalism over the human cause. There are too many that treat the environment like a religion. If you look to care for humans, the environmental causes follow naturally.
Lisa, thanks for the article but I think the scripture cited is not the correct one, Genesis 2:15 states that Adam was placed in the “Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” not anything about having dominion over the Earth (as an aside, note the distinction between the Garden and the Earth). Instead, it is Genesis 1:28 that states, “God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature” (with “rule” the same as “dominion).. And you are correct that “dominion” does not mean “domination.”
“Subdue” is another matter, and a question I ask is, if we are to “be fruitful and multiply, rule the earth and subdue if,” how do we know when the Earth is full and/or has been subdued?
Hi David! Thanks for clarifying. I will correct my error. (I need a proof reader! Ha ha ha…) Regarding how we know when the Earth is full and subdued, that is a question I’ve honestly never pondered, until now. Thanks for bringing it up! Those are some BIG thoughts, to be sure! I don’t have the answer. I would pray about that, as I think this can only be answered with God’s help. But what are your thoughts about that? I’d like to hear what you have to say about the issue.
Nice, reasoned discussion of what too many Christians, as you point out, aren’t reasonable about. Thanks Lisa! God bless!
I agree. The one thing I love to watch right now is how the earth is healing (with God’s help) as factories are shut down and car usage has decreased.
We all should be thankful for God’s blessings. We need to take care of the creations He has provided.
Well, I don’t think the Earth will be subdued as long as the “Curse” is in effect. Things like hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc. happen and there isn’t anything we can do about that. (As an aside, that brings up another question, did those things exist before the Fall and Curse?). What is interesting is that the granting of “dominion” came before the Fall and Curse, so clearly, God intended that humans would take some kind of actions to “subdue” the Earth. Of course, now that sin is rampant, we are “making a hash of it.” Does that mean we shouldn’t try? Of course not. We should, as you state, work on improving our “stewardship” of the creation.
Great points! I agree 100%. Adam and Eve were given the responsibility of caring for and of tending the Garden. They took care of the place they were given. They cultivated it and cared for it. They didn’t trash the place, leaving it polluted and stripped bare of its resources. They didn’t destroy it. This is our model. It’s a creation mandate, a reality of how God wants his earth cared for. And yet, so many believers can’t see this. Their blindness stuns me. Care for the earth is foundational obedience to God.
Beautifully written, Lisa! Thank you for clarifying the nuances of this secular day of celebration. One of God’s earliest commands was to take care of the earth. It is His beautiful creation to be enjoyed and to provide for us. I agree, we should not worship God’s creation, nor should we give its glory to “Mother Nature”. If we handle things like this both Biblically and lovingly, God’s goodness can be seen through us.
I’m sorry, Lisa, but I think that when cultural marxists are on the verge of destroying the world economy and basic freedoms in the name of ‘climate control’, this is a naive take on current events. Nothing personal (you seem like a nice person), but we are called by God to question authority, especially when it comes from those with patterns of deceit. There has been no man-made climate-change (if you disagree, please post valid evidence showing it which was not provided by groups already caught blatantly cheating on the stats, like the IPCC). The “97% of scientists…” urban legend is a lie — I’ve read the paper, and nothing remotely approaching that stat is in there.
We need to be especially cautious these days about throwing fuel on the enemy’s fire.
The whole point of my blog was not to get into the politics of certain world views. It is to focus primarily on the care of the planet’s resources simply because it is God’s resources that He has entrusted us to steward well. I don’t see humanity doing a very good job at that, and that was my main point. But I appreciate your comments and I thank you for contributing to the discussion.
Thank you for your nice reply, Lisa. I agree in general that we should steward the earth responsibly (I surf, and I certainly don’t want to be marinating in sewage or anything like that).
My points are more about cultural inertia (our culture regularly loses its mind over trendy issues), and timing. We need to pick our battles carefully, especially when less-educated Christians have been brainwashed into supporting idiocy like The Paris Agreement (which would absolutely destroy our economy). Now is not the time, imho.
Thanks, Steve. I think picking the battle of balancing our environmental needs with our economic needs is a timely one today, considering how directly one affects the other. God bless you.