Loving Our Neighbor Means Caring For God’s Creation

This post is part of the September Synchroblog, “Loving Nature: Is God Green?” which asks the question: Does God really love creation? If so, what does that mean?

art by Dana Gray

I get a little confused when it comes to Christians and taking care of the earth.  Why do some Christians seem to be against environmentalism?

Perhaps they haven’t thought about how the love of God and the love of our neighbor and caring for God’s creation are linked together.

Maybe they haven’t considered that our relationship to the rest of creation should be based on God’s relationship to it, or that God calls Christians to care for all of his creation, or the fact that pollution hurts the poor the most and Christians are called to look out for and care for the poor and the powerless.

Environmental toxins and climate change have repercussions for many of today’s pressing issues from the health of our children, to global and domestic poverty, to jobs and economic growth. One in six of our children are being born with harmful levels of mercury in their bloodstream. The changing climate is causing floods, droughts, and famine that severely harm the least of these at home and across the globe. And our addiction to old fossil-based, non-renewable energy is crippling our economy and costing us jobs. These things makes how we care for God’s creation one of the greatest moral challenges of our time.

If you are like me, you might feel overwhelmed and incapable of making a difference.  But, there are some things that we can do as individuals that will make a difference collectively.

One thing we can do is to help other Christians learn more about how loving their neighbor is linked to them caring for God’s creation. I have found the video All Things to be very helpful in starting a conversation with others about how loving their neighbor cannot be separated from caring for the environment.

In addition to the video the book Gardening Eden: How Creation Care Will Change Your Faith, Your Life, and Our World by Michael Abbate is an excellent resource.

And partnering with others is often the best way to make a difference and that is why organizations such as Evangelical Environmental Network and Care of Creation are so valuable.

As followers of Jesus all of our actions should be determined through the frame of loving our neighbor and loving God. Can we love the Creator without celebrating and caring for the creation? Can we love our neighbor without protecting the environment on which that neighbor’s life and health depend?

Here are the links to the other synchroblog posts:

Jen Bradbury – Is God Green?
Carol Kuniholm – For God So Loved the Earth
David Derbyshire – Walking Through God’s Creation
Glenn Hager – The Oblivious and the Extremist
Oliver – Dieu il Recyclable
Tim Nichols – Never a Last Leaf
Leah Sophia – September Synchroblog Creation
Jeremy Myers – Can Christians be Tree Huggers?
Liz dyer – Loving Our Neighbor Means Caring For God’s Creation