The Creator
There is a phrase that some people use which is "God is life". It sounds so much like "God is love" (I John 4:8), that it is tempting to accept it as being true. But there seems to be a growing trend (especially in the New Age Movement) to equate God the Creator with his creation. All life comes from God, but all life is not God.
In Paul's letter to the Romans (chapter 1) he lectures about "all ungodliness and unrighteousness" (verse 18) and says that one aspect of it is that such people "...worship and serve the creature more than the Creator..." (verse 25)
This passage is an accurate description of the spirit of this present age, with its talk about such things as "Mother Earth". Care for the environment, and an appreciation for natural beauty are valid concerns for Christians. But when such care gets mixed up with worship, then idolatry of one sort or another is likely to result.
Ironically, there is a similar manifestation of this tendency to serve the creature more than the Creator even amongst professing Christians who are definitely NOT concerned about the environment. In such churches, rather than worshipping nature in preference to the Creator, people tend to worship and serve the church in preference to its Creator. And when this happens, they cease to be the church that Jesus made.
Any organisation is only a plural version of its individual members. And so when we worship an organisation, we are really worshipping ourselves. The Bible describes the church as the Bride of Christ. But a bride who becomes obsessed with her own beauty, to the exclusion of her husband, is really a pathetic counterfeit of what it really means to be a bride.
When we get our relationship right with our Creator, then our relationship will improve with all of his creations, whether it be through responsible care for the natural environment, or through loving care for other members of his Church.
But do not deceive yourself into thinking that love for the creation will ever take the place of love for the Creator himself.
There is a phrase that some people use which is "God is life". It sounds so much like "God is love" (I John 4:8), that it is tempting to accept it as being true. But there seems to be a growing trend (especially in the New Age Movement) to equate God the Creator with his creation. All life comes from God, but all life is not God.
In Paul's letter to the Romans (chapter 1) he lectures about "all ungodliness and unrighteousness" (verse 18) and says that one aspect of it is that such people "...worship and serve the creature more than the Creator..." (verse 25)
This passage is an accurate description of the spirit of this present age, with its talk about such things as "Mother Earth". Care for the environment, and an appreciation for natural beauty are valid concerns for Christians. But when such care gets mixed up with worship, then idolatry of one sort or another is likely to result.
Ironically, there is a similar manifestation of this tendency to serve the creature more than the Creator even amongst professing Christians who are definitely NOT concerned about the environment. In such churches, rather than worshipping nature in preference to the Creator, people tend to worship and serve the church in preference to its Creator. And when this happens, they cease to be the church that Jesus made.
Any organisation is only a plural version of its individual members. And so when we worship an organisation, we are really worshipping ourselves. The Bible describes the church as the Bride of Christ. But a bride who becomes obsessed with her own beauty, to the exclusion of her husband, is really a pathetic counterfeit of what it really means to be a bride.
When we get our relationship right with our Creator, then our relationship will improve with all of his creations, whether it be through responsible care for the natural environment, or through loving care for other members of his Church.
But do not deceive yourself into thinking that love for the creation will ever take the place of love for the Creator himself.