So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “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 1:27-28
This week I preached on the Great Commission: the command of Jesus to go and make disciples of all nations. Most evangelical Christians know these verses; however well they actually live out this call, most would affirm that we have a role to bring the truth of the gospel to the world. This is often paired with (and balanced by) what is called the Greatest Commandment. This is found in Matthew 22, after the Pharisees asked Jesus what commandment was the greatest, He responded:
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” | 37-40
This is a necessary addition because it keeps us from turning the Great Commission into a hard task to be accomplished, buffering the idea of truth with love. The Great Commission and Great Commandment together give us the mission (to make disciples) and the method (by loving God and others). What it fails to do, however, is give us a robust sense of how this rich, diverse creation fits into this task; it doesn’t do create for us a macro-purpose. Sure we can evangelize, love people and love God, but this seems so small compared with the great problems that surround us.
Pretty soon Commission and Commandment become another thing that you do in addition to the rest of your life. The Christian life can easily become the other thing you put on the calendar, next to youth sports, work, vacation, etc. In this, it competes with all of these other aspects of life; life becomes a fight for time and resources. For this reason, we need to remember the third component: the Cultural Mandate, which simply put is:
Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.
This was the first command given to human beings, the creation that God created ‘in His image.’ As He places Adam and Eve in the garden, He gives them this directive to create order in the world. God’s world was perfect, but undeveloped. He calls His creation to be creative, to make God’s authoritative order manifest in how we interact with creation. As image bearers, we are called to image the order and creativity of God in everything; we are to cultivate this ordered creativity in the children we produce.
Pre-Fall that was easy(er) because the God’s order was natural and the world was cooperative. After sin, the very ground fought against production and pain affected child-bearing; creation effectively un-ordered itself. So the act of subduing the earth became more complicated and necessary. No longer was this simply an act of re-producing what already existed, but working against the brokenness. This is the macro-purpose. God calls all people to create and order to the world, but because of sin, it is always marred. God calls a people to Himself, people who love Him and love others because of Him, who have a vision of the image they bear. In this we see that God is accomplishing His plan to create and rule His creation through the simple act of being Christian. He has placed His people in all corners of the world, in all endeavors to help direct this process of reconciliation. This is how Paul refers to this process in 2 Corinthians 5:18-21:
All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
We have the ability to be part of this great reconciliation act by drawing people to Christ, reflecting Him through love, and working to bring His creative order to His creation. The simple acts of proclaiming Him, loving Him, and obeying Him are actually earth-altering works of worship.
This should astound us. This should empower us. This should make us excited about being the church and taking our faith into the workplace. This de-limits the work of God and places ALL THINGS into His plan for the world.