“You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my rules and do them, that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out.” Leviticus 20.22

The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. God has given the gifts of His creation into our hands that we should develop and use them in ways that further justice, righteousness, meekness, fruitfulness, and love. He intends peace and wellbeing for the world (Jer. 29.7), and He will continue to allow us to enjoy the benefits of His creation as long as we adhere to His purposes and pursue policies in line with His will.

But God is capable of revoking our privileges and removing His blessings when it becomes clear that we are not exercising good stewardship over the resources of the creation entrusted to our care.

Thus, we must not wantonly consume the creation, as we have seen. Nor should we fail to enjoy and use it without giving proper thanks and praise to God. We must not consume its resources on our own lusts but keep in the mind the needs of others, of future generations, and of the creation itself. And we must not use God’s good gifts in ways that further wicked practices, which are abominations in His sight.

As God showed with the pagan peoples of Canaan, He is capable of suddenly, dramatically, and completely revoking our privileges with respect to His creation. The pagans of Canaan had fallen into idolatry and practices so evil that they were not even to be mentioned or discussed among the people of Israel. By their sinful ways they polluted the land – its hills, groves, fields, and bounty. They abused the gifts of God by selfish and idolatrous practices, thus setting themselves up for God’s judgment at the time of Israel’s invasion. The land of Canaan, rich with blessings and bounty, “vomited” the pagans out before the advancing Israelites. God used their example as a warning to His own people, that they should have steward-like regard for the land He was entrusting to their care.

Do we suppose that God has ceased being this kind of God with respect to the resources of His creation? That He no longer “so loves the world” for which He gave His Son, that it matters not to Him whether we care for it as He intends? Does not the parable of the talents teach us that, unless we make good use of all God’s gifts, including the environment and all its bounty, God is able to take away even what we do have and put it in the hands of others?

Proper use of the environment and its creatures – including the culture by which we define, sustain, and enrich our experience on earth – begins with each one of us and the believing communities where we gather to worship and serve the Lord. From this context we must work to set an example for the rest of society and promote policies in the public sector that are more in line with the requirements of an economics of justice than an economics of material wealth.

Christians must not turn a blind eye to the environmental issues of the day. We have a stewardship of the environment and all creation, beginning right where we are, but extending as far as God enables us to reach, through whatever vehicles and by whatever means – including public policy – we may be able to employ. In the fear of Him Who owns the earth and everything in it, let us work hard to be good stewards over whatever He has placed in our hands (Ps. 8).

T. M. Moore

Visit our website, www.ailbe.org, and sign up to receive our thrice-weekly devotional, Crosfigell, featuring writers from the period of the Celtic Revival and T. M.’s reflections on Scripture and the Celtic Christian tradition. Does the Law of God still apply today? Order a copy of T. M.’s book, The Ground for Christian Ethics, and the compilation, The Law of God,and study the question for yourself.