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Silly Christian, Does God even Bother About Our Carbon-footprintShort Answer
Short answer is yes! That is it, you can watch something else now. Bye!
Longer Answer
Not satisfying enough? Okay, there is a slightly longer answer as well. God is the Creator of all things and as such He is concerned with the world. We can read the creation account in the book Genesis. It is very interesting to read how He intentionally and specific created and formed the world. And finally, as crown of His work, He created Adam and Eve. He looked at His work and labelled it as very good.
Just by this last statement alone you can see that the world mattered to Him.
Task of Adam and Eve
God told Adam and Eve to take care of the earth, they had to tend to its needs. But instead of obeying God they actually ignored His word. They started to live for their own enjoyment. Sin came into the world and not long after we can read that we humans would only live by the sweat of our brow.
Genesis 3:19 “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground”
Everything Adam and Eve had to do became hard work.
Tenants of God’s earth
Still, as tenants of God’s earth we have to look after it. This is not debatable. The Bible is pretty clear on this.
People are not allowed to mistreat animals.
Proverbs 12:10 “A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.” (KJV)
Exodus 23:5 “If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying down under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it; you shall rescue it with him.” (ESV)
The Bible also states that vegetation and trees are to be protected, even in wartime. Other ancient near east societies systematically cut down whole orchards and burn crops of the enemy to make sure they would run out of food.
Deuteronomy 20:19 “When you besiege a city for a long time, making war against it in order to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an axe against them. You may eat from them, but you shall not cut them down. Are the trees in the field human, that they should be besieged by you?”
People are more Important
However, we need to remember that people are more important for God than things, even more important than His own creation. We see an example of God’s love for people in the story of Jonah. This prophet had to warn the people of Nineveh against God’s wrath. Jonah sat down and expected God to destroy Nineveh. The plant that kept Jonah out of the burning sun withered and we see that Jonah was more concerned with the plant than with the people of Nineveh. The Lord said in Jonah 4: 10-11 “You are concerned about a vine that you did not plant or take care of, a vine that grew up in one night and died the next. In that city of Nineveh there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell right from wrong, and many cattle are also there. Don’t you think I should be concerned about that big city?”
Distribution
The fact that God is more concerned with people should not make us think that He doesn’t care about the way we live our lives. It cannot be right that people in one part of the world waste all resources while people in other parts endure hardships like sickness or starvation. Again the Bible’s teaching is clear on this.
Proverbs 21:13 “Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered.” (ESV)
Isaiah 58:10 “If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday.” (ESV)
New World
God is concerned with us and the rest of His creation. We see His concern through His promise to create a new earth. You see this world has become corrupt to the bone. Sure, good things happen all the time but it is not nearly as beautiful as in the beginning. God’s promise to make everything new is very important for Christians but it is not a wild cart to do whatever they want. Christians are called to honour God through their lifestyles. That means that Christians should care for the environment. However, this care should come forth out of love for God. The climate-change lobby is not focussed on God’s honour. It has become a religion in itself. Worshipping anything else than God is considered blaspheming.
So, Christians need to get their priorities right.
Mark 8:36 “For what does it benefit a man to gain the whole world [with all its pleasures], and forfeit his soul?” (AMP)
It is fine to take care of your surroundings, to separate your waste, not to eat too much meat, to help with good initiatives regarding the poor etcetera. But don’t forget to honour and glorify your Creator. Trust in His son Jesus Christ and you too will one day enjoy life on the new earth.
