In a conversation with my children today I was reminded both why Christians should be the best environmentalists and animal lovers, and why it remains important to remind our children of this important truth. To put it simply – those that love God should excel in both areas of environmentalism and animal loving.
These two areas of concern both fit alongside antiracism, humanitarian relief, and care for the vulnerable.
Why? Because both of these concerns rightly fit within the Bible and the Christian’s life. In addition, they each can be idolatrized into something God never meant for them to be.
Why Christians Should Be the Best Environmentalists and Animal Lovers
For followers of Christ, two different Bible principles create the lens through which we should see creation around us and our place in it.
The Creation Mandate –
The Creation Mandate relates to the verses in Genesis that describe the time of man’s creation. God specifically charged mankind with a specific mandate. Furthermore, after the world-wide flood of Noah, where only he and his family were left to repopulate the world, God once again gave the same mandate to them. In both senses, we as part of mankind all trace back our heritage to these two families who received the mandate from God as our representatives. In Genesis, God said:
28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28)
Read how Moses described God’s interaction with Adam as He placed him in the Garden of Eden:
15 Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. (Genesis 2:15)
To Noah, God said:
1 So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. 2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. (Genesis 9:1-3)
What do we learn from these three important texts in Genesis? We learn that mankind was given the stewardship of the world’s resources by God including the environment and all the animals. Furthermore, God gave man these things for man’s primary benefit. In other words, those resources were given to man to steward in order that man would benefit from that same stewardship. As mankind cares for his world around him – including the all animals and plants, mankind profits from the good stewardship.
All mankind maintains a responsibility to this day to carefully steward these precious gifts from God to us. We tend and keep our world carefully as we also subdue and exercise dominion over it for the good of the people around us.
Righteous People Care for the Welfare of Animals
In Proverbs, we learn a great principle that helps us understand our responsibility toward the animals around us.
10 A righteous man regards the life of his animal,
But the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel. (Proverbs 12:10)
A person who lives a life that honors God (here, a righteous man) also chooses to show care for animals. Animal abuse of any kind is not righteous. In other words, any animal cruelty fails to measure up to the righteousness God requires. We are to care for the welfare of the animals around us.
Three Results of Poor Christian Stewardship
Christians have not always maintained a great record as it relates to caring for the environment and animals. In fact, as the world system has relegated these things to a level of spirituality or extreme activism, it seems as if Christians have pushed back with at least inconsistent messages at best. Rather, the Christian should welcome others to the party. As part of mankind, unbelievers too can help steward the great resources God left us. We should not however cede our responsibility over to the unbelieving world. In this, we make a grave error. Notice three results of poor Christian stewardship.
Idolatry – The Great Exchange
Mankind’s sin nature naturally means that mankind will worship creation over God. Paul explains this in Romans where he discusses mankind’s sin nature and its consequences:
25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. (Romans 1:25)
In other words, depraved mankind naturally exchanges worship of God for worship of creation. As the environment and the world’s animals both fit inside the general category creation, we should expect that our world will naturally idolatrize these things since they both are part of creation. Paul Tripp calls this the great exchange – exchanging the Creator for something in creation.
Therefore, when we see the world get more emotional, angry, exercised, and indignant over animal abuse than abortion, we should not be surprised. This exchange results from the world’s or mankind’s depravity. However, their acting according to their sinful nature should also not make us revolt backwards and denounce their care for animals or the environment as bad. The problem stems from their nature which should not surprise us.
If we did what we should do with the respect and care for our environment the Bible demands, the world system would not have a sense of moral standing here. Yes, they would still worship creation but not in contrast to our ignoring it.
For more information about climate stewardship versus climate worship click here.
Poor Testimony and Limited Witness –
Whenever the Bible commands us to do something – like with the Creation Mandate, a failure on our part creates a poor testimony for Jesus Christ. In other words, a failure to live consistent with what God desires produces a poor testimony for the power of the Gospel, the significance of the Bible’s authority, our love for mankind, and our love for God. As we live inconsistent with the commands we are given in the Bible, we perpetuate a poor testimony.
At that point, our poor testimony contributes to a limited opportunity to impactfully share the Gospel with others. Therefore this becomes a vicious circle. We do poorly at our stewardship of our natural resources and animals, then the world notices. As they notice, they vocalize their critique and double-down on their own efforts. As the Christian sees their excess and out-of-balance approach resulting from worshiping creation over the Creator, the Christ-follower then denounces, criticizes, makes fun of, or otherwise ridicules their excess and moves out-of-balance the other direction.
The result – a poor testimony and limited witness to others who are in the world.
Opportunities for Daily Living
Moving forward both understanding our responsibilities before God and the result of poor stewardship, we should understand and articulate why Christians should be the best environmentalists and animal lovers. Although as a Christian you may never go to some of the extremes of both environmental and animal activism (and shouldn’t), you should still do your part to care both for the environment and the animals. Let me suggest four ways we all can do a better job as a Christ-followers:
- Grow in our recognition of the necessity of our stewardship in these areas. We must see this as part of our stewardship of the manifold grace of God. What God has called us to do, we must responsibly do. This begins by seeing it as part of our own personal stewardship and/or responsibility.
- Criticize less and help more when we see opportunities to be responsible for the world around us. If there are areas where we can conserve, help clean, or otherwise respond with prudent stewardship of the resources around us, then do those things.
- Teach our children, grandchildren, and children in our church families the importance of living consistent with God’s commands – even as they relate to the environment and the planet’s animals.
- Rejoice in what God called very good in the Garden at the end of Day 6 during Creation. As we see all that God has done, rejoice in these things. Help others see them as well. God has gifted us the best planet in the world. The planet we get a free ride upon is gloriously a work of His creation. We must see this, appreciate it, and allow it to be a cause of celebration – whether just for a moment or for an extended period.
May God bless all our efforts.
Animal Gallery – God’s Creation Is Beautiful!
In an effort to hep you rejoice in God’s good work, I’ve added 15 gorgeous animal shots in which you can rejoice. God sure knows how to make a beautiful world with an incredible amount of species. All these work together in God’s plan to help sustain human life and for sure help make it beautiful. As Christians, we should be the best environmentalists and animal lovers. With creatures like these, when you see God’s handiwork in the midst of it, that should not be hard or burdensome.
Image Credit Sneha Cecil
All Images Used By Permission
KevinCarson.com | Wisdom for Life in Christ Together