We Can Only Serve God by Serving His Creation! Dr. Chapman Chen
- Chapman Chen

- Sep 9
- 1 min read

As God already has everything and does not need anything from us, the only way we can practically love God is to love His creatures; the only way to serve God is to serve His creation (cf. Phelps 2002, 35-37). In this connection, “dominion” in Genesis 1:26 and 1:28 should be understood as servanthood in the compassionate spirit of Jesus Christ with no authority whatsoever on the part of humans over animals. For the ancient, pre-Masoretic Hebrew word in consonantal form for “dominion” is yirdu ( ירדו), which could refer to either radah (רָדָה /subjugate) or yarad (יָרַד /lower oneself) (cf. Ehrenfeld and Bentley 1985:301). IMO, only yarad could be the right interpretation, because Jesus stresses that He “came to serve, NOT to be served!” (Matthew 20:28).








Comments