May 1, 2022

Psalm 102: 25, 26 (NIV)

In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded.

Responsible consumption is integral to the very design of creation itself.*

When I was in college, I took special care of my favorite jeans – washed them in cold water, allowed them to air dry (never put them in the dryer!), ironed them to get the crease in nice and straight – but they still eventually wore out.

Environmentalists worry that we are going to use up the earth’s resources – and maybe they’re right. According to this psalm, the foundations of the earth and the heavens, too, are going to wear out like your favorite pair of jeans. Should we then just trash the earth since decay is inevitable?

I believe the precedent for responsible stewardship of our environment can be found in Genesis 2: 15: “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” But nothing is more important than fulfilling our duty to something that will not decay – human souls. We should never get so caught up in a “good cause” that we fail to obey our Lord’s final orders: Go, disciple, baptize, teach. Seeking and saving the lost is our number one priority. Everything else is going to wear out and be discarded.

Social action is not to be equated with evangelism, nor is it a constituent part of evangelism, nor is it primarily a means to evangelism.*