A Rocha USA Blog

By Robert Campbell*, Pastor of Santa Margarita Community Church

When I say, “I don’t care about climate change” I mean that I care about the cause and not just the symptoms. The heart cause of damage to our world is the same cause of war among nations and pain and brokenness in our relationships like marriage, family and work. You and I are the cause: our hearts, our minds and our hands. We fail to care for our environment because we fail to worship the God who is distinct from all of creation and his ownership of all things. Degrading what is truly valuable is just consistent behavior with that idolatry. In part 1, I addressed the heart and belief of that failure and now I am addressing you directly. Who are you in relation to this God and how does his ownership of all things effect your use of them?

“It is not allowable to love the creation according to the purposes one has for it any more than it is allowable to love one’s neighbor in order to borrow his tools.”

When God created all things, he called them good. In fact, he says that “it was good,” seven times in the seven days. They were good in that they accurately reflected his goodness, both as a united whole and as diverse and equal parts of that whole. On the sixth day of creation God formed mankind from the dirt of the earth, the same as the other creatures, and then breathed into that dirt the breath of life, very unlike the other creatures. He then took that male and female and placed them in a garden to work it on his behalf. He intended that his purpose would be fulfilled through his created caretakers.

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them…Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. The Lord God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man whom He had formed…Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.

Let’s reflect on this a bit. I have just four simple and quick reflections as in relates to us as the cause of climate change and as part of the solution.

Since God owns all things, we have particular value

We are created in the image of God. Our value is connected to our relationship with God, before it is tied to what we do. You have to understand this or you will lose the true value of both yourself and your actions. You do not add to it by “saving the earth” and you have not lost it by your selfish use of our world’s resources. You are owned by God. He created you. He created you distinct from the rest of creation and with a particular purpose.

Since God owns all things,  our particular value is as his stewards

God’s purpose in creating us is that we would image him in his world. That is, so that we would act as God would act towards his creation. God places Adam and Eve in a garden and intended that there would be more beauty, more goodness when they left than when they arrived. This is also what he intends for you. He owns all things and has placed you in the particular place where you live to act as he would act if he were living there – both towards the people and the place.

God owns all things, we do not. God owns you, you do not. God’s purpose defines your life, yours does not. Look back at the Wendell Berry quote. It is not acceptable to approach people or creation for our own ends. That is manipulation, that is evil. As valuable image bearers we can now approach our world for God’s purpose – to enable it to reflect his goodness more fully when we leave than when we arrived.

We naturally see this, don’t we? God actually has expectations for you and I. Using God’s world to our own ends is actually sin. It is wrong. When God says, “rule over,” we do not have the right to define what that is.