A Biblical Perspective on Being Green

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle,
and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. (Genesis 1:26)

          When I was a child, one color – red – dominated the news. All the commentator had to say was “red,” and we immediately knew he was speaking of communism, America’s great enemy.

          Communism no longer is our chief national enemy, but one color still dominates the news: green. The news and print media, Hollywood and

          It is fine and commendable to be concerned for God’s creation and to be faithful stewards of what the Lord has entrusted to you and to me. But when you as a follower of Christ consider any subject, including the environment, you must do so not based on popular thinking but rather on the sure Word of God.

          This morning you and I are going to explore basic biblical teaching on the place of God, of man and of the rest of creation as found in Psalm 8. We could select any number of texts for our focus today, but Psalm 8 offers perfect guidance for how you and I, redeemed in Jesus Christ, are to view ourselves, our God and His glorious creation correctly.

          Psalm 8 first informs you and me about the place the Lord God has in our discussion of the natural environment: He is exalted above all.

          This psalm begins by telling us that the Lord has set His glory above the heavens: He is superior to even the most-majestic aspects of the created world. Creation is the theatre in which God displays His power, beauty, goodness and wisdom, and His Name (His character) is great in all the earth. This means that any thoughts and designs you and I have concerning the natural world ultimately must find their way to the triune God, for – as the elders sing in Revelation 4:11 – God created all things for His pleasure and by His will.

          In His power, the Lord ironically utilizes the weakest aspects of creation to sing His praises and to silence His foes. Certainly, God has enemies. Many so-called intellectuals today deny that the Lord exists, and if they will allow His existence they certainly won’t grant that He created all things from nothing. But God has ordained strong praise out of the mouths of babies and suckling infants, which means that every time a little one cries – even an unintelligible wail – God’s enemies are reminded that only He can explain the miracle of life!

          Consider God’s glory in creation from another perspective, that of the moon and stars. In delicate and powerful imagery, the psalmist declares that the Lord used His finger to mold the moon, while it took you and me millennia even to reach the moon!

          God’s glory is above the creation, which many environmentalists forget or outright deny. This is why you and I, redeemed by the blood of Christ that we might serve the God of creation truly and rightly, need to take care when interacting with environmentalists. Many environmentalists believe in Monism: that God is one and all is God, therefore God is in the trees and bushes and birds of the air. You and I, however, know the truth: the Lord God is distinct from, and exalted above, His creation, which He made with purpose by the word of His power.

          Nature is not to be worshipped, as many pundits do today. Nature only serves to point you to the Lord God, who alone is to be worshipped in the theatre of His creation.

          Psalm 8 secondly teaches you the place of man in creation: you are both exalted and humbled.

          With the environmentalists, you and I ask, “What is man?” And when we take a partially diminutive view of mankind, we agree with many environmentalists – but for vastly different reasons. Many people, not necessarily professing faith in Christ but claiming to be concerned for the environment, say that man is a “nuisance.” They believe man with his technological advances actually is spoiling the planet. Who can forget the famous assertion of Princeton philosopher and “anti-speciesism” spokesman Peter Singer, who said that if faced with the choice of saving a human baby or the last of a particular species of animal, he would choose to save the animal over the human?

          The psalmist considered the majesty of God displayed in the heavens and asked, “What is man, O Lord, that you would even think of him – much less visit and tend to him as a Shepherd?” Again, God shaped the moon with His fingers. Mankind only reached the moon 40 years ago.

          Understanding who you are in relation to God and to the creation begins with being humbled by the grandeur and the holiness of the Lord. Compared to His greatness and perfection, you and I are infinitesimally small – certainly not deserving of His visit in Christ our Savior.

          Yet you also must bear in mind at the same time your greatness within the realm of creation. Not only are you low, but you also are exalted.

          Our first lesson, from Genesis 1, detailed God’s creation of mankind after He had created everything else. Why did the Lord not cease after fashioning the beasts of the field? Because mankind, who bears his image, is the centerpiece of God’s created order.

          The psalmist proclaims that God made you and me a little lower than the angels, which highlights not our weakness but rather our lofty position compared to the rest of nature. This status does not belong to dogs or to cats, much as we might love our pets. What is more, the Lord crowned you and me with glory and honor as He created us in His image to have dominion over His creatures. Humans, then, are not a “nuisance” (other than the damage we do because of our sin) but rather the focal point of God’s creative work.

          Now, having dominion as God’s vice-regents over His earth does not mean you are free to brutalize animals or to trash the earth so long as it makes you happy. Recall what type of heavenly King you serve: God is caring, life-giving (remember our study of the sixth commandment?) and creative. The Lord Christ doesn’t treat His world with disrespect but rather upholds all things by the word of His power. In Deuteronomy 20:19 God declares His concern for the trees, and He also expressed concern about the cattle in Nineveh. This means you and I, as we rule over the creation and harness its fruit and shape its features, must do so after God’s gracious pattern and to His glory.

          The world once thought man was the measure of all things. Now TV pundits tell you that man, with his “environment-wrecking” tendencies, is a nuisance to creation.

          So you and I look to the infallible Word of God, which teaches that we are both humbled and exalted at the same time.

          All this means, third, that you and I who have been saved and restored in Jesus Christ must employ God’s creation to His glory. And this work will take different forms at different times.

          Pagans, who are dead in their sinful and foolish thinking, tend either to worship technology or nature itself. You and I indeed have been “remembered and visited” by the Lord, though, and saved by the work of Jesus Christ for us. Jesus transforms your approach to the world so that you see all things belonging to him and to be utilized in love to him and to your neighbor.

          Utilizing nature for Christ’s glory and for man’s well-being might mean clearing a field of trees in order to build a much-needed hospital or to build a factory that produces educational materials for the Third World. On the contrary, tending nature for Christ’s glory might mean foregoing the superhighway in favor of sidewalks to shape a town in which people may walk around door-to-door and live in community, as our relational God created us to do.

          We know that God cares about His creation, so much so that the Second Person of the Trinity became incarnate of the Virgin Mary to redeem our sinful flesh. The Lord promises a New Heavens and, yes, a New Earth that surely will resemble our present earth – but without the curse.

          But earth isn’t God, and you aren’t an accident or a nuisance or a slave to the birds and trees. If you trust in Christ as your Savior, you – the crowning piece of God’s work – have been set free to dress and to keep God’s creation to His glory. So evaluate the choices you face everyday – sidewalk or highway? litter or wastebasket? hospital or field? reusable or not? – with a view to loving Him and your neighbor.

The Lord doesn’t specify all the answers in His Word. But He does give indispensable and infallible guidelines that you and I, children of the light, must present to this sin-darkened world.