Lately, I’ve been hearing more and more about how important it is for Christians to engage in a new sacrament: protecting the environment. As with so many teachings, this desire is often couched under the premise that this is just an extension of our commanded service to be stewards and keepers of creation. Yet, as with any good thing, there can be too much. This desire for stewardship can easily become sin, idolatry.
Stewardship of God’s creation is commanded very early in scripture, in the first chapter of the first book even, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28) We are indeed the delegates of God to be masters over and caretakers of creation. We are told to fill the earth and bring it into order. That means, in my understanding, that we are to cultivate the earth in the way a gardner cares for his garden, we encourage that which is beneficial and discourage that which is harmful. This is good environmentalism, in my view of scripture.
Too often, however, it would seem that the goal of environmentalism is to minimize and even eliminate our influence over creation. Yet, the command is to productively exert human influence over creation, a creation that is hostile to us, rather than leave the earth in a pristine, “natural” state. The fact is that earth is no longer in its original paradisiacal state is the result of sin and because God cursed the ground as punishment for Adam’s sin. (Genesis 3:17-19; Romans 8:20-22) And yet, God commands us to care for and use this cursed ground for ourselves, not let it go wild, but I digress.
2 Peter
What in the world does this have to do with 2 Peter? I explain all this to tell you the agenda I came to this text with. As with most any Bible study that anyone chooses to start, the selection of the text is done with bias. The above is the bias I started with (and still hold to, but… I’ll get to that in a minute). Specifically, I wanted to study 2 Peter 3:1-7, which culminates with:
But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
It says some specific things about creation that I think are very timely and meaningful to any discussion we might have about the stewardship of our planet. I am looking forward to the exposition of this passage for this reason.
Yet, as I’ve studied the text and it has spoken to me through the Spirit, I now take a slightly different tack. The book as a whole matches up with the title of this post very well. The Second Letter of Peter to his beloved spends much of it’s time explaining those things which will sustain the Church. He’s writing this letter to “[stir] up your sincere mind by way of reminder” to tell us how to live on in and protect the Christian faith now that he is gone. (2 Peter 3:1; 1:13-15) That will be the primary focus of this study.
How do we preserve and sustain our belief and our Church?
That will be the focus as I work my way through 2 Peter over the next few months. I pray that my study is useful to you and profitable for myself. The next post will look at the general overview and outline of the book before starting in to the exposition of the book itself.
Cheers.
